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Kitchen Reveal

Kitchen· POPULAR· ROOM REVEALS

If you were holding your breath to see our final kitchen reveal….I’m sorry that you are passed out on the floor.

I meant to show you the after photos but got all distracted…what with the babies and all.  (sure Katie, blame the helpless infants)

But I hope it’s worth the wait to see these before and after photos in one spot.  Also, I have a pretty intense budget breakdown for those number-crunching-types and a few hundred links to all the projects that we did to make this kitchen complete.  It’s like a walk down memory lane…if you can remember where memory lane was (again…sorry it took me so long to post this and I hope these pics make it up to you!)

Okay – so here is our kitchen finished…

And here is where we started…

Wanna see that again?

 

Yup.  Before it was a very brown filled space.  Everything brown – cabinets, floor, backsplash, and the dark countertops didn’t help out the ‘light and bright’ factor.  You can see the first tour of the house here and then later a bit of an update.

Over the course of the first two years, we did very little in the space.  We installed a fridge and dishwasher right away but the rest was a slow crawl of improvements.  The island pendants were Pottery Barn outlet finds (they are little kid’s lights!) and the cabinet hardware was installed.

But the entire thing got really started when we decided that the stovetop was just no longer suiting our needs and the lack of proper ventilation was more than we could take.

Before it was a downdraft but there was very little drafting going on.

Our plan was to install a proper overhead vent and replace the stovetop completely.  The first step was to figure out how to vent the hood…so we removed the upper cabinet, cut a hole through the wall to the other side (the laundry room is behind it) and vented it up through the cabinet and to the outside above the laundry room cabinetry.

Once the plan was made, we raised the cabinet, installed the hood, built a new hood surround and vented it.

 

Then came the sanding and the painting part.  We had to completely prep the kitchen for a complete spray-down.  That’s like a ho-down but less partner-grabbing and more screaming-in-terror.  There was definitely a learning curve with this step but ::spoiler alert:: we survived.  We ended up painting all the trim, all the cabinets, and the ceiling.  Painting everything white was definitely the biggest transformation.

Then came demo.  We needed a new backsplash and partnered with The Tile Shop to get a brand new marble hex beauty.

The tiling process was the most inspiring part because we could see the light at the end of the kitchen-tunnel.  After an extensive picking process, the 1″ marble hex was the winner and we blogged about the tiling adventure and gave some tips on what worked for us.

We had a few missteps along the way – like when we painted the island a different color and the paint chipped…or how it took us ridiculously long to paint (six weeks with a toddler and no kitchen!).

But we definitely had way more victories…like scoring a discount gas stovetop and having my brother install it (I consider the free labor as payback for making me hold the nail when we were building our childhood treehouse)…or like when we successfully drilled into our tile to install some whitewashed shelves…or when we trimmed out the island to tie in some chunky shelves and corbels.

Shortly after we painted the entire space Benjamin Moore’s Metropolitan, we had the fine folks at the Tile Shop shoot our kitchen – it was our first photoshoot and we absolutely loved the experience.

The kitchen transformation is definitely something that I am proud of.  I know that it sounds ridiculous but we are so thankful to be able to tackle projects like this and have the help and support of companies (let’s just be honest…it’s nice to get free stuff but it’s also really awesome to know that people think you have semi-decent style!).  It is like the biggest pat on the back as a blogger.  And to have folks like you guys cheering us on (even when we use duct tape instead of reflective tape or when we show photos of me tiling at 9 months pregnant with leggings on that show cellulite and through a bazillion other keepin-it-real moments)…excuse me while I get all sappy here…it really is so very encouraging it could literally make me cry.  This space is my favorite room in the house…and it’s held up to some pretty intense abuse from my little guys.

I just say all that now because if I forget to later…I want to make sure you hear me shout THANK YOU.  Yeah.  That’s right.  You!

And now for the budget breakdown.  I pulled all my receipts and referenced our My Lowe’s account (we love that thing) to see how it all panned out when it came to the moolah….

