Happy May Day!

And welcome to another Before & After Friday.

Kitchen makeovers are so interesting and, without a doubt, one of
the most labor-intensive renovations in a house.  But sometimes just
adding or changing one thing can make a world of difference.

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This kitchen was okay but the owners decided to punch it up:

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So much simpler and more sophisticated now.

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The wall between this kitchen and den was
removed to make room for a huge island:

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Nice kitchen before:

 Nicer kitchen after:

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New counter tops, a new light fixture, and simply removing
some cabinet doors totally transformed this kitchen:

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Two years ago when Bob and I moved back home we purchased a nice house

in the country.  Unfortunately, it was just too far from town so after a couple

of months we decided to 'flip' the house.

The kitchen was fine but it needed an island.  We didn't want to

spend a lot of money on the project so we did it ourselves:

What looks like an ugly overhead, off center fluorescent light fixture

is actually a sky light.  For some weird reason the lighting in the room

makes the cabinets look almost golden but they're actually cream colored.

We purchased pre-fab cabinets from Lowes to use as the base of 

 the island.  To dress it up we added wainscoting to the back. 

 
We matched the paint of the original cabinets and were able to

purchase a polished slab of granite that matched the counter tops: 

What you can't see from the angle of these photos is that there
is a huge walk-in pantry on the opposite side of the kitchen.

One problem that bugged us while we lived in the house was

that the built-in microwave over the stove was too close to

the cooking surface.  We pulled it out and had a hole to patch:

 We couldn't find the exact tile to match what was already installed so

we decided to remove the cut pieces and replace them with a sheet of

small tiles.  I can't find a larger photo of the replacement tiles but

this will give you an idea of how it turned out: 

 We purchased a counter top microwave and set it in the corner.  We

were surprised at how much easier it was to cook without having the

ladle or spatula bump into the bottom of the old hanging microwave.

So, the before of the kitchen without the island:

And the kitchen after with the island:

 We sold the house and made a respectable profit which enabled us

to buy our wonderful forever home that we're living in now.  The End.

Have a great weekend!