Our Fully Renovated Kitchen Reveal

This blog post has been in the making for so long! Our kitchen renovation took three months from start to finish, but really we had been planning it for years! I’m so excited to finally share our fully renovated kitchen reveal!

When I bought this house in 2017, I loved the character and the overall layout of the house, and I just knew that it had so much potential. A lot of blood, sweat and tears has gone into this home since then, including adding a basement suite, replacing flooring and painting, renovating the main bathroom and finally, renovating the kitchen/living space.

Our 1960s kitchen was just slightly outdated, complete with pinky-beige cabinets with scalloped trim, a retro double wall oven and a horrible layout. It was separated from the living space by a wood panelled wall. The one bright spot in this space was the gorgeous and massive sliding door.

Kirby and I taped out about 50 different layouts on the floor, but we knew that we had to open up the main floor, which meant knocking out the dividing wall and moving all of the appliances and cabinetry. We chose to relocate the kitchen to what was our dining room (where the sliding door was), move the backyard entry over where the sink was and create an archway in the dividing wall. Just a few small changes, right?

At the beginning of June, we grabbed our sledge hammers and went to town on the old cabinets. We carefully removed the sliding door and framed in the wall all in one (exhausting) day.

For about a month, we worked tirelessly with the help of both of our families and a good friend to rip apart walls, move electrical, frame the archway, put up drywall, mud and tape (UGH) and paint. During this time, we did dishes in the bathroom sink and ate a lot of take out – so fun.

Our kitchen cabinets came in and we had these green/gray beauties installed and we were obsessed with the colour! We also opted for soft close, which is a game changer. One tip that I have for the cabinets is to source your own pulls if you can. We were fortunate that our cabinet installer allowed us to use his account at a wholesaler to purchase pulls, where we spent $80 instead of $250 with the cabinet company. Amazon also has tons of great options for cabinet pulls.

We had some challenges with the countertops, including the provider cutting the sink hole 10 inches too wide and then the final product coming with a small stain, but ultimately, I’m happy with them! I love the contrast of the white with the cabinet colour.

Kirby and I finished the space together, taking a weekend to tile the backsplash – something we learned to do from Youtube.

This renovation came with tons of headaches and stresses, but in the end, I’m so happy that we did it. I love knowing that we created this space ourselves. I love the imperfections because they are reminders that we did the work and we created amazing memories here. When I look at the archway, I think about how I made that arch using a router for the first time and when I see the new entry door, I think about Kirby kicking the wall out for the opening.

I won’t lie, after the first few bills, I kind of stopped counting, but I think we came in just over $20,000 on this kitchen/living renovation.

This renovation has completely changed our home and I’m in love with it. So much cooking to do now! So without further ado, please enjoy the photos of our fully renovated kitchen and living space!