Plans-Kitchen One Room Challenge- Week 2

If you're new here... Hi! I'm Amy.

I am a mama to 4 wild and crazy boys, a military spouse, and I travel the US making people homes more beautiful. I'm a whirlwind of creativity and it's beauty in chaos pretty much 24/7 around here! I started as a wedding and event coordinator right out of college and transitioned naturally to interiors while wanting to make my house a home on a budget as a young military spouse. Fast forward 15 years later and I am a work from home, homeschooling mama who fills her time renovating our 1980's home with my husband and kiddos by my side!The entire layout will be completely new and improved! I'm going to make it a kitchen that I love to cook in! So here is my design board for the space.

It's week 2 of the One Room Challenge... Now let's talk some plans!

Remember where I started?

This is what it will look like after it's done! Well, the layout at least.

Now this will be the new layout!

Truth be told I really, like REALLY, wanted green cabinets. And I've wanted green cabinets for YEARS. Even before this new green cabinet trend. But alas, I just cannot go with the flow too much or then I feel like I am completely being untrue to myself and my personality so in true Amy fashion I didn't do green because too many people are jumping on the green cabinet bandwagon. I will just love their green cabinets and possible regret not having green cabinets myself until the end of time, but I'm going different. My boys are messy. Like so, so messy. They leave little sticky handprints and piles of dirt everywhere. So I know I couldn't do white cabinets either for the sake of my sanity.

I also thought long and hard about doing and Ike kitchen and Semi Handmade fronts. In fact, I decided on doing them, but because of Covid and everyone and their mother, sister, and brother, going to Ikea and buying all the things, Ikea had pretty much none of the cabinets I needed and said they wouldn't until probably the end of the summer. So I started researching other options. I found Cabinets.com, and although they didn't have a massive selection of colors I did find a choice that worked well for me and my idea for what this space will become. The ordering and design process was actually very smooth and the cabinet designer who helped me was so amazing, I think we became friends during the process. But it was a 12-14 week processing time. Sheesh! So we live with a non-existent kitchen right now just hoping and praying they will be here soon! I have been told they will be shipping out by next week and I hope to get them at the end of next week! That day will be like a little min version of heaven! I cannot wait to have a kitchen again!

In the mean time, we have been busying ourselves with knocking down the brick monstrosity that went up in 1986....sorry previous homeowners if you are reading this. It had to go. we calculated that it was 9,000 pounds of brick that we had to remove! The best tool that we used for this was the hammer drill. It was so much work and took days and days to get it all taken down and out of the house but the effort was so worth it. The light that they house has now is wonderful! And I will be able to see my boys riding their scooters outside while I'm making dinner and that is the icing on the cake!

Our flooring is going to be hardwood. Yes, I know there are so many cons of hardwood flooring in the kitchen, but honestly so many pros too! I love that the entire main floor of our house will be the same flooring (except our butler's pantry). It will make the space seem bigger and more open. Ans budget wise, since we already have hardwood and we are just adding some where the kitchen tile used to be, it is much cheaper to refinish hardwood flooring then it is to even put down Luxury Vinyl Plank flooring. Our cost was about $20,000 less to refinish our hardwoods then it was going to be to install LVP.

Now that the major work is done, let's talk lighting and accessories....tomorrow. Sorry, but that will have to wait until tomorrow, because my kids just went to sleep and I need to catch up on an episode of Handmaid's Tale before I fall asleep myself. Can I get a virtual fist-bump from any other mamas out there trying to stay awake to do something adult at the end of the day??

For more info on the One Room Challenge and see more amazing work www.oneroomchallenge.com/orc-blog