Freutcake Fixer Upper: Kitchen Renovation

Of all the rooms in our new house, the kitchen is the one I'm most exited to renovate. What a surprise, right? If you missed my post a couple of weeks back, Jason and I bought our starter home, a little fixer-upper here in Los Angeles that we like to call "cozy-cute." The kitchen is definitely cozy (space wise) and so far not at all cute. Ha! But that's all changing...

When we first bought the house it looked like this (below): old brown cabinets, bad tile work everywhere, dingy paint and the list goes on. Not even close to a clean bright space that invites you to cook! At first Jason and I were considering keeping the cabinets and painting them to save money but sadly they were in too poor of condition to be worth the effort. So we decided to completely start over and I'm so glad that we did.

We demoed everything from the cabinets down to the floors, fixed electrical issues that were (thankfully) discovered, and replaced a water damaged spot of wall behind the sink. We added in new electrical outlets and re-worked the small floor plan to make it more efficient for modern appliances. This meant moving a door way so that the refrigerator could be re-located and adding in electrical and water hook ups for the ice-maker. Phew! And while the overall floor plan of our home doesn't allow for an open concept kitchen/living space, the small changes we did make helped our kitchen feel much more updated.

Cabinets: We decided to go with a custom kitchen cabinet design from Ikea to keep the budget down but still find cabinets that were stylish and good quality. We have a few friends who have installed Ikea kitchens and love them, so we're giving them a try. As for counter tops, flooring, appliances, etc. we are sourcing those all separately.

I chose classic white cabinets with glass panel fronts for the uppers and solid doors for the lowers. In a small space like ours, I thought it was really important to keep it as light and airy as possible and the glass doors do that. Also, while I absolutely LOVE grey cabinets, the white cabinets that we chose help to brighten the space.

The pretty stuff:

1 / Polished brass sink faucet - this is my one little splurge in the space! I may not be getting the apron front farm sink of my dreams but we are installing a beautiful brass faucet.
2 / White subway tile backslash with white grout- because you can never go wrong with classics.
3 / Brass and glass pendant for over the sink- Jason found this pendant on School House Electric. We love it so much we might order one for the dining room as well.
4 / White and glass cabinets - to visually keep the space open and light.
5 / White quartz counter tops - easier to maintain than marble which is totally necessary when you are married to a passionate coffee drinker. Have you ever tried to clean coffee stains? Plus with two babies on the way, I'm all about durable surfaces.
6 / Brass nobs & pulls - brass hardware and white cabinets are so pretty together, don't you agree?
7 / Grey and white hex ceramic tile accent wall- this tile will cover the wall behind our range opposite of the white subway. I love the random variety of patterns. It's going to add such a fun accent to our kitchen!
8 / Grey floor tile with grey grout- we picked a floor tile that is really easy to maintain and doesn't need to be sealed so it will be extra durable. 

I'm not an interior designer by any means but I've really been enjoying designing this space and can't wait to share the final product! My hope is that our kitchen will be clean and modern with traditional elements that give it classic warmth. After all, the kitchen is the heart of the home!

I'll be sharing more sneak peeks at the kitchen renovation on my Instagram #FreutcakeFixerUpper!

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