The Kitchen That Sarah Built

Well the time has finally come! After nearly 11 months and tons of blood, sweat and tears, I am DONE with the kitchen renovation. This post felt a little trivial to me after the events around the world this weekend -- but then I realized it's a welcome respite. Home means so much. Not what's in it, but who you share it with and how you feel when you're there. I pray you feel comforted, loved and safe in your home.

I have never loved a room redo more than this one. The before and afters are CRAZY good and I cannot express to you how proud I am of the work I've done on this space! There are still some drywall fixes to make and a friend is making a window seat cushion for me, but I'm calling it DONE. I won't say much and I'll let the photos do the talking…mainly because I'm exhausted. Ha!! I had to take most of these this morning so the light is a little harsh, sorry for the brightness in some of them. We were at basketball games most of daylight hours over the weekend. ;) I forget it gets dark at 5 p.m. now!

HERE WE GO. Here's how the kitchen looked a year ago: 

I've said it before -- I don't knock our home or style through the years (OK, mostly -- that island was covered with glue, it's not an art project) because our home has always been beautiful to us. But styles change.
And so do rooms:

The difference is staggering and pretty awesome. :) I think this room is STUNNING. I am so proud.

I'll take you on a tour around the space, comparing some earlier pics (some from a year ago, some from years and years back) so you can see the difference. The area that used to be the family room is where our kitchen table sits now. Here's that space a year ago:

And here it is now: 

The bay window area before: 

And a little later: 

 

And now, with my dream window seat!:

And a massive island! :)

The pantry before (you can see the plain wood door we had on it way back above):

Here's that space now: 

 One of the biggest transformations is this space near the stove. This before is going WAY back:

Here's what it looked like next:

And here it is now: 

More cabinets were taken down in the back corner: 

Taking those down was one of the best decisions I've made in this house. The room feels twice as big and bright: 

Here's another before from a year ago:

And that view now:

I have to show this shot again because it's my favorite before and after in the space: 

I LOVE this view!! I sit on the window seat and stare at it often, no lie. 

OK, I need to stop with the photos at some point! I'm so thrilled to finally share this completed space with you. I love it, but it means even more that my whole family loves it. For the past week every one of us walks in here and smiles and talks about how much we love this space. It was a labor of love -- I have a my dream kitchen and I couldn't be happier.

I will share more detailed shots and all the sources and links to past projects later this week. I have a few more projects to share in the coming weeks as well. If you have questions about anything please let me know in the comments and I'll be sure to follow up in that post! 

Thanks for coming along for this very long ride with me -- it took me forever but that was good for my sanity and our budget. Stretching it out helps me make good decisions and as always we paid for everything with cash along the way. Hope you enjoy our completed kitchen!

I'm off to sleep for a week!! 

I compiled a list of all of the links and resources for this transformation here! 

You can also see how I added cabinet lighting in this post.