You ever have those moments of clarity where you know you’re doing what you were destined to do? Okay, well those moments for me are far and few between because let’s be honest, I’m a pretty “fly by the seat of your pants” kind of girl and I rarely really know what I’m doing. I know things I’m good at, and enjoy doing.. so I just try to do those things as often as possible. It’s an exciting gamble and also quite terrifying. To answer your questions; yes, it does give me crippling anxiety, no I don’t plan to change, and yes I’ve thought twice about doing it.. most days.

BUT. When a friend comes to you and asks for your advice on her kitchen, in exchange for bottomless wine and dinners galore, you give her more than advice.. you do the whole damn thing and love every second. This project, which was more of a “I love to do this so just let me do it” kind of thing, was full of coffee dates, waiting for contractors (story of my life), deep conversations, and a transformation that will literally make you cry.

Ok, maybe not.. but it’s goooood.

Without further ado.

Friedmann Kitchen

What we’re doing:

This kitchen, it had such good bones and I could see the potential through the overly trimmed cabinets and awkwardly angled ceilings. The initial plan consisted of trying to keep costs down as low as possible, and salvaging as much as humanly possible. Her husband is a fantastic woodworker and overall handy man, but we wanted to also have a timely renovation with not all the major responsibilities on J. The back wall will be totally redone with a new cabinet and vent hood layout, we’d incorporate some floating shelves to display her fantastic china, and we’d neutralize the color palette as much as possible. Also, that fluorescent light had to go.

Where we started:

 

   

 

 

What we’re keeping:

We kept the layout of the kitchen the same. No footprint shift, easy enough. We kept all the lowers, but got new doors, pulls, and a coat of paint on every viable surface. What we didn’t keep, though, were the uppers, countertops, most of the appliances, and the dated feeling you got when you walked into the kitchen. We also planned out some new recessed lighting and pendant placement.

What that looks like:

 

 

What we’ve decided on:

It didn’t take much convincing once I sketched up what the possibility of this kitchen could look like. It gave her a little of everything she wanted: open shelving, china cabinets, a beautiful vent hood, plenty of storage, and a more modern feel in an otherwise dated space. As far as the existing cabinet boxes, we reused all the lowers and instead just refaced them all with custom doors from my wonderful carpenter. We also relocated the microwave to the pantry so that we could accomplish the conversion to a vent hood.

 

 

So we’re still wrapping up some finishing touches, our lights finally came in and we’re patching some holes in the ceiling and repainting this week. We’ll also be styling out the kitchen and shooting it for real, for real, and then you’ll get to see it in all it’s HD glory.

Stay tuned!

-Kat.