Quote:
Originally Posted by jyl
For a freshen-up I would
- Replace all cabinet and drawer doors. Consider glass panel doors for a couple of the upper cabinets, they make a small space look larger (if you're kind of organized).
- Repaint cabinets to an interesting color. If you want to stay neutral, gray (like a dove gray) is quite "in" right now. Go trawl some kitchen reno sites and see what colors people are liking.
- Install slide outs drawers in all the lower cabinets. Crouching down to dig through lower cabinet shelves is not fun. The trend is to all drawers, but for a low-cost facelift, slideouts do almost the same thing.
- Install under cabinet lighting. Desirable and functional.
- The counter has the most visual impact. Stone, slate, steel, wood are all pretty in. Tile and formica are definitely not in.
- See if you can fit a bigger sink.
- For backsplash, tile is the choice of most, for awhile everyone lusted after white subway tiles, many still do. Take the backsplash all the way to the upper cabinets.
- Need a dishwasher, for sure. Probably to the left of the sink, to avoid door contention with the range. Stainless d/w plus stainless refrigerator to match the range is probably the safest for resale. Counter-depth refrigerator will take up less room, won't jut out so much.
- Floor can be tile, laminate, etc.
Going a bit beyond a freshen-up
- Need a proper vent hood, venting to the outside. Means replacing the upper cabinets on the range wall. Not a big deal as it isn't a long run.
- I would not have the upper cabinet fascia extend to the ceiling. I'd have a 1 foot or more gap and install accent lighting.
- Find another place for the microwave and get a stretch of counter space and under counter cabinetry there. The kitchen needs more counter space (most people will feel).
- Raise the upper cabinets to at least 18" above the counter. Low uppers date a kitchen and don't fit the ever-growing countertop appliances that people use now - fancy blenders, etc.
- Build some sheet tray storage into the empty space between range and wall.
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+1.
IMO you will have a hard time recouping $$ invested without doing a floor plan and layout update. Folks like to spend time cooking and socializing so any attempt to incorporate the spaces will be beneficial. That said I do agree that older homes would do well to keep some of their original charm.
I am adding some recent pictures of my current renovation. In July we purchased a home built in the 70's. The previous owners invested some money - I would say $15K in new appliances, counters, skylight, and tile floors in the kitchen. The owners before them did a nice sun room addition with the PO did not integrate with. We ended up completely tearing out the 'updated' kitchen and removed the non-load bearing wall to make a great room.
Original Kitchen and sun room pictures
Demolition Day
Some progress
Make no mistake - it has been VERY inconvenient but we have our eyes down the road and are very happy with the progress thus far. I hired out the demolition and the work to move conduit and water through the slab for the island. We reused the newer appliances (dishwasher and wall oven/micro) and added our own.
Materials
IKEA Kitchen cabinets. Very happy with the quality - IMO == to semi custom from the big box home improvement stores. Drawer guides are metal and solid. All soft close. Good warranty.
Iron Wood counter top on the island. We have had granite in the past and were looking for something out of the ordinary. Iron wood is very heavy and robust. Time will tell on how it will age.
Flooring is a mix of Mexican saltillo and engineered hardwood. The hardwood is heavily distressed (hand scraped) so that dings and damage simply add character (I our opinion)
Pending work
TONS! I still have to finish the gas cooktop area. I am going to incorporate a ventilation system (motor mounted in the attic) into a custom arched canopy that I am building. The splash will get a pot filler faucet. The remaining kitchen counter tops are going to be a colorful Mexican tile as will the back splash. Still need to add more lighting, lots of details like moulding and paint.
So far we are about $22K into this. Like I said I have done most of the work myself.
Please feel free to ask me any questions here or by PM. I have covered most of all the angles thus far and will be happy to share.