Our Kitchen Renovation Story

If you follow us on instagram, you know I’ve been talking for MONTHS about our upcoming kitchen renovation. When we bought our livable-fixer-upper house, we loved the kitchen. It’s open to the living room and the dining space and has beautiful dark wood cabinets. But we quickly realized how poor the layout and overall function of the kitchen truly was. The island is WAYYY far away from the cooktop, there’s only a tiny corner you can comfortably prepare ingredients to cook, some of the countertops are not attached, there’s nowhere to set the hot pans from the oven (unless it was on the island and I’m always worried my boys will touch it and get burned), the pipes are old and make the water taste funny, the dishwasher leaks, the ice maker is broken…and the list goes on. Here’s a photo of what the kitchen & dining space looked like as soon as we moved in #woof.

So one night while chatting with Matt, he asked me what my dream kitchen would be like. So I poured out all my ideas and told him how I want to move the kitchen into where the dining room is now. His concern for that was that we currently have oak hardwood floors. So if we moved the kitchen, there might be a LOT of flooring repairs to do. He bent over to check behind the shoe molding and low and behold there were hardwoods under EVERYTHING!!! As a matter of fact, he picked up and moved the entire island 😂 So after that, Matt gave me the green light and we started planning. Our kitchen remodel has been in the planning phase for over a year, so I thought I’d share with y’all the things we considered before renovating and a bit of how we do this same process with our clients. Here’s a glimpse of what our kitchen will look like…

8 Things To Consider Before You Renovate Your Kitchen

1. Know how you want to live in your space.

It’s easy to know what you DO want when you’ve lived with exactly what you DON’T want for a while. Need more prep space? Do you like to entertain while cooking? Do the kids have easy access to snacks? Is there adequate storage? Function matters most in the kitchen, so it’s important to plan a kitchen that will serve you and your family well.

2. Flow matters.

There’s a reason restaurant kitchens are laid out the way they are. They’re designed for efficiency and service of the chef & cooks. Some of these same philosophies should be adopted when designing your own kitchen as well. How close is the sink to the trash can? Is your dishwasher placement going to block you from putting dishes away on the other side? Can you walk between the island and the refrigerator with the door open? A general rule of thumb is to place the sink + stove + refrigerator in a triangle for the most efficient kitchen.

3. Recognize the season of life you’re in.

We have two young sons (7 & 4). They love to help cook in the kitchen, they love being able to grab snacks on their own and they often come in from outside with dirty fingers. Why does this matter? Because this is the season of life I’m in and I want to create a space that suits this season and will be beautiful for years to come. So we’ll have an island where my boys can join me cooking in the kitchen, and where they’ll get their own drawer for snacks. We decided to do green cabinets and dark counters vs. classic white to avoid the constant cleanup from dirty fingers. Again, this space will serve ALL of us well, and it’ll be aesthetically pleasing for years to come.

4. Find your light.

Whenever possible, I love to increase the window sizes to allow for more natural light in a space. It makes a room feel more open, and gives the sense of bringing some of the outdoors in. And finding the right lighting for your kitchen matters so much to the design, too! There should always be some kind of light over the sink, over the stove (even if it’s in your hood) over the pantry, over your island and over the fridge. You need to be able to see what you’re doing in these areas so make sure you’re adding either a recessed light or pendant light near each one of these areas.

5. Know where to spend and where to save.

A kitchen remodel is never going to be cheap, but there are a few areas where you HAVE to spend the money, and few where you can get creative to save. Good plumbing (both your plumber AND the faucets you choose) matter SO much and are worth the higher cost. Nobody likes a leaky faucet or dishwasher. We prefer using Delta or for all of our kitchen and bathroom projects because of their quality and have yet to have any kind of issue with them. Places where you can save are tile and hardware. You can use a simpler tile in a prettier pattern to create something unique and beautiful while saving on cost. Usually your tile installer won’t charge any extra to do a herringbone pattern vs. a brick pattern. You can also find great hardware options on Amazon and Wayfair at really affordable prices.

6. Take inventory.

While you’re planning, it’s a good idea to sketch up a mock kitchen or just take stock of what you need to store and where you’ll want to store it. Figure out where you want to store your crock pot, how you want to lay out your pantry, where you want to put the spice drawer and hot pads drawer (I’d recommend close to the stove!!), and what REALLY needs to go in the dreaded tupperware drawer. You’ll probably pare down some items before you renovate, but it’s good to know where you’re planning to put what once the new kitchen is finished.

7. Plan accordingly.

Our kitchen remodels usually take anywhere from 8-12 weeks from demo to final details. If you have a baby coming soon, or you don’t want to live through a kitchen renovation during the winter, then it may be best to push out that project to a later date. Take the time to keep planning instead.

8. Order everything early.

It may be a bit of an incovenience to order then store items BEFORE your renovation has even begun, but TRUST ME when I say it’ll help make the process go so much faster! Lead times are not quite back to normal, so having everything in house before demo begins means you’ll be able to grab what you need exactly when you need it without having to wait for stuff to arrive. We order EVERYTHING for our client projects before we begin demo so that we can tackle the project as quickly and efficiently as possible.

I hope this is helpful to y’all if you’re planning on renovating your kitchen soon! If you live in Upstate, SC and you’re interested in having us come out to take a look at your kitchen, request a consultation!

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