I have been sharing sneak peaks of our kitchen renovation for months on Instagram and I’m excited to finally share this post with photos of the whole space!
It was around this time last year that Alex and I started planning our kitchen renovation and, as we learned, kitchen renovations are no joke lol! But we’re thankful for this space and have been really enjoying cooking + spending time in our cozy dream kitchen.
Now without further ado, here is our full kitchen renovation reveal and some information on how and what we did!
our kitchen before
There was nothing wrong with our kitchen before, but we decided to renovate for a number of reasons. The main reason was that, when we bought our home, we figured we’d only be here for a few years. However, a crazy housing market and our genuine love of our home and neighbourhood made us realize we’ll likely be here for many years. Our old kitchen was not really our style. Also, because of where it’s located in our home, the dark cabinets made the space very dark. We wanted something lighter and cozier, and that functionally worked better for our needs.
donating our old kitchen
Because our kitchen was still in decent condition, we donated it to Habitat For Humanity’s ReStore. Habitat For Humanity removed our entire kitchen – cabinets, counter top, sink and faucet, and appliances – to put in their ReStore for sale. This service was completely free (you even get a tax receipt for your donation!) and the Habitat team was wonderful. We’re happy someone could buy our kitchen secondhand, and that we could save so much from going into a landfill. Habitat For Humanity provides this service for bathroom renovations and furniture, too!
our kitchen now
where did we buy our kitchen
We bought IKEA cabinets for our kitchen renovation and have been happy with the quality, customization, and style of our kitchen. While IKEA is not as customizable as custom cabinetry, we were able to do everything we wanted to in our space. Our fronts are from the Grimslov line, but the grey colour we have is now discontinued (thankfully we got everything we need right in time!)
who renovated our kitchen
We’re very lucky that my dad is skilled with renovations, and my cousin used to be in the business. Except for the floor tile and backsplash, all of the work in our kitchen was completed my Alex, my dad, and my cousin (thank you, thank you, thank you)! Since most of the renovating was done after work and on weekends, it took about four months for majority of the kitchen to be complete. We are thankful for the money we saved by going this route. Plus, we got to spend time together, and that was a bonus!
our favourite additions
It was a lot of fun figuring out how we could best make use of our space. We didn’t change the actual footprint of our kitchen, but we added a lot that we didn’t have before. Our favourite additions have been: our pantry cabinet, a built-in wine rack, pull-out drawers for pots and pans, a spice drawer, and a bonus cabinet on the back of our peninsula.
And that’s it – our full kitchen renovation reveal! Do you have any questions about the kitchen renovation process?
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