  • Cabinet pulls & knobs = $167
  • Cooktop = $345
  • Cabinet Paint = $168
  • Trim Paint = $58
  • Wall Paint = $60
  • Ceiling Paint = $50
  • Primer = $90
  • Grout = $15
  • Tile items = $42
  • Electrical = $67
  • Drywall = $21
  • Pendants = $60
  • Corbels for shelf = $66
  • Corbels for island = $89
  • Miscellaneous = $183
  • Range Hood =$179
  • Ducts = $39
  • Wood & trim = $38
  • Light bulbs = $27
  • Door knobs = $68
  • Faucets = $338
  • tile backsplash = $976
  • light fixture over table = $399
  • dishwasher and fridge = $2600

GRAND TOTAL = $6,145

Just to be completely honest and upfront, we received $700 from Lowe’s for a kitchen makeover so you can deduct that from our out-of-pocket costs.  The tile backsplash and the light fixture were both provided by The Tile Shop for their photoshoot of the kitchen.  So we paid roughly $4070 for our kitchen including appliances.  Our budget was under $3000 after appliances and we came in at $1470.

Completely noteworthy considering that grand total cost is paying for what I consider a high end kitchen (granite counters, marble backsplash, stainless appliances, etc.)  Especially considering the national average for kitchen remodels cost $28K!  It’s amazing what a whole lot of paint, a little wood and some tile can do!  Plus, I believe we made the space MUCH more functional for us because we changed out the glass top stove for gas and added a hood.

And so this completes our Operation Heart of the Home.  It was a long time coming but hopefully completely worth it.

For more kitchen posts, click here and read all about the past improvements!

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Comments

  2. Your kitchen is amazing now! I have a love affair with white cabinets too so it’s all right up my alley. I was wondering if you could tell me what type of oven is above your regular wall oven? Do you like it?

  5. Wow, your kitchen looks amazing! I love how bright it is now. I can not wait until I can get my kitchen all done, maybe one day! Keep up the great work…

  6. Amazing job!!! and so inspiring for us DIY’ers! We just bought a 1950’s fixer upper and are looking to reno the kitchen as well. Do you have any information on your cook top and other appliances, those seem like great prices!!

  7. Your kitchen is JUST my style and has been such a huge inspiration to me–especially now that we’ve (finally!) purchased our own house and actually have a kitchen we can mess around with! 🙂

  8. What is the appliance above the oven? A broiler or something? At first I thought it was a microwave, but there’s a microwave on the counter next to it.

  13. The appliance above it is a microwave…it’s just built in. When we moved here, we also brought our old microwave which is considerably bigger. I actually really like having two but down the line I think I would like to update the regular oven to doubles so I don’t want to get rid of my old microwave 🙂
    xo – kb

  14. The cooktop we got at a steal because it was in the discount zone of Lowes. I always recommend looking there as well as the as-is section of IKEA.
    xo – kb

  15. Yup. Two. Down the line, I’d like to update the oven to double ovens so we want to hang on to the stand alone microwave.
    xo – kb

  16. We keep it in the cabinet in the island. There is a plug in there but usually don’t use it. Now that I have a Keurig, I plug that in next to the fridge.
    xo – kb

  17. I don’t know! It was here when we bought the house and it’s okay. I don’t know if I would necessarily choose it because I have never bought a wall oven before so my experience is limited.
    xo – kb

  19. First of all, I love your blog! I feel like I’m friends with your family – is that weird? 🙂 The kitchen turned out SO beautifully! But, I just gotta ask: how the heck do you keep cute things in that little shelf on the end of the island?! I have just one little guy so far (the same age as Weston) and he would be using the ceramic bunny to play fetch with the dog. I’m so impressed with you and your boys!

  20. Absolutely stunning Katie and well worth the wait! Incredible job Bower family! As always, so inspiring 🙂

  22. I have asked before, but have yet to see it posted…

    How did you paint your can lights? I have been dying to know so I can do this project this summer.

