Hello my friends! So as you know, I am a bit of a sloth in the summer. I joke about it but it's true. The fact that I actually built the bookcase a few weeks ago and finished it within a couple weeks is something of EPIC proportions.
A couple months ago I think I said I was going to continue the kitchen reno in July and now I laugh that I thought I'd actually be that productive. But now…school is going to start soon (sniff) and I'm getting that itch to get into a groove and get things started again.
I am determined to get this kitchen renovation done before the end of this year, which will be hard to do, but I'd LOVE to have it all finished up before the holidays! So if that's going to happen I need to get moving. Um…now.
There's two parts to my next steps -- removing the microwave and cabinets on the one side of the kitchen and replacing them with a hood. I'll talk more about that soon. The bigger project is building these cabinets up to the ceiling:
We upgraded the quality of our cabinets when we built, but skimped on the size. I don't regret that too much because the taller ones are hard to get to anyway, but it does leave so much space up there that I've wanted to fill in for some time.
We have nine foot ceilings so there's about two feet of open space up there. I plan to build cabinets that will sit on top (screwed into the wall of course) and those will be about 15 inches tall. The rest of the space will be a header the crown will be attached to (and the crown takes up about five inches).
Here's an idea of what it will look like -- Chelsea had hers built up as well:
She had new cabinet doors installed (which is a great option) but I do love our cabinets, just not the color, so I'll be keeping those. This is one of the best examples I've found to show how it will look in the end:
Although ours will go all the way to the ceiling. And I'd love to run some lighting up there too. Oh la la!
I know I'm taking down the cabinets to the left, but now I'm trying to decide if I leave the one we have to the right of the sink:
If I do that I'm considering removing the corner cabinet (the appliance garage below it will be moved to a new spot anyway) and replacing it with a straight cabinet. It would still be easy to access, so that won't be a problem.
By the way, the flowers in the sink totally aren't staged. Ha! I bought the gladiola yesterday and still haven't put them in a vase.
Here's that corner:
I've already removed some of the crown on the cabinets when I worked on the fridge enclosure.
Jenna Sue's kitchen (it's so dreamy!!) is a great example of having the end cabinet go all the way to the wall instead of the traditional corner cabinet:
I love the look! The bonus is that one of the cabinets I'm taking down near the microwave is the exact size of that corner cabinet, so I wouldn't have to buy anything to fill that spot.
I'm SO so excited to get moving on those uppers -- they are really the last big building project in here. I feel like once I get that done the rest will fall into place fairly quickly. (Crossing fingers).
It's funny because I wrote a post years back on how to fill that space above your cabinets and it's one of my most popular posts in over seven years. Now I can't wait to take all that down and build it all in:
I think the kitchen will be a total showstopper when it's done. The more I daydream about the finished product the more I get excited to get it moving! But first I have to make a decision on that corner area. I'll be removing the other cabinets first and then deciding -- I need to be able to see how the space will look opened up. Right now I'm leaning towards the cabinet to the right being taken down too because of balance. It will open up the kitchen so much too -- and I'm not worried about storage because the open shelving I have planned will hold most of our dishes and a few other items.
Do you see my vision?? Can't wait! The great thing is the next part of this process won't cost much, I just need to make some decisions and get moving! Have you built up cabinets like I'm planning to do?
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