MAKEOVER: A Tiny Minneapolis Kitchen

My hubby and I recently had the pleasure of taking on a kitchen redesign in Southwest Minneapolis. This tiny, dated, dark, Linden Hills kitchen really needed a face lift. Years of use, dogs and kids had taken it's toll on the cupboards and doors... and with limited storage space, we definitely had our work cut out for us!
Here's how it looked before:



BEFORE:

Not pictured were some mismatched storage solutions that the family used. They included a rolling microwave cart and some particle board cabinets. I knew when I saw them that they'd be the first to go!

We had a few challenges that we needed to work around. One being the dishwasher. Back when this house was built, dishwashers weren't in existence... let alone, built-in and "hard-wired". The couple had purchased a rolling dishwasher that sat along the south facing wall of the kitchen. Unfortunately, a built-in was not in the budget, so we needed to work around this.

After meeting with the client on the "must-haves", I realized that I would need to do a lot of thinking about the design... but was SO excited to be able to give them their dream kitchen! They weren't expecting much within the allotted budget... but we definitely used all of our contacts and resources to make sure that every penny was well-spent.

THE DESIGN:

I got to work on the design.

#1. Do a "faux" built-in look on the rolling dishwasher. Since actually hard-wiring it wasn't an option, this was second best. It would appear as built-in underneath a seamless countertop, but the family could still roll it out whenever needed. The best part of this plan... LOTS of usable counter space added!

Island - BEFORE

#2. Add some cabinetry to the south wall. I ended up finding the Island (LEFT) and completely transforming it. I wanted the south wall to be solid storage and seamless counter top; however, standard cabinet depth would have been too bulky across the whole wall. I needed to make some adjustments. I was inspired by something I saw at Ikea (BELOW) and decided to proceed with a similar plan. I found a great shallow stock cabinetry option at Lowe's and purchased that. It matched the newly transformed Island perfectly!

My inspiration photo

#3. NEW COLOR SCHEME. This should be listed as #1 because it's amazing what a little paint can do. Seriously. This kitchen was dark and dated.
We decided on a clean, cool bluish grey color for the walls (Behr premium plus - "River Rock"), and crisp white cabinets (Behr premium plus Ultra - "Decorator's White"). The client's favorite colors are blue and red... so we decided to keep the red accents for a fun pop of color. Very "Americana". Love it.

#4. New counter tops. Enough said.

#5. Finally, we were going to address some storage issues by displaying the functional and "pretty" things to free up much needed storage space within the cabinets. Not to mention tripling their storage space by adding the cabinetry mentioned above.
Easy enough, right?!

After a weeks worth of hard work, the kitchen was looking pretty amazing!

AFTER:

 A lovely clean palette: The white and greyish blue really open up the space and leave you feeling light, airy, calm and happy... while the new dark counter tops keep everything grounded.

I painted+distressed their spice rack and customized a bread box for them

 The fun, vibrant red and aqua accents not only serve a functional purpose, but add visual interest and that much needed "pop" of color. 

We displayed their awesome red pots and pans, added an aqua rolling cart for spices and baking supplies and stored dry goods in shiny stainless steel canisters. Functional yet stylish.

Functional. Sleek. Perfect.

 So what do you think?!



xoxo,

Laura