The back wall of the kitchen has been looking a little lopsided for a while, with a big piece of art on it that’s centered to the table, not the wall:

That’s because I’ve been saving the space to the left of it for a clock. But I hadn’t found one I liked, so I outsourced the problem to my family by asking for a red kitchen clock for Christmas. And that is exactly what I got from my eldest sister:

It even has a fork and knife as the minute and hour hands! Totally awesome. And it takes up that blank spot on the wall perfectly:

And there’s Dante, photobombing my shots as usual. Anyway, that’s my most recent tiny update to the kitchen.

This is going to be the short version because I have to pack tonight, but: the banquette’s done!

I painted the whole thing – primer and two coats of the same paint that’s on all the wood trim in the house. Then installed shoe molding, and caulked the gaps where stuff didn’t quite meet perfectly.

Continue reading →

So the last post had the basic frame and sides of the banquette built – now I just had to cover the sides and put the tops on. It turns out I did this in the wrong order – I should’ve attached the tops first, because then I could’ve screwed it in from below, hiding all those screwheads. Luckily, I’m painting the whole thing, so I’ll just spackle over them all. Anyway, I cut the right-hand section to size, sanded down the front edge so it’s a nice smooth curve instead of a sharp edge, and screwed it in. That was the simple side. Continue reading →

Having eliminated the pesky electrical outlets, it was time to start building. I started by screwing a 2×4 into the studs at 15″ high – this’ll support the top, and gave me a level line to match, since my floor is definitely not level. I’d already created a drawer box, so I screwed that to the 2×4, with a scrap piece left over from the kitchen to make the spacing come out right. Then I just created a front frame with two long 2x4s and 3 shorter ones, which I screwed to the perpendicular wall and the drawer box’s other side. This is hard to explain in words – let me sum up with a photo: Continue reading →

So I thought about the banquette occasionally for more than a month, always stalling out on the need to call an electrician and get the outlets moved. And then I realized that I didn’t actually have to move the outlets – I could just remove them. And that’s something I felt pretty confident I could do. Continue reading →

Way back when I was designing the kitchen, I thought it would be cool to have a banquette seat in the corner where the table is. I really like booth seats in restaurants, and my parents have a long banquette seat in their kitchen that works really well. Also, banquettes take up less space than chairs, since you don’t have to leave space to slide them back – and space is something I haven’t got a ton of in the kitchen. Continue reading →

So, the kitchen’s done. Or close enough – I’ve got one more door to buy from IKEA. Other than that, it’s done. So the big question: where’d the money go?

$82 – demo tools (nail puller, crowbar, floor scraper)
$4,530 – Cabinets, dishwasher, microwave, sink, faucet, countertops (all IKEA).
$129 – delivery of all of the above
$6,209 – contractor for wall demo, electrical, plumbing, and sheetrock (came out odd because he provided undercabinet lights for me). Also includes some non-kitchen stuff that I didn’t separate out- front porch ruffle removal, outlet in studio, front light, living room ceiling light.
$462 – floor refinishing
$115 – garbage disposal
$255 – tile and associated supplies
$212 – paint, tape, caulk, misc.
$80 – light fixture
$40 – trash/recycling cans
————–
$12,114 – Total cost of Jill’s kitchen.

Things that cost more than I originally budgeted:
The cabinets – I was thinking of going with the Stat look from IKEA, which is a lot cheaper than Lidingo. But Stat was just too country for my house, so I chose Lidingo.
Floor refinishing – I’d been calculating based on how much the rest of my house cost – but they had to do a lot more work on the kitchen since it was covered in linoleum adhesive, and we used the dustless system because it was open to the rest of the house.
Tile – I hadn’t budgeted for tile at all – I wasn’t sure I was going to do it, and then it just kind of happened.

The countertops were my saving moment – I had no idea how much they might cost, and when I started to get quotes of nearly $1,000 for laminate, I backed up and rethought, which gained me my amazing farmhouse sink, while getting rid of that 11′ long span on the front wall. And then I decided that laminate from IKEA would do just fine, and it turned out pretty great.

So that’s where my money went into the kitchen – feel free to ask if you want more details. In the end? Worth every penny.

It’s done! (well, close enough). Let’s start with a reminder of where it began, back in this post. All the knotty pine, the sink under the side window, the peninsula cutting the room in half, and the kitchen table taking up too much space and too little at the same time.

But last weekend I had a Halloween pumpkin-painting party as an excuse to show off the kitchen, and took final photos, so here’s what the kitchen looks like now, with convenient comparison photos from before.

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

And two photos I don’t have “before” versions of:

I was kind of afraid of caulking – maybe because I’d never caulked before, maybe because if you read instructions online, they all talk about how hard silicone caulk is to control, maybe just because it’s nearly the last thing I have to do and I didn’t want to mess up something this late. But it turns out, caulking isn’t hard. Like, at all. Taping every seam you want to caulk is incredibly mind-numbing, but it’s not hard, and then all you have to do is run the caulk bead and smooth it out with a rubbing-alcohol-coated finger, then peel up the tape immediately. Voila, perfect straight caulk lines. I did most of the seams tonight, and I’m planning on doing the rest tomorrow. Yay for caulk!