Hello again, friends! It’s week two of the One Room Challenge for Spring 2019, and I’m slowly chipping away at renovating my kitchen. In week one, I showed off the befores, and then got straight to work (there is SO much to do!)
If you’re new here, welcome!
I’m Catherine Ballard, the author of DIY Without Fear. I have a deep love for power tools and pillows and spend way too much time at the home improvement store. Thanks for stopping by!
I can hardly believe it, but we’re already in week two (check out week one here)! As a reminder, here’s how the room looked before we started.
The Floor Plan
We’ve already re-wired the hallway, moved the plumbing, and (very badly) installed the new drywall. Well, mostly.
Problems in drywall-land.
Removing the soffit left us with this mess.
Before we started demo-ing, we peeked into the soffit. I didn’t see anything, so we went ahead and ripped it out. Now I wish I had looked a little harder.
I assumed the vent would stay in the wall and go directly outside, but it takes a hard turn back into the kitchen before making its final exit.
I was pretty bummed when I saw it, but we’d already removed the soffit, so I went to plan B. I’m actually going to be building custom cabinetry out of IKEA parts around this silver beauty, so stay tuned for that.
Anyway, there are a few things we need to do to finish the drywall around the soffit, but I NEEDED counter space first. It’s a proven fact that moms can only live through kitchen renovations for so long without countertops before they completely lose it.
Assembling the Frames
To save the fire department a trip, we first assembled all the cabinet frames – these are the SEKTION part that hold all your doors, drawers, shelves…the fun stuff! They aren’t hard to put together, and once you get in a groove, they fly. (PS: I love Ikea’s railing system. It makes hanging cabinets so easy.)
Once the SEKTION frames were installed, I really got to see the shape of my new kitchen. And I’m elated with how good it looks. I can already tell moving the sink was SUCH a good decision.
Installing The Frames
Part of the installation process is to screw neighbor cabinets together. Which always makes me nervous (don’t even get me started on installing hardware), since there’s no going back once you screw through particleboard. But we got it done, and they feel SECURE. These puppies aren’t going anywhere.
The day we moved the dishwasher back? I celebrated. I even posted on Instagram about it. Is it hooked up to water? Nope. But I don’t care. It’s (finally) out of my dining room!
We did goof up a little in our excitement though, and forgot to drill a hole for the power cord. But one session with a spade bit later, and that problem was solved.
Installing The Drawers
Over the course of three or four days, I put together and installed ALL those drawers. (The one room challenge really does light a fire under your butt!) Regular lower cabinets are usually just a standard door/shelf combo, but I hate digging around to try and find something. Drawers just make it so much easier.
It was definitely more expensive to go the all-drawer route, but I’ll get 1000% more use out of them this way. We even slapped a countertop on, though it isn’t secured to anything yet (mostly because I was about 2 hours away from spontaneously combusting).
The other side of the kitchen is looking pretty good, too. The drawers are organized, and the shelves have been cleaned up. I wish we could replace our fridge with a counter depth one, but it’s not in the budget right now.
Organizing
‘Moving’ into the drawers feels sooooooooo good. I’d never invested in real organizers for our original kitchen since I knew we would replace the cabinets someday. BUT THAT DAY IS HERE, BABY. And I’m elated. I mean, look how great my plates look all organized!
Up next is to finish installing all the cabinet pulls, actually install the countertop, and figure out how to make an under mount sink work with our laminate. Wish me luck (that’s a lot of pulls to install)!
One Room Challenge Spring 2019 Week Two Kitchen Progress Check-In
Install brand new cabinetry(kinda halfway done)Organize every drawer, shelf, and cubby(mostly done)- Tile a new backsplash all the way to the ceiling
- Install an under mount sink with our laminate countertops (stay tuned for that one!)
Install gorgeous cabinet pulls(getting there)- Paint the pantry door a fun color/replace it with a glass one?
- Build a custom range hood
- Trim out the doorways into the kitchen
- Install under-cabinet lighting
- Install new window coverings
- Hang steel open shelving for our dishes
- Replace the pass-through with some bookshelves on each side, while still maintaining the openness I love
- Trim out the windows
- 10,000 other things that I want to include along the way
Seeing that big to-do list has me nervous. Hopefully, I can pull it off! If you’ve done the ORC before, leave me a comment with some advice! I’ll need all the help I can get!
PS: If you want more of the nitty-gritty day to day of my kitchen renovation for the One Room Challenge (spring 2019 edition), come and follow me on Instagram stories! I’d love to chat with you!
Your kitchen looks great! I’m so glad to see someone blogging about the new Axstad door and drawer fronts. My wife and I have been looking at these same fronts and have had a difficult time finding feedback online. We will continue to follow along in hopes to learn more about the performance of these beautiful looking doors and drawers. Best of luck with the completion of your kitchen. You can do this!!
Thank you so much! I have been thrilled with them so far. My daughter drew on them with pencil the other day and it erased beautifully. I’d say go for it! The only thing I’ve noticed as a con is if you get oil on them, that’s a bit hard to get off because of the matte finish. I can’t wait to share the final reveal!
OMG! You did your range on a tiny wall just like I want to do. Either by splitting difference or butt up to main counter run with extra on the side like you did.
And Whoa! Did you manage to put that confounding corner pull out there?
OK Either I’m not crazy or we both are. (The good kind). Much reading to do! I am sure I will have questions.
Aww what a wonderful comment! I haven’t written the final post of the series yet (we moved to another state) but I will soon! Let me know if you have any questions. The corner pull just inches by (centimeters away) the knobs of the stove. I would have been much more comfortable with a little bit more room but it worked!
Thanks! I’d love to know what you used on each side of the range. My range situation is IDENTICAL! I thought about fashioning a 6″ on the door side and a 5″ on the main counter side. Then shoving it up to one or the other and creating a box and using a 10″ drawer front as the door. But I ‘think’ I might be able to fit a 12″ if I cut the door casing (which is already cut at the top. So I’m curious what you used on the door side!
Curious about the corner pull out. Your door looks like it opens the wrong way.
I’d like to know if you had to pull the pull-out from the wall to get it all to clear. My drawings have it yelling at me (turning red) and Ikea person told me to pull it out. I have it pulled out 6″ from the corner walls but I’m unsure if that is even necessary.
Then! Even Ikea was confused as to if that crazy cabinet had an attached filler that came with it and I think it is (26″?). If true, did you need filler in that area? I’m going to try to find more photos to see. I’m not in love with that cabinet but at least it uses that space. Been contemplating doing a dead corner. Just blocking it off.