  23. How do you keep track of all the expenses? Our house projects seem to take months (ok, years) to finish up. Do you just keep receipts and a spreadsheet or ??? I feel like we budget going in but then we never bring it all together in the end to know how we actually made out. Advice and suggestions please!

  25. I plan to share this with my husband. I file it under, “yes the kitchen was already beautiful and perfectly good, but it can be better!” We are moving into a brand new home and the kitchen is great but it doesn’t reflect my style at all.

    Thanks for providing my ammunition!

  26. Beautiful job Katie! So bright & airy. Question– you had some doubts about using the Benjamin Moore Advance when you were first painting the cabinets. Did it end up curing to the hard finish you were hoping for?

  28. Can we have some real talk about white painted cabinets? Do you have to wipe them down constantly? Do they get grimy?

    I lived in an apartment with cheap white laminate ones and they got so gross. I’d really like to paint ours white, but I’m afraid of what grimy little boy handprints would look like!

    The kitchen is suuuuuuper gorgeous, great work! I tiled our bathroom at like 28 weeks, no bueno.

  29. Beautiful! Thanks for re-capping everything for newbies like myself! I just sent you an email too! We love the Growers Outlet, too! Assuming it’s the one in Loganville, we are pretty close to it! Thanks again for the inspiring blog posts!

  30. It looks amazing! We painted our cabinets white too, but they are chipping 🙁 How have yours held up? What did we do wrong? Any tips or ideas? You are a gorgeous family, btw;)

  31. All that hard work equals one beautiful kitchen!! So bright and inviting. I was wondering if you are still loving the color Metropolitan that you chose? It looks like the perfect gray.

  32. It’s stunning! I painted our cabinets a couple of years ago, but you’ve really got my wheels turning with the idea of changing out my backsplash now! I love how light and bright it is now – better than a brand new kitchen! What color are the walls? Such a soothing color. Well done!

  34. Is it goofy that the shelves on the tile wall are my favority-favorite-favorite thing in your entire kitchen? I love how they look, I love seeing how you style them in different ways… I just love them.

  38. We keep all the receipts in a folder for house projects but we also use the My Lowes card which tracks all your expenditures. Since we shop primarily at Lowes and Home Depot (which we have emailing us the receipts), it’s easy to keep track.
    xo – kb

  40. It took forever to cure (a little over six weeks if I remember correctly) but I am happy to say that it is as hard as a rock now…exactly what I was hoping for!
    xo – kb

  41. Mine get more dusty than anything. I use a Magic Eraser half the time and the other half, I use a paper towel and some spray. I am estimating that I wipe them down about once a month – sometimes less for the ones on top.
    xo – kb

  42. Ours isn’t chipping…well, the one with the trashcan has two little chips but I think that is because we have a lot of trash 🙁 Other than that, the finish has held up great. I am guessing that most times the chips can be from paint adhesion issues…either priming/prepping incorrectly or using less than sufficient finish paint (we chose to go with alkyd paint for that reason).
    Hope that helps!
    xo – kb

  43. We do move them a lot! In fact, Will asked if that could be his shelves and so recently we decided to let him have that little space for himself and Weston’s cars 🙂
    xo – kb

  44. Really easy – just pop out the surrounds, take a high grit sandpaper to them, use a metal primer and then regular spraypaint to finish them off!
    xo – kb

  45. You have a beautiful kitchen!!!! What finish of paint did you use on your cabinets (semi-gloss/satin/etc)? Is it holding up with kiddos?

  47. I know everyone is asking where you got what, but I’d love to know where the flour, sugar, other containers are from! 🙂

  49. LOVE IT!!! I (well my then BF) redid my kitchen in grey and white about 6 years ago…but I never did the cabinets, so they are still oak (BARF!) But seeing this makes me really really want to pull the plug and get them white!! LOVE LOVE LOVE!

  52. Well, I really really love the kitchen and I think you did a GREAT job. Really inspired to paint my won cabinets now!

    And who cares you’re a little late on posting the after pics. You had a baby!

  54. Is your fridge the GE Profile french door fridge? I am looking at buying that one. Do you like??

  56. Wow, you guys really did do a nice job without spending lots of money 🙂 I love the canisters, where did you get those?

