Celebrating the blank palette
As I’ve mentioned, we’re in the midst of a big kitchen project.
We’ve been at this project for more than a year and may easily be for yet another. People are often horrified to hear this, but really, it’s not been that bad. It’s tolerable for two reasons. First and foremost, it’s not like we’ve been put out of a kitchen for a year. For the past twenty years, we’ve used our pantry as the kitchen and continue to do so during this project. Secondly, we’re pretty easy-going people. This is pretty important! Patience is a virtue, my dears, one will worth cultivating during home renovations.
An old house kitchen in its original state, such as ours is a rare find. To a kitchen designer, it’s a blank palette waiting for the first splash of renovation. To the layperson, it’s a bit of a challenge!
Neither of us are professional designers. While we did consult one initially, for the most part, we’re winging it on our own. We’re hoping our artistic and technical abilities are enough to carry us though—here’s where input is welcomed!
Our kitchen before
Our ideas: They’ve been evolving…
Our ideas have been contingent on two things: original design and budget. We want to maintain the simplistic, Craftsman style to which the house was originally built and, for budgetary reasons, we need to do the whole project ourselves with a minimum of purchases.
But, hey, we’ve been planning this project for twenty years! We want it to be good! I guess that makes three contingencies: design, budget and quality. Is this a feasible combination? We shall see.
Our kitchen: Our plans for after
- Bring the cooking and storage into the kitchen where it belongs. Convert the pantry into a laundry/pantry room.
- Combine the walk-in closet and sunporch into a breakfast nook—still to be called the sunporch because it’s such a cheerful, sunny room.
- Keep the existing windows (they’re only ten years old and of original size). The counter underneath will have to be 1-2 inches less than standard height, but that’s okay because we’re short people.
- Build a china cupboard on the kitchen side, a similar cupboard on the dining room side, and a pass-though opening in the wall between.
So this has been our project. I’ve been documenting it in greater detail at this site. But be warned, like our kitchen project, it’s usually running a bit behind.
We’re pretty easy-going people, don’t forget!