Tuesday, March 2, 2010

To Dream the Impossible Dream

Jo and I began work on a kitchen remodel last week, and I'm so excited because kitchens and baths are my favorite rooms to renovate.

When this project is complete, we'll show you before and after pictures, but for now I'd like to share one of my past kitchen remodels. It's one of my favorites because my client was so open-minded and great to work with (he also happens to be my cousin, Stanley), and also because the change was so dramatic.

The home was a typical midwest 1950s brick story and a half. Nothing...no thing...had been done to this house since it was built. Here is one view of the kitchen that makes this fact abundantly clear.


Note the lovely light fixture. Also interesting to note that the wall cabinet perpendicular to the range cannot even be opened because of the exhaust fan (I guess adding that hood was one thing that had been done since the house was built). On the other side of the range wall was a dark little dining room...


...with another fabulous light.

All we had to do was knock down a wall and voila...


The other side of the kitchen didn't hold much appeal either.


See that charming lscalloped valance over the sink? Great for granny but not so much for my hip cousin. Choosing warm colors and finishes that worked well with his collection of copper cookware, we ended up with...


This weird little vignette was opposite the sink wall...


We just got rid of that, and instead of Little House on the Prairie we accented with an awesome glass tile backsplash.


We also removed the "vintage" vinyl flooring and installed hardwood that matched the rest of the house.

This just goes to show with a little vision, a space that looks hopeless can be transformed into fabulous.

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