  57. Well worth the wait! You guys did an amazing job! Your kitchen is hands down GORGEOUS!! Your shelf styling is also the best!

  61. I think it was Satin because that is the only other finish that the Advance came in besides high gloss.
    And it is holding up GREAT!
    xo – kb

  62. I wish! Mine is a LG. We like it ok I guess. It’s not as bad as our dishwasher but the condiment shelves are already breaking 🙁
    xo – kb

  65. Absolutely beautiful! We’re beginning to plan out kitchen makeover and this encourages me that our small budget is not insane (especially since our kitchen is about half the size of yours). Thanks for the cost break down and openness!

  66. Beautiful! I’m dying to know where the nesting bowls on the shelf came from. I’m in love with them.

  70. It’s gorgeous! My marriage wouldn’t survive the kitchen being in disarray for six weeks, but you did it–and pregnant, too, so congratulations! (My husband is a lovely man, but a bit OCD about messes.)

  71. I am searching all over for a 36″ gas cooktop, five burners, all knobs on the right, just like yours. I know you got it deeply discounted at Lowe’s, but I never saw where you named the brand. Can you please tell me so I can see if that company is still making a model with those specs? Thanks for sharing your absolutely beautiful transformation!

  72. What a fabulous transformation! I’m curious if your cabinets are wood or laminate?

    We have a great kitchen that’s really big but really maple from ten years ago. I’m dying to paint it all. You’ve certainly inspired me to do so.

    Thanks,
    Betsy

  73. Ah!! Beautiful!!! And Katie, it has been at least 6 months since I checked out your blog. I got a new phone and lost my bookmarks and somehow I missed you. I can’t believe I’ve been missing out on all this goodness the past 6 months. What was I thinking?! Great job, as usual. And I’m glad to be back 🙂

  74. I think that is the most gorgeous kitchen transformation I have ever seen! I have maple cabinets I want to paint so badly and my counter top is similar to yours. It gives me a vision of what it could look like. Problem is, I am 73 and not sure I have the energy to do it. I know it takes time and patience. I have one question. Did you do the spray painting indoors? If so, how did you keep the paint from drifting to other rooms?

  75. WOW that was my first word um that and holy sh** most beautiful kitchen ever! you should be so proud of yourselves!! k sunday

  77. Your kitchen is absolutely beautiful! I had decided on marble subway for my backsplash for my white kitchen about ahem…over a year ago! Something obviously has been holding me back from buying it-and the hex tile is making my heart flutter. Quick question in the post at the tile shop you said you settled for 2″ tile and in this post you say it is 1″. It looks like 2″ to me but I wanted to ask since sometimes things look different on the computer?

    You guys really did a great job!

  79. We had it sealed off with plastic drapes on the doors. I know that there are sometimes folks that hire out just for the painting part and it is reasonably priced.
    xo – kb

  82. Hi — can you comment how the Benjamin Moore Advance paint has held up now that it has been a while? I’m really curious as to its hardness, as I want to do our cabinets soon (although I’m not sure I’ll be spraying).

    Thanks and it looks beautiful!!

  83. Our paint has held up AMAZING. I am really glad that we chose it even though we did have to wait a LONG time for it to cure.
    xo – kb

  84. Awesome! You the first person I’ve found that it has been long enough and has replied! Excellent to know it is worth the cost. I’m afraid I’m not brave enough to go the spray route and the rolling and brushing will be tedious, but I’m so eager to do it!

  86. Love! Are your countertops corian? I know they came with the house but you are so knowledgable I’m sure you know! (If you have any idea the exact countertop please share 😉

  89. I love your kitchen! We actually just finished a remodel of our kitchen (although less DIY that your own) – we apparently like the same major colors (white counter, black granite, gray walls, light backsplash)! Check out the similarities : http://lifebeyondsilicon.com/2014/04/13/our-kitchen/ I swear it’s a coincidence since I only found your blog after we finished!

