Urban Nest

We’ve had some requests for more pictures of our homes, so we’ve dedicated this week to giving our nests a little more limelight. I am really excited for the excuse to show a little project that my husband and I have just wrapped up (or, I should say, our contractor just wrapped up). We’ve done minor reno projects before – from replacing bathroom plumbing fixtures to installing hardwood floors, but this is the first time that we’ve taken a room down to the studs and floor boards and started from scratch. Meet our old kitchen:

It actually doesn’t look as bad in these pictures as it was in real life. We were down to one working burner on our stove and the refrigerator door fell apart if you opened or closed it with too much gusto. Aside from quirky appliances, the plaster walls were in bad shape and the floor sloped up significantly in the middle of the room (perfect for my daughter to ride her big wheel over – but not exactly the look I was going for). The bottom line was that our kitchen was looking (and functioning) pretty rough, so, in February, we broke ground, err linoleum.

It was a long process, 11 weeks to be exact, and I had no idea how much of a mess it was going to create. But now that it’s done, we couldn’t be any happier with the results.

We replaced the linoleum with hardwood floors that match the rest of our house, and after lots of anxiety about stains and etching, we decided to go ahead with the marble countertops that I was pulling for.

We mounted the upper cabinets close the the ceiling and left room underneath for an open shelf – an idea inspired by a favorite kitchen of mine from Cottage Living. This is one of my favorite features, and it actually saved money because the shorter cabinets and the shelf were less expensive than cabinets that spanned the whole space. One thing to keep in mind with this approach is that the underside of the cabinetry needs to be finished off nicely. This isn’t always the case, since for the most part, the bottom of a cabinet isn’t visible. We did not take this into account, and our contractor had to get creative with trim to cover some unfinished areas and gaps under the cabinets.

My other favorite feature is the sliding barn door that hides our utility/laundry room. It is a great space saving solution, because we didn’t have to worry about being able to maneuver around our peninsula when the door is open. And I just love the way it looks.

The change that made the biggest impact was raising the ceiling in the back half of the room and adding this window. I painted the sashes the same color as the barn door and carried this color to the legs of these stools from Ikea.

We have been enjoying the new kitchen and are looking forward to making some big meals for the generous friends and neighbors who fed us when we didn’t have a kitchen!