Before & After: HGTV’s “Renovation Goldmine” Gives an Old Kitchen a New Look and a Much Better Layout
Stephanie and Eric Biederman, along with their three children, had been living in their Illinois home for over 20 years when they realized it was time for a change. Eric — a firefighter and passionate home cook — enjoyed tinkering with renovation projects around the house, but the couple turned to Meg and Joe Piercy for help when it came to overhauling their kitchen for $50,000.
In the premiere episode of HGTV’s “Renovation Goldmine,” Meg and Joe set about renovating the Biederman kitchen in a budget-friendly way by focusing on restoration. The kitchen began as a cramped space, with broken floor tiles and missing cabinet drawer doors. The room was mildly outdated, with a burnt stove hood and years of general wear and tear slowly adding up. The old dark teal countertops and oversized wooden table at the center of the kitchen made the space pop in all of the wrong ways.
“The flow of this kitchen is choppy, to say the least,” Meg said. The kitchen also featured a small space off to the side, offering additional counter space and cabinets, but the Biedermans hadn’t found much use for the alcove and it became a source of clutter.
Meg and Joe began the renovation by removing all of the cabinets, countertops, and tile. They added in a small wooden butcher block to give the Biedermans additional prep space without overwhelming the area. They also introduced new countertops and a slick backsplash into the room. They installed new upper and lower cabinets, and were able to afford the lower ones (which are notoriously expensive right now) by buying generic white cabinets and staining them medium-to-dark-gray. They installed wood flooring and added a dark stain to make the space more luxurious and help bring out the grain.
The stainless steel fridge stood the test of time and remained a focal point in both versions of the kitchen, but the oven and stove were replaced by a state-of-the-art, “fire engine red” kitchen range to help support Eric’s passion. “It’s too nice to cook in,” Eric joked, when he saw the remodeled kitchen.
The Piercys also knocked out the add-on space in the kitchen and connected it to the sunroom, which helped the entire layout flow together. They added wallpaper and several chique decorations to the space, making it more modern. They turned the extra room into a seated banquette for meals and relaxation. The sunroom itself didn’t require much work, which allowed Meg and Joe to focus on some of the worn-down chairs that they discovered in the space (which came from Stephanie’s mother’s house). Although the chairs were in rough shape, Joe was able to strip the fabric, sand down the arms, and paint the wood.
The greatest transformation in the renovation was the light teal Hoosier cabinet, which initially partially blocked the entrance to the kitchen and served as more of an obstacle than an aid. Stephanie was passionate about the older cabinet, so Meg and Joe made sure to incorporate the hutch into the renovation by giving it a dark paint job and moving it into a clear space.
“The kitchen is the heart of our home and with this new kitchen we’re going to build new memories,” Stephanie said, “But I think the best part is [that] the flow of the new kitchen is really going to work.”
“Renovation Goldmine” airs Saturdays at 8/7 central on HGTV.
This post originally appeared on Apartment Therapy. See it there: Before and After: HGTV’s “Renovation Goldmine” Gives an Old Kitchen a Restoration-Focused Update