  90. Holy Moly WOW WOW WOW!!! Amazingly beautiful!!! I honestly want to lick all of that creamy marble hex tile… (I would wipe it all down when I am finished) seriously though – the Way Pregnant Kitchen Reno is ROCKIN!!!!! you guys did an amazing job, and your costs are unbelievable, especially compared to the super-high-end result! I have kitchen envy big time. I just did some porcelain tile installation in our tiny half bath, and I am hooked! I now want to tile everything, and marble is my DREAM material!!! I love to touch it every time I go to the tile department. Nothing else compares to the feel of marble, in my book!!! great job Bowers!

  91. I was so inspired with your kitchen paint color that I used it for my bedroom paint color but it appears so much more blue than it does in your photos. Does your kitchen ever pick up more blue tones to it with different times of day/sunny vs. cloudy days? I still love the color but I am very surprised with the amount of blue I’m seeing in the paint color. Maybe I need to switch the kind of light bulbs I have in my bedroom fan. Any thoughts would be wonderful! 🙂 You are such an inspiration, I hope someday I will be as clever and handy of a mom as you!
    Xo – Claire

  92. Mine doesn’t really read blue. I even have it in the downstairs bathroom that gets no natural light and Weston’s bedroom (all natural light) and it always is a gray with greenish undertones. Perhaps you had a light bulb issue or perhaps the mix was off?
    xo – kb

  93. Hey Katie! I kind of have a crush on your kitchen! All of the finishing details that you guys worked so hard for just make it sing! Gorgeous! Anyway, the reason I’m commenting, is because I was wondering how your cabinet paint job has held up? It’s been awhile since you did the initial paint job…are you still in love? Nicks, dings, scratches or general wear and tear???? Fill a girl in!

  94. There is a very small amount of wear on the trash can cabinet door (it’s by far the most used one) but all the others look still new. No nicks or scratches and that is with two small boys and an arsenal of trucks!
    xo – kb

  100. did your whole house have off white trim? if so, are you painting all the trim white? I’ve been wanting to do our whole house but that includes doors, trim, windows. just wondering how you’re going about the whole process! not sure if you have a link already to that subject or not! love your home!

  101. Our whole house has it 😛 It includes all the molding and doors and trim but not windows….they are a darker almost taupe color. We have been slowly tackling it room by room…whenever we go to paint a room, the trim gets a makeover too!
    xo – kb

  103. These are the exact bar stools I want for my kitchen. Any idea what I should google to find them? I was referring to them as “ice cream parlor” stools, but a quick google search tells me that is not the correct term.

  105. Hi Katie,
    I love your style and am soooo envious of that gorgeous house! I was wondering if you have ever experienced problems with your black granite? I have some in my apartment and there are areas which have marks where glasses, dishes sat that are really only visible when the light shines on them at an angle. Not an actual discoloration and I never allow any liquids to “sit” on the counter, wipe them up immediately. Also, I never allow any kind of acidic liquids to stay there, always make sure to clean them up right away if I ever spill or drip anything (like lime juice for my margaritas!) I can’t figure out how to get rid of these spots!
    Thanks so much! BTW, you have a beautiful family!

  106. We have two spots where we think it was etched from something acidic – they were there before we bought the house. But we have been using polish on the counters and I feel like over time, they are disappearing. I will look into what the stuff is and let you know 😉
    xo – kb

  107. Hi,

    I have been reading your blog forever (since you were pregnant with Will!). I always loved your kitchen reno, and bookmarked it for when I was going to do my own (which is NOW woohooo). I really want white cabinets but my husband is nervous about then with our two toddler boys. Hvae your held up well? Is cleaning them with kids difficult?

    thanks!

  108. Actually I think they have held up great. Obviously there is things to note…like the long cure time was a pain…and our garbage pull out door is showing some marks (it’s from getting banged by the dishwasher every time we open it)…but in general, I can easily clean off anything with a little antibacterial spray and a paper towel and if something is especially stubborn, I pull out the magic eraser. But beyond that…it was a great investment rather than replacing them!
    xo – kb

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