When Los Angeles writer Julie Wolfson purchased her house, the outdated kitchen came with a "hideously ugly" tile floor and a barely functioning oven. Julie and her husband Steven wanted to remodel the kitchen before moving in, but it ended up being too big a project to tackle at the time. Now, thirteen years later, they finally have the kitchen they dreamed about.
In Julie's words:
When we finally demoed the kitchen this summer and the contractor started to pull up the tiles, it was a tough job. There were at least three layers of linoleum floor under the tiles and thick glue that destroyed the original wood flooring below that. We ended up having to pull up every thing to the subfloor. Our contractor bought wood they thought would match the wood floors in the rest of the house. They installed it unfinished and stained it dark brown. We are planning to stain all of the wood floors in the house that color soon.We kept the layout of the kitchen and did not move any walls but demolished the walls to the stud in the kitchen. We also patched the walls and repainted in the breakfast room and added some cabinets in there as well as cabinets and shelving in the pantry/laundry room. The kitchen now has new cabinets, counters, tile, lighting, windows, and appliances.
Our favorite new element was also our splurge item: the Heath tile backsplash. We bought their Modern Basic in blue fog. We were picking from things that were in stock and fell in love with the color. We wanted to make sure to not choose anything for the remodel that was backordered. We also had the cabinet company create two glass front cabinets to display our vintage Heath dishware collection that is over 50 years old.
Resources
• Design: Steven and I designed it ourselves and worked with a contractor and Simply Kitchens to work out the plan for the cabinet layout
• Cabinets: Simply Kitchens
• Countertop: Caesarstone
• Range, Dishwasher: Thermador (Pacific Sales), Breville Smart Oven (Amazon)
• Sink: Allia fireclay sink (A.P.D.), Hansgrohe Allegro faucet (Costco)
• Tile: Heath Ceramics
• Accessories: Lucano ladder from A+R, towels from Poketo, Bauer Pottery bowls, and rabbit from Tortoise (our kitchen mascot)
Related: Before & After: 15 Creative Kitchen Renovations
(Images: Julie Wolfson)
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So great, Julie! I am sure wonderful smells and tastes will be created in this lovely space!
Great redesign.
Beautiful! I love the color of the backsplash.
Beautiful. I am sure after 13 years it is well earned. I especially love the two glass cabinets.
Lovely! That original stove area looked so cramped. And the floor was really ugly!
I think you should flank the cooker with cupboards, it'd be safer and more practical. Otherwise the kitchen is marvelous.
What are the new cooker and dishwasher? GE?
I've just seen the brands in Resources
Looks great! The window upgrade looks like a huge improvement, too.
Great switch from lower cabinets to drawers. Expecially since you have so much room to pull them out. Nice nice work.
Great switch from lower cabinets to drawers. Expecially since you have so much room to pull them out. Nice nice work.
Absolutely lovely. The backsplash is great!
Totally gorgeous. Love the restrained colour palette. Great job!
The backsplash is SWOONTASTIC!
Did you see the doorway on one side of the cooker?
Choice of floors, counters, cabinets, tile, sink, appliances, pantry and paint all get an A+. If you don't want to be nitpicked by a stranger, then stop reading now!
Personally I probably would have done something different for the exhaust hood and surrounding area. I would have not put an upper cabinet on that wall, that cabinet is making the whole corner looked cramped. I would have gotten a hood with a T shape (instead of a Y), and ended the tile at the bottom of the hood, and capped it with a bit of wood trim. Ok, sorry to be critical -- you really did a lovely job overall, and waiting 13 years, Oy!
Lovely. I know you didn't take down walls but somehow the space on the stove wall looks larger. Love the overall color palette.
Gorgeous! So well done. :-)
Great job!
Really great!
nicely done
@LeonRoi, how would you flank the stove with cupboards? There's a door right next to one of the stoves.
@slucky - the space on the stove wall is larger! The "before" shows the stove and oven as separate units. The new stove has an oven so they opened the space next to the stove for the backsplash.
AAAAH. The cabinet next to the stove literally makes my skin crawl. What a horribly thought out 'before'! I can't imagine not having a little space next to the stove for prep (or setting down your wine glass). The new kitchen looks like a dream to cook in.
Love how you recycled, but at the same time created such a transformation.
I really like the microwave and toaster oven cubbies, but I would be concerned about the heat from the toaster oven. Has that not been an issue?
One of these days I will have an awesome gas stove.
Reason to be very proud!
By installing narrower drawers and a much narrower cooker. I'm not sure about the exact dimensions, but I'm sure they'd fit perfectly and the whole would be at least safer.
I just got a stove with continuous grates over the burners (like the one pictured, although I don't have that brand). I think that feature addresses the issue of where to put hot pots very nicely. You can slide the pots anywhere around on the cooktop, and a whole bunch will fit. This kitchen doesn't look at all unsafe to me.
That's a 36" stove, and the only other standard size in the US is 30", so I don't think it would really work to flank the stove with cabinets/counters even by making narrower ones on each side. They would have to be quite narrow and wouldn't offer much "putting down" space or much storage in the resulting cabinets. (No one in the US in a freestanding house would put in a 24" stove unless the house was extremely undersized -- really small ones like that are viewed as a major kitchen deficit and would tank any resale value. Plus they cost much more and there is little brand selection. You see them only in small apartments, houseboats and maybe vacation cabins.)