Kitchen Reno – the Small Details Add Up

Happy Monday ladies. Today’s look of the week is a life update and a look at my pantry renovation. It may be a small detail but it gives me joy because it’s the only thing finished… so far. Our kitchen plans have run into some construction challenges, but nothing we won’t figure out.

three men sawing existing granite counter to fit new stove on A Well Styled Life
what do you mean the new stove won’t fit in the existing granite?

I liken it to an outfit. You start putting things together and realize those shoes you intended to wear are the wrong shade for the rest of your outfit. That handbag you wanted to use isn’t the right proportion and overpowers the look, so you go back to the drawing board.

Let me preface this by saying- I think this home will be fabulous for us and we are well on our way to loving it.

pantry before renovation on A Well Styled Life
she left us some food which we did not keep

We’ve had chat with our new neighbors and learned that the previous owners weren’t as clean or meticulous as one would want. There are many reasons why, but the upshot is there were some serious mouse problems. I was figuring that out on my own because the surface of things looked clean but upon closer inspection, I brought out the bleach.

Back to the pantry. The previous owners had white shag carpeting in the pantry which was stained beyond fixing. The little dark hole in the far corner is one spot where mice made themselves at home.

There was new pale gray Pergo in the kitchen, as seen on the right, so we decided to extend it through the pantry and into the family room.

New Pergo flooring from Home Depot on A Well Styled life
we removed the row of tiles on the floor in front of the fireplace to enlarge the room

A microwave had been over the stove, but since we only use our microwave to reheat tea, we decided to give it a lower profile by installing a small one inside the pantry.

oal cabinets before and after painting white on A Well Styled Life
we painted the cabinet frames then installed new drawers, pullouts, doors and handles

We ordered a modern stainless steel hood to go where the old microwave used to hang over the stove. Unfortunately, there’s a venting problem so it had to be returned and we’re back to the drawing board.

white kitchen cabinets before hood is installed on A Well Styled Life
the current situation – there is a major supporting beam in this wall preventing us from venting a hood.

I hate having small, cheap looking appliances cluttering the countertops so we had a pullout tray installed to hold our pantry after renovation with pull out shelves on A Well Styled Life

There are two large pullout shelves plus the one for the toaster. They all have soft close slides. We had a “lesson” with my grandson last week so he knows not to push them closed, which will break them. One is already wonky… I did it šŸ™
soft close pullout shelves for toaster and dry goods in pantry on A Well Styled Life

We had all the trim and ceilings painted with my favorite shade of white, which went a long way to freshening things up. There’s still much more that needs to be done.

The other carpeting we thought we would keep, has to go now because we don’t feel comfortable walking on it in our bare feet. I know there are more surprises ahead which just keeps things interesting.

I’m curious…do you decorate the tops of your kitchen cabinets with “decor” items? Or is that a thing of the past?

Thanks for reading ladies and have a great day.

 

70 Comments

  1. Hi! Love the remodel thus far. Just remodeled my house. Solved the stove venting problem by getting a wonderful
    Bosch induction stove. Works just like gas but is cooler in Texas and I believe safer. I love your pull-out drawers in the pantry. I was the General Contractor and I had my carpenter build some in the cabinets; now I am going to put some in the pantry! I also love the idea of a microwave in the pantry. I am 5ft. tall and its not going to get any better! Husband is 6’3; adult children are also tall. I have an Ivantium microwave and regular oven above my lower larger oven AND a countertop microwave leftover and I will wait till it meets its demise and then get a smaller pantry one! Enjoy your blog!

    1. Thatā€™s a big height difference. They can all stoop down so I think the microwave deserves to be at your height šŸ™‚ I havenā€™t tried an induction stove. It sounds fascinating. Iā€™m the general contractor for our too. Xx

  2. My cabinets go to the ceiling, but a few of my friends collect Fiestaware. They display all their colorful pitchers above their cabinets. I love all your whites and grays & wish I could transition that way. BUT our house is 20 years old and full of oak cabinets, oak woodwork, oak furniture, etc.

  3. I am so excited for you to come home to a house that is finally yours. So exciting…no matter what the challenges have been. I always love to decorate my home. Enjoy!

  4. Pat from Wisconsin says:

    I get it about the white tile, but it can be a building code issue. Is that a wood burning fireplace? Before we could get an occupancy permit for our rehabbed 1856 farmhouse, we had to “tile” the floor around the hearth. And the hearth was a foot off the ground with a stone slab on it. I put the word “tile” in quotes because we faked it. My husband made a u-shaped plywood thing, tiled it, put wood trim around it, and set it in front of the fireplace. It passed for the building inspector and we removed it as soon as he left. I don’t know how that affects insurance coverage, but you might give some consideration to not having wood immediately in front of your fireplace, just for fire safety. We felt the foot wide, foot tall brick and stone hearth pretty well did the job, and the fireplace has doors on it, which have to be closed when it is in use, for the fireplace to work properly.

    As to stuff on top of cabinets, I’m coming down on the no side. To me, it is the decorating version of “mom jeans.” That went out of style at about the same time as mom jeans did. Plenty of people still do it, of course, and plenty of people wear mom jeans. And both may come back into style. No judgments here!! In our prior house, I had stuff on the cabinets and they do get not just dusty, but greasy-dusty. It’s also a pain to get up there and move stuff around if you decide you want to re-arrange. Maybe you could get away with a collection of ironstone pitchers up there. I have seen people move a couple of the cabinets up a foot, then install an open shelf below the cabinets that they moved. The crown molding might need to be readjusted.

  5. Janet Williams says:

    Love the white and the pantry ideas! I hate clutter on the counter and want things tucked away but not so far I never use them. After living through many styles and renos, my current favs are white shaker, quartz, luxury vinyly tile (the wood look is amazing) and stainless steel appliances including a counter depth fridge and gas or induction ranges. The only thing I would put above cabinets would be soft lighting. Enjoy!

    1. I love the white veined quartz:) The granit was one thing I could not convince hubs to replace. We had this same black granite as a floor many years ago and since I use black as an accent color in my house, I bartered new appliances for the countertops.

  6. Jennifer, have you considered an ductless range hood? They work by circulating the air through a replaceable filter that contains activated charcoal and then back into the kitchen. I’ve always been happy with mine.

  7. Little things make a big difference, and those pull out trays will prove to be so handy. Its often easier to live in a place a little while before you know exactly what you want to do to improve it. You’ll personalize it in not time!

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