After 14 years and 8 months I have finally renovated my kitchen. Its not that I didn't know what I wanted, or had a hard time designing it over and over in my head, but like most families, we made other choices and therefore ended up with possibly the world's ugliest kitchen.
While it was scary to the naked eye - it did function quite well. Its just that the last renovation in the mid 1980's by the previous owner of our charming 1930's colonial included lots of brown and beige tile in no particular pattern. It was really quite painful to look at.
During the time we have lived here we only replaced what was necessary as needed. For instance, the painfully ugly brown tile floor had several missing ceramic tiles and quite a few cracked ones. That's when we had hardwood floors installed to match the rest of the house.
When the 20 year old Sub Zero refrigerator broke we bought a new stainless one to replace it. The same goes for other appliances including the electric cook top and the dishwasher. The juxtaposition of these modern, industrial looking appliances with the early 1980's vomit tile was really quite disconcerting.
Finally, this past year the counter top ceramic tiles started buckling and ultimately popped off in some very inconvenient places- like right next to the sink. In order to contain costs and the length of the renovation I redesigned the kitchen in my mind using the same cabinets and the same footprint.
You can see the before and after shots here. Maybe its because I waited so long and dreamed up the new design using my pile of tear sheets from every imaginable home design magazine in the last 14 years--but I couldn't be happier. I hope you like it.
