For many houses the kitchen is the heart of the home. I like to entertain and cook in general, consequently having a nice looking kitchen is desirable to me. The kitchen had been renovated in the 1970’s, without any changes since then. Modern kitchen are big, with islands and places for many people to gather. My kitchen is small. It was designed for cooking rather than entertaining.
In the basement is an old metal cupboard. I believe it is one of the cabinet bases from the original 1934 kitchen. The original kitchen was probably nothing special. From the cabinet in the basement, it had stainless steel counters and the walls were covered in a cream and pink plastic, square tile (I found some still on the wall, when I took down some boards from the 70’s renovation). I would have liked to have seen the original kitchen. i am sure it was quaint.
From the blueprints, I knew the layout had not changed. There is a main kitchen area and a small breakfast area – just big enough for a table to seat 4.
I did not want to spend a lot of money on the kitchen. Some day I will have new cabinets and counters, but until then I decided to leave everything, except the drop ceiling. I removed wallpaper on all the walls. It definitely needed to be replaced. Stripping it took days, even for a small room.
I bought a light fixture from eBay for the breakfast area. It is metal with lemons and leaves on the arms. I freshened it up with a coat of paint, as it was in neglected condition – hence why I paid only a small amount for it. I have a handyman in the area who fixed the wiring on the fixture.
Andrew and I took out the drop ceiling. It was a mess. When they put in the florescent lights they made huge holes in the ceiling, something that was completely unnecessary. The best thing was that underneath the drop ceiling were the original kitchen ceiling lights, and with a little bit of work from the electrician, they still worked. The electrician installed new down lights and helped me fix the large holes.
There was a small false wall installed in the 70’s. It didn’t seem to serve a purpose, but once I exposed the wall I realized it was in bad shape. I didn’t want to re-plaster it, so I came up with an idea to build a cookbook rack. It was simple. I took one of the boards of the falls wall, attached 1 x 2 pine lengthwise and as shelfs and then applied a piece of decorative molding to hold the books. It was incredibly inexpensive and took almost no time at all. I think it adds interest to the kitchen.
I painted the book rack, the walls, made a curtain for the breakfast area and throughly cleaned everything. With just a little bit of work and not a lot of money I had an updated kitchen.