Kitchen Remodel

This post is long overdue (I remodeled my kitchen last April/May), but better late than never, right?  This post will share before and after pictures, plus go over the process for those thinking of going through the same thing.

When I first moved into my home, I did a LOT of remodeling, so I decided to leave my kitchen for the time being and remodel it at a later time. I will NEVER do that again when moving into a new house, mainly because remodeling the kitchen creates so much dust, mess, chaos, and you basically don't have a kitchen to cook in for a few weeks. Not ideal.

My home was built in the 90s, so it had the typical white tile and grout counter-top, which I hated-- mainly because the grout starts chipping after a while, stains easily, and food bits get in there. In addition, the sink was white porcelain, which looks pretty, but is the worst because it stains so easily that you have to be careful. Anytime I would cook anything tomato based, it would stain and I would have to scrub it to make it decent again. So I knew that when I remodeled the kitchen, I wanted a stainless steel sink. My kitchen also did not have a back-splash.



The first step in the process was deciding who I would work with for the remodel.  I decided to go with Home Depot because they provide everything-- it's a one-stop shop.  They work with the warehouse, counter installer, and back-splash installer.  After putting down my deposit, a technician came out to measure and document everything.  I had to choose the sink style (under-mount vs. over-mount), curvature of the bar top, thickness, bull-nose detail, and dimensions (I ended up widening the narrow part of the bar-top area so I'd have more room there).

The next step was deciding on the counter-top material.  I was between marble, granite, and quartz.  Marble I learned is too sensitive in a kitchen and can crack/chip easily, so I moved on to granite vs. quartz.  Price-wise, both are very similar.  I ended up choosing granite because it looked more natural and I found a color I really liked.  Since my cabinets are a reddish brown color, I wanted granite that was beige and had reddish hues.

After choosing my granite color, I went to the slab warehouse to choose my two slabs.  I am SO glad I did this (it's not required, but recommended).  The initial slab that they had chosen for me was more rose than beige.  I ended up rejecting that one and choosing these two slabs instead:





The next step at the warehouse was choosing a back-splash style and color to match.  I decided on subway tile because it's neutral and simple (to contrast with my granite which had lots of detail in it).

Then I had to choose the color and trim pieces.  I went with the lighter beige color on the bottom (vs. the gray piece on the top).  The color is alabaster glossy.



For the trim, which "frames" the tops and sides of the back-splash, I chose the 1x6 bead tiles (2nd row from the top).



Then came the fun part...demolishing my existing counter-top.  I could either pay Home Depot to do this, or I could do it myself and save a good chunk of money.  I ended up doing the latter (with the help of my dad and brother).  It doesn't look too messy here because I was a freak who would clean up each day after the demo.  We discovered during the demo process that there were four layers of material to remove:  the top tile pieces, the cement underneath (which turned into rubble/a million pieces when removed), and metal wiring.  After removing all that, we got to the wood base underneath, which we were told we also had to remove.  Here is the kitchen before removing the wood base during the demo process:





A few days later, the installers came.  It took one day to install the granite and the sink/faucet, one day to install the back-splash and grout, one day to patch the walls and touch-up the paint, and one day to install the electric outlets.  I choose new outlets to match the back-splash (my old outlets were white and I needed beige ones instead).  I also chose some that were iPhone-charging compatible...best decision ever!



And finally, here are the before and after pictures.

Before:


After:


Stacking snack jars available here.  These are great for both kitchen and bath.

Before:


After:


The three jars sitting on the counter were a little gift to myself.  I bought them a few days before the remodel because I saw them in another kitchen post and LOVED them.  You can find them here:

Small
Medium
Large

Before:


After:


Finding a faucet took FOREVER.  I must have looked at hundreds of styles before settling on this one because I loved the form, and I found a matching sprayer and soap dispenser to go with it.  It was little on the pricey side, but well worth it.  Faucet and sprayer can be found here.  Soap dispenser can be found here.

Before:


After:


Details on the items shown above:

Nespresso machine (on sale!)
Nespresso capsule tower (the best part-- it spins!)
Tea kettle (sold out, similar style here)

Thanks for stopping by!


Jasmin

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