Customer Kitchen Makeover Highlights – Q1 2018

I’ve shared a few kitchen makeovers this year, but thought I would do a round up of some of my favorites from the first quarter of this year.  Maybe I’ll go monthly moving forward, but if not, quarterly seems like a nice way to recap.  I am staying consistently busy (and with spring around the corner, it seems to be picking up a bit), and I never tire of a good makeover!  So let’s take a look at few of the customer kitchen makeover highlights of the first quarter of 2018!

Maple Update

I just wrapped up this kitchen before Easter weekend, and it was a fun transformation, since the floors were being redone as well.  I came in as one of the last pieces of the puzzle, which is always fun, since I get to see the final look.  Here is a before photo that was pre-new floors.

Pretty granite counters, but you can see that the rest of the kitchen was in need of a bit of a lift.  

Before I got started, the new floors had been installed.

Notice how the end of the island is looking faded and isn’t matching the wood anymore.  The homeowners took care of that issue as well.  I’m so glad – it drives me crazy that so many houses these days have so many nice elements, but then the island is left, abandoned, with a laminate surround.  It’s really such an easy fix, as there are so many ways that you can do this yourself, or even hire it out for a reasonable price.  Nothing fancy, just trim it out a bit and jazz it up.  The custom factor goes through the roof!

And here it is now.  See what I mean about trimming out the island?  WOW!  Hello, Custom…

We’re talking headboard and some 1×4’s here, and some baseboard trim to finish it off.  Nothing crazy complicated.

You’ll also notice that the pot rack was taken down.  I really think that adds to opening things up as well.

An Oak Kitchen Update

This next kitchen is one of my friends, which makes it even more fun.  There are still some changes that are in the works, so this isn’t a “final” after photo, but you can at least see the progress so far.  We started out with a builder grade, oak kitchen – 

New counters were installed, and we built up the tops of the cabinets and added crown molding as well.

And here it is now.  A new backsplash is still going to be installed, and hardware was added, but you can see the direction it’s going.  The color is For Mist (a Benjamin Moore color).  Since the counters have a lot of warmer beiges and grays in it, we wanted something to compliment them well.  We put a few colors on sample doors, and interestingly, we ended up choosing a color that we originally didn’t like.  Large size samples can be key in choosing cabinet colors!

Shiplap Update

I’ve told you that I’m excited to have found someone who does carpentry on the side and has been able to tackle these jobs for my customers.  I’m so happy with his work, and it’s been a joy to be able to refer someone who is 1) reliable and 2) does a great job.  Finding this combination of skills is like finding a unicorn.

These pictures aren’t the best – lighting was not my friend, but you can still see the transformation.

BIG Built-ins

This next customer project was one that I highly underestimated in terms of the amount of time and work involved.  There is something about older homes and the wood that is in them that seems to always require more primer and paint than I can anticipate.  The homeowner wanted to give these two sets built-ins a new lease on life with paint.

The homeowner had a carpenter add some panels and trim to the doors to freshen them up a bit.

Did I mention that I had to pull out all of these drawers and take them to my shop in order to paint them?  It took two trips to get all of them!

So, there you go – a few highlights from the first quarter.  Lots more to come as the next several months are looking busy!

Jenny