Swimpy's Kitchen Remodel Thread

You have good taste

My toaster looks just like Swimpy's except mine is an original, which I purchased at a flea market a few years back.

Swimpy's is, by the looks of it, a reproduction.

Nothing wrong with that, of course.

I have the same toaster as well, and it looks like, the oven
too, except I have a built in spice rack on top.

Your kitchen turned out just beautiful Swimpy, I like it a lot.

I also like your kitchen sozobe. I would leave the cabinets
white and maybe paint the walls instead. Something like
this maybe

That's lovely in a kitchen that big -- I really think a dark/ intense color will close things up too much and make things too dark, though. (While that particular angle makes my kitchen look kind of biggish, you can figure out how small it is by noting the very edge of the fridge on the left side, and the beginning of the fourth wall [cabinets] on the middle right. I took the pic while standing in the dinning room.)

Something more towards yellow may keep things bright even while adding color.

Right now I'm thinking of leaving the walls about where they are, maybe deepening the cabinets to a more creamy yellow ochre (kind of a muted wood tone, to pick up the wood floors), and then going bright and interesting with art, window fabrics, etc.

On the other hand, so much of the surface area is cabinets/ countertops, I could probably get away with a more intense color on the walls. Especially if I have bright/ light art on top of that.

Hmmm....

sozobe, my kitchen is similar, with lots of white cabinets
and the bright colors on the wall are a nice contrast. I have
a picture here....

Hey, very nice!

And you're right, that's quite similar.

I just did a survey of the kitchen and there really is very little bare wall. One thing I thought of is that a strong color could add some vertical space, since most of the cabinets stop about two feet from the ceiling, and I haven't figured out what to put on top of them, so it's just blah space. All the same color (cabinets, wall, ceiling) so it just disappears. Filling that 2-foot strip with an interesting color could direct the eye up there.

I like the color of the cabinets in the picutre you posted first, CJ. I also like your real kitchen. Are those wood counters?

Gus, you are the original.

Swimpy, I like the kitchen cabinets in the first picture too. I got that from a German magazine,
and yes, I have wood countertops which I like a lot, and
it's easy to care for.

What species of wood? Is there a finish or do you oil them?

It's solid beech wood Swimpy, without any finish. I just
use oil (hot) from time to time ....

It's lovely.

Oh My... Mine took 8 months
Oh My... mine took 8 months. It wasn't a remodel. It was an insurance claim. My kitchen sink fell from water going behind the tile. Through the tile so you didn't even know it was happening. Anyway, they found mold behind the cabinet. Then the moved us out. It became soooooo big it was unbelievable but now... dust settled, new cabinets, sink, floors, walls and many other things too many to mention it is beautiful and well worth the time spend. Being moved out wasn't all that bad considering I didn't cook for all of that time since I didn't have anywhere to cook or clean up.

We did some microwaving stuff. Dished in the bathtub. Quite an adventure for us all.

Good luck to you!

eyes

OIh poor eyes, I was without a kitchen for about a month and thought I would go nuts.

Swimpy, if they are going to take everything out, put a microwave in another part of the house, plug a refrigerator in the garage or basement if you have one. And I hope you have a powder room on the same floor as the kitchen, because that's where I went to clean the dog's dishes and other things. Load up on paper plates, plastic utensils if you like (I hate to use them, so I kept the flatware around) and papertowels. Stuff the freezer with mini-meals so you won't have to eat out every night unless you like to eat out every night. And I will chant the homeowners prayer so that all the stuff will be delivered when they say it will, the plumber, carpenter and electrician will show up when they say they will and this will be as peaceful as possible.

A friend of mine just did hers with the cherry cabinets, corian counter, it is absolutely gorgeous. Oh yeah! she also did the stainless steel appliances.

eyes

I got the Corian countertops too. Tell your friend to be very careful, despite what the sales people and company say, they scratch easily, and it's hard to get condensation marks off. The instuctions that come with the product tell you to use a teflon scrubbing pad to smooth out scratches, but it only makes it worse. My son works for a company that uses Corian to make certain types of displays, he has offered to have one of the guys come over and smooth out the entire countertop. But that's the part they don't tell you, you need someone who works with this stuff to restore the finish if it gets damaged or scratched.......and the surface scratches easily.

You're right about the scratching, glitterbag. If I had it to do over again, I'd get granite. The cost is comparable.

Welcome to A2k, eyesfofblue. Sorry you had to go through so much hassle, but it sounds like the reward was worth it.

Me too!!!

Next time, right?