Kitchen Reno #1

I hope you all had an amazing weekend! We spent Memorial Day weekend in Palm Springs and will be headed up to Santa Barbara in the coming week, so I will have some good travel stories to share.

For now, I wanted to share some tips from the first full kitchen design that I ever tackled. I love a good kitchen. While our own apartment kitchen in Los Angeles leaves us with a lot to be desired, a few years back, I restored 2 distinct kitchens for our single family rental properties in Louisville, KY. Both times, I developed and tweaked a basic formula and approach to the renovations. 

I would like to share some highlights from that first kitchen renovation in Louisville, Kentucky. My approach, aesthetic, and budget has evolved over the years. It is fun to look back at that first kitchen we did back in 2013. Later, we would complete the second one in 2015. 

To begin visualizing the results, I pulled lots of inspiration and made a few boards. I knew that we wanted white cabinets paired with open shelving or glass uppers, subway tile, along with warm wood countertops. So, I collected and arranged photos that I found inspiring! 

Kitchen inspiration board

Since the home would become a rental property,  I focused on finding affordable, modern and timeless design trends. We selected:

• double farmhouse sink
• recessed LED lighting 
• old-school semi flush mount pendant light
• butcher block counter tops
• stainless steel refrigerator, similar stove, and dishwasher
• open shelving 
• windows for natural light

We decided on an L-shaped kitchen as a part of the open concept and to leave space for a dining table or island to the right, if desired.

We used hand-scraped engineered hardwood in Chocolate Malt, for the floors. I have used this flooring twice now and I absolutely recommend it. It is engineered, durable, affordable and looks amazing! I have found the color paired with the butcher block nicely without being overly matchy. ​

I feel like to truly appreciate all of the upgrades, you would have to see the frightening before pictures and pictures of the progress. yikes! yellow wall paint, anyone? no, thank you!

​We got really clever by repainting the all of the old pecan wood cabinetry. It was in good condition and for 2 of the upper cabinets, we actually had the cabinet doors cut and fitted with plexiglass.

(left) kitchen before (middle) kitchen after (right) farmhouse sink and uppers

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With this being my first full kitchen redo, there was a big learning curve and the experience gave me lots of ideas for the next one.
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I hope you have enjoyed hearing my adventure restoring this affordable (adorable!) kitchen. What do you look for in a kitchen?  What formulas do you use in designing the space? 

Lastly, if you would like receive a free downloadable copy of the kitchen products that I used along with the material that I selected, please join my mailing list below.