Thursday, May 7, 2015

Our Rancher: Before & After - The Kitchen.

Sorry for the mini-break I took to reveal my DIY jewelry organizer...but it's back to the before and afters! (Insert round of applause here.)

This series has been a blast to put together!  I hope you guys are enjoying it too.  If you've missed the intro, part one, part two or part three, make sure you catch up!

Now it's time to show how our dark, closed-off kitchen became a bright light in our home.  I may have mentioned before that I'm so ready to overhaul our 1954 cabinets...but until we a) hit the lottery, or b) save up the funds, I, at least, have a pretty kitchen to look at. ;)

Our kitchen hasn't changed a whole lot since I revealed the renovation, right after we moved in,so here's a little refresher...

We couldn't afford a new kitchen, so I made it look as new as possible.  We painted the cabinets, added new hardware, ripped out the linoleum and continued hardwoods throughout. We removed the restaurant booth (yes, I said restaurant booth) and used the cabinet from the back side of it to create an island.  We also added lighting, new appliances, a new backsplash and countertops.  It made a world of difference, and I couldn't believe how great our 1954 kitchen looked.






What do you think...should we have just kept the old look?! ;)

20 comments:

  1. Lol! The restaurant booth! But at least you were able to make an island out of the cabinet.

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  2. Love it! It looks like a completely different space.

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    1. I have to agree...it feels totally different!! (Thank gosh haha.)

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  3. Your "renovation on a budget" appeals to me more than many "renovation not on a budget" projects I've seen in blogland! Your resourcefulness and attention to detail are remarkable. We are preparing to say goodbye to yucky Upstate New York weather (although it was beautiful today!) for North Carolina. We've redone a foreclosure, a duplex with a side that I lovingly call the "meth and dead bodies" side (not anymore!), two ranches, and a cottage. Our next project will be an outdated tri level. I was searching pinterest for ranch renovation ideas and your space speaks to me. We know walls will come down, but seeing how you did it really backs up all of the nutty plans I've put out there for my hubby to consider! You know when a husband says, "hey, show me that blog with the ranch where they took down the walls" that you've found a good thing!! Kudos to you for passing the "not so interested husband" test!

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    1. Aw, thank you SO much, Sara!! I really appreciate your kind words! Gotta love passing that test. ;) Good luck with your next project!! :)

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  4. all of your work looks great. Congrats! What a good feeling. I especially like the pendants in the kitchen and think I might consider them for my redo. Can you tell me how I might find them. Thanks
    chrissmithfaux@comcast.net

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    1. Thank you so much, Chris! I got them from Shades of Light. Looks like they've gone up in price, but they sure are beautiful!! http://www.shadesoflight.com/colored-seeded-glass_pendants-B.html

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  5. Everything looks great! It is giving me a lot of great ideas, I just bought a house with very similar layout, particularly the kitchen/living/dining area and wanted to do almost exactly what you have done with opening it up! Is there any chance you have the dimensions of the kitchen and living/dining area? I would greatly appreciate is to kinda give me an idea if my space would seem to cramped or not.

    Thanks

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    1. If you measured all the rooms separately, the kitchen is 12.5 x 12, the dining room is 14 x 12 and the living room is 18 x 20. Hope that helps!

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  6. I've looked to see if this was answered before but haven't seen anything...I know your floors are original to the house but can you tell me what kind of floors they are? Oak? and they aren't stained? just sealed? We're about to start picking flooring and I LOVE the way they look.

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    1. Thanks so much, Nicole!! Yes, they are original to the house...except in the kitchen and areas where we removed walls and had to patch. We had them sanded down and re-stained when we renovated. They are Minwax's Jacobean with a satin finish. Hope that helps! :)

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    2. Was it difficult to find/match hardwoods for your kitchen? Did you just buy unfinished and stain it with the rest of your floors when you refinished them? We just bought a rancher that has great hardwoods that we want to refinish throughout but it also has linoleum in the kitchen also!

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    3. It wasn't difficult to match since we were refinishing the other oak floors in our home. We just installed unfinished oak (same type that was in the rest of our house) and then finished it all together. Hope that helps! :)

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  7. We are about to renovate our very own rancher! Can you tell me what type of counter tops you used? Thank you :-)

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    1. Good luck with your reno! We used Allen + Roth solid surface countertops from Lowe's.

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  8. Great job! Absolutely beautiful! I have been told you can only take out certain walls in your home just so you dont ruin the foundation (meaning the walls that support your house to keep it from caving in.) How did you digure you could take out that wall? If you dont mind me asking...

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    1. Thank you so much! You can usually take out any walls, but you need to get an engineer in to explain what kind of header/beam you'll need to put in to support the home, and any posts that may be necessary.

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