Creating a Plan for Our Kitchen Refresh
For 5 years, we’ve left our kitchen virtually unchanged.
We always knew we wanted to do something in this room, given that the majority of our time at home is spent cooking up meals and enjoying them together. However, while the style never felt quite our own, the room itself was incredibly efficient.
Finally, winter struck and I knew after the holidays I was intent on changing up the room. The idea of a full-blown renovation with two toddlers was not going to happen for so many reasons – daily logistics, added expenses, plus I had not given it much thought what we would actually do, until…
Mind the Gap Tyrol - Alpen Wallpaper
I stumbled upon a picture of this gorgeous wallpaper which evoked Alpine hand-painted panels. For me, it was the perfect dose of folk art and sophistication. Not everyone was so easily convinced that it wouldn’t overwhelm the space. Combined with the fact that our ceilings are quite high, I went back to the drawing board and realized we could use the panels as a guide for a chair rail.
The best way that I can convince my husband (and make sure I think through the details) is to create an incredibly haphazard mock-up. This is not any Photoshop session, this is straight up copy and paste (with some mild cropping in the middle).
So without further ado, my mock-ups that landed us at the start of this kitchen project…
From there, it was easy to put together a plan that could stagger projects to be the least intrusive as possible (and stretch the budget the furthest). So we started with what absolutely everyone will tell you is the very last thing you should start with – the wallpaper install.
A few caveats – the wallpaper was primarily only going on two walls, which do not have any appliances, tile, etc. The one wall was also home to my biggest annoyance within the kitchen – the massive barn door that never seemed to stay shut.
Our general plan of attack:
Remove the barn door and complete any necessary fixes to shelves behind
Wallpaper & Chair Rail
Install new light fixtures
Install new hood (which includes removing cabinets and building out new framing)
Tile
Limewash
…and then further down the line, Cabinet Updates (paint, extend island trim, possibly add uppers)
We have no real timeline, which is both freeing and possibly frustrating. However, since most items are things we’ll be doing ourselves, we can plan around when we can fully complete the task vs setting arbitrary deadlines that have us rushing through the process.
Until our next update…
Cheers!
-L
