The Re-creation of the Kitchen

Winter does this strange thing, we're forced to stay inside for days on on end and looking at the same walls all the time brings about this urge to change things. Here's the result of this winter's cabin fever. The story of the re-creation of our kitchen. When we bought our house this was one compromise we made. The kitchen was lacking - lacking counter space, lacking color, lacking personality, lacking function. Emrys and I both love to cook and take on kitchen projects (not to mention that the kitchen also serves as my candle factory!) Most who know us, are aware that this hasn't stopped us from hosting large dinners, waffle breakfasts for the youth, storing quarts and quarts of veggies and fruits from the garden, local farms and Frog Pond. But now, we can do all these things and more!

When we started there was a floor to ceiling cabinet next to the stove and that was the first to go - before we even started taking pictures! Now it serves as storage in the downstairs bathroom.

The counter top was the first part of this project. Emrys has found a friend who has a saw-mill and a ready supply of rough-cut lumber and ET wanted to take on the project of making a butcher-block styler counter top. With a friend's woodshop available to us with the necessary tools, a fun project and all for less than formica laminate- who was I to stand in the way! We cut and planed and clued and sanded and the result is a beautiful countertop that the photos just don't do justice. It's not a true butcher block in that we won't be chopping on it and we did seal it with polyurethane but the method was there.

The rest is pretty self explanatory - border taken down (I had been ready to see it go since I moved in), fresh coat of colored paint replaced the straight from the can white that was on the walls, two new cabinets and the counter top all resulted in doubling our counter space and an eat-in breakfast bar to boot! We have some finising work to do and to get some stools but that's right around the corner. Here's the pix! Enjoy! (click on pictures for captions)
~sjt