Welcome back! D you ever wake up early in the morning on your day off, ready to get stuff done?? 😂 Tyler and I both had last Friday off, and I planned out our whole day before he woke up, lol. I announced on my Instagram the other day that we are redoing our kitchen! I think it has been a loooooong time since I have shared a house project update here on the blog, so I’m excited to take you guys along the journey with us.
Let’s bring you up to speed, shall we? Ty and I decided months ago to update our kitchen. It hasn’t been updated since the 80s and while it’s not HORRIBLE, it also isn’t cute, lol. We reached out to a few different companies to explore some options and none of them felt “right”. We originally wanted one single company to help us redo everything (floors, cabinets, countertops, and backsplash), but we quickly learned it would be way more complicated than that. Many of the companies we consulted with oddly advertised “full service remodeling” on their website, but would then tell us in the consultation that they actually don’t offer all those services. We were also ghosted for months a couple of times too… SO frustrating!!! Most companies seem to still be backlogged from COVID and the lumber and labor shortages.
We explored so many options, but we really wanted to minimize the amount of DIYing needed. We aren’t pros at all! But finally, we decided on a plan. See my breakdown below for each piece of the puzzle!
Cabinets:
Our current cabinets aren’t too shabby! The doors definitely need replaced, but the bases themselves are actually in really great condition. We played with so many online tools and talked with so many people about redoing the bases, but everywhere has suppppeerrr long lead times (like up to 6 months). We’re ready for it to all be over with ASAP!
So our plan for the cabinets is to keep the existing cabinet bases in place, and replace the doors/put a fresh coat of paint on the bases. This isn’t our forever home, so this is a really great option for us. We ordered custom white shaker cabinet doors and they should arrive in a few weeks! From there, I’ll spend one day sanding down and repainting the existing bases to match the doors. We’ll of course get some new pretty hardware, too.
Countertops:
We have had success with the countertops! We knew the material and style/color we were interested in from all the previous consultations we had. On Friday, we popped into a showroom and surprisingly were able to make a decision and place the order for delivery in 2 weeks! It literally felt like a miracle. If it’s too good to be true, I’ll be sure to update you guys but so far, so good!
We placed a deposit and we have someone coming out this week to do the measuring. I can’t believe we hadn’t heard of this company sooner! They are right around the corner from our house and have tons of fantastic reviews, which gives me hope! We just have to rip out our existing laminate countertops prior, which won’t be hard. What I really loved about working with this company is that they also offered sinks for us to choose from. That made everything so much simpler logistically.
Backsplash:
IYKYK… I shared the whole backsplash journey over on IG stories the other day! We went to the store and explored our options (again, we kinda had an idea of exactly what we wanted… we just needed to narrow down). I filled you guys in over there, so I won’t over-explain here on the blog!
Basically, we narrowed it down to 4 options and I let you guys vote. I can never make a big decision by myself and Tyler and I were curious to see what the consensus would be! The results were surprising! The one in the carousel of photos above was the winner! That one was actually our LEAST favorite, lol so I don’t think we are going to go with that one. It didn’t win by much though. Tied for second place were the herringbone (my favorite) and the simple rectangular marble-looking stones (Ty’s favorite). We haven’t officially placed that order yet so I will keep you guys posted on the decision!
Flooring:
We have hardwood flooring everywhere in the house except the bathrooms and kitchen. The kitchen is currently laminate, and we definitely don’t love the pattern/style, but we don’t mind the fact that it is laminate. It’s really easy to clean and the one that we have is really good quality so most people think it is real tile anyway. However, I hate the color like I said, so it’s gotta go, haha. We are still undecided on whether it will be more of a tile-look or a light wood-look, but I think we’re going to do luxury vinyl again either way. I really love the look of lighter wood, but I’m just not sure how it will flow with the rest of our house since our real hardwood is more of a honey-walnut.
Another flooring option is a bit riskier. If you lift up the vent in the kitchen, you can see all the different layers of flooring all the way down to the sub-flooring. Our house was built in 1919, and there are at LEAST 4 different layers of laminate under there.
I’m still so surprised that the previous owners just kept piling it on top of the other! It’s hard to tell for sure, but it looks like the original hardwood is still under there too, which would match the rest of the house perfectly. Of course we would just have to sand it down and re-stain to make it look fresh. We just aren’t sure if we’re up for that large of a project, and we don’t even know what the original hard wood looks like. It’s a ton of material to rip out and we didn’t really want to get a dumpster or anything like that. So at this point it’s TBD! If you have ideas or inspo for kitchen flooring, PLEASE send them my way!
After we had success ordering our countertop and sink, we went over to the mall to do some shopping and grab Chick Fil A for lunch (a must!) I swung into Abercrombie to try on some of their jeans and I loved a few pairs! I didn’t end up buying any because they didn’t have the sizes I needed in the styles I liked, so I’ll be placing an online order here shortly. Would you guys like a haul/try-on once that arrives?
By the way, thank you SO much for reading and supporting my blog 💛 It really means so much! Be sure to follow me on Instagram @cassiesethna to follow along with the kitchen remodel journey! There will be way more polls and design decision-making over there. Plus, I share more candid, day-to-day content there too! Talk again soon! -Cassie