One of the most disappointing situations we encountered while building our house was realizing that our kitchen was vastly different than the model. In addition to less cabinets and counter tops, our kitchen would not have room for an overhang like was shown in the model home.
Honestly, had we not been "homeless" and living with my parents...I might have walked away from this house. I know it's silly, but I was down for days after I found out. I always had this dream of my kids sitting at the island and cooking with me in the kitchen.
After living in our house for awhile, we realized that we could remove the existing pantry and replace it with a wall of pantry cabinets. This not only gained us 12 inches of space in the kitchen...it actually gives me more functional storage! Everything from our old pantry is in the new pantry and I still have plenty of room to expand. (and nope, I am not going to paint or stencil the back of my pantry...I am not going to take out all the food and put it in "pretty" containers. It's a pantry, people!)
Work is still obviously in progress. Hubby is now tackling the tedious job of trying to patch in the floor pieces, putting molding around the cabinet, and replacing trim on the floor. Then of course he will have to repaint the walls.
From these pictures you can also get a sneak peek of our Ballard Designs outlet lighting fixtures! For now we are going to live with no overhang while we decide what, if anything, we would like to do about replacing the top on the island with a bigger one.
The light fixtures and pantry were selected with the knowledge that we have made the choice to go white with the cabinetry. It's not just me...Todd likes it better, too. :) I know some people love espresso and dark cabinetry...unfortunately our builder did not give us the choice of white. I chose the espresso hoping it would grow on me and it hasn't.
Also from the pictures you can get an idea of how the extra foot gives the kitchen a more square and open feeling. The width more matches the length now and makes the space feel better for me.
Before:
After:
Before:
After:
I wish that the bulkhead could have been removed, but that would have involved moving wiring and trying to match the ceiling texture for the repair. So I am letting it go. In person, it doesn't feel that noticeable.
2 comments:
It looks great and so functional!
Great job! I totally see painted white upper cabinets and the new island top in white quartz. That espresso is suffocating when there is so much of it.
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