MY PRETTY NEW/RE-PURPOSED KITCHEN

BEFORE                       REALLY BEFORE              DURING

Hi Friends,

The past few months have been more exciting than stressful. Thank goodness. I have had a chance to catch my breath and enjoy the shift from store owner back to designer.

Invironments was my pride and lifetime accomplishment, but as you know, when the shift in the economy shattered the stability of the showroom, I was faced with moving my business back home.  In November the situation boiled down to DESIGN, YES; RETAIL, NO.

The question was, “How do I fit eight years and 2500 sq. feet of retail space into my sweet, but somewhat neglected town home – in less than 4 weeks?!” Over the past decade, I was so busy focusing my design attention on my clients’ projects and the showroom that my own house had become uninspired. My husband and I had a fine kitchen, but bringing potential clients back to my Home Depot, put–it-together-yourself, cabinets, tired laminate counters, blah, blah kitchen, made the pain a little greater. If I don’t say so myself, I did some pretty kick-ass spaces for my clients over the past 11 years, so the thought of living and working in a ho-hum kitchen was super unappealing, and kind of sad.

I called in a few favors from my favorite subs, Matt and his team from Foothills Joinery and Kevin, the painter, from True Colors. I had a few key cabinets I brought back home from KBC Remodel and the willingness to get my hands dirty made this facelift to my own home possible.

You may have guessed, I am kind of a freak for chartreuse and orange, so the palette, although a little daring, was the easy part. I kept the Home Depot base cabinets, took out the standard uppers to replace with a few floating shelves, planned to add two base cabinets and two pantry units, re-purposed a few found pieces and began working on the layout.

For the island, I re-purposed a piece of kirei board from the showroom, to create a counter height eating area.  A chunky piece of wood could capture the same idea.

For the counter top, I chose an inexpensive  specialty sheet of Formica. Using two sheets of well-sanded and finished plywood, the front edge was left “raw” for a modern industrial look. Carefully, and with some professional help, I applied the sheet of Formica. It was beautiful.

How to get this kitchen:

Re-use and/or re-configure the cabinets you already have. Remove some of the upper cabinets and replace with floating shelves. This can lighten up your space and add visual interest.

You can also check out local salvage yards for usable cabinets. You may be able to find some that are perfectly weathered for the right design direction for your kitchen, or you can check out some of the big box stores and look for their paintable cabinet boxes. These are usually not as well built, but they can be a nice affordable option.

A great way to modernize your kitchen is to replace outdated door-and drawer-fronts with solid slab faces. Re-painting old, oak doors is not really appealing. They were not really appealing in stained oak, so they won’t be any better or more updated with paint; a flat panel is better for this look. Have a local craftsman or cabinet shop cut them out of poplar, which is a nice, paintable material and not too expensive. To save even more money, finish the doors and drawer-fronts yourself, but having a local, experienced painter spray on the finish will give you a much more professional look. We used a semi-gloss product for durability.

Overall, I feel like I am getting myself back. I am totally back in design action and ready to assist you with cost conscious and of course, stylish updates for your home. No matter what the economy is doing, it is important to have a safe, happy home to retreat to. Especially now, if you want your home to reflect your best self, but just can’t figure out how to get there, I would love to help. Call me at 720-313-5453.

I am currently booking $175-$225  consultations for 2011.