Before and After: An “Entire Wall of Cabinets” Transforms This ’90s Kitchen
When DIYer Juliette Dellavia (@the_shady_gal) moved into her 1990s home with her husband and their three children, the family knew that although the older house had boundless layout potential, some major renovation changes would need to be made — especially in the kitchen.
“After 30-plus years of wear and tear, things were breaking down and just not holding up,” Juliette says. “The orange wood stain from the ’90s was everywhere, [and] the U-shaped peninsula made it feel like a galley kitchen — very small, and only capable of housing one person cooking at a time comfortably.”
On top of these challenges, the kitchen layout posed difficulties to the family’s daily routine. The lack of overhang on the peninsula made it difficult for everyone to gather at the counter as a family, while the kitchen’s immediate proximity to the backyard meant that “there was always a trail of dirt, grass, and leaves.”
Plenty of work needed to be done during Juliette’s $60,000 kitchen renovation, and her family had to create a temporary kitchen (think: fridge and microwave in the living room) during the Spring 2024 One Room Challenge, but it came with plenty of rewards. “We did any of the work that we could — all the painting, priming, and parts of the electrical,” Juliette says. They worked with local professionals for the rest.
The homeowners designed their dream layout.
“We have done a lot of renovations, but always used the original footprint,” Juliette says. “Changing the layout of [this] room was a new way of redesigning a space.”
She took careful measurements and used software (namely, The Home Depot’s cabinet planner) to create her design, she encourages others to try online cabinet companies’ free software options, too. “Enter your dimensions, design a space for yourself,” she says. “See what’s possible.”
In her own kitchen, she eliminated the peninsula and double doors from before and instead added a huge island and three windows with cabinetry beneath it. This required construction on the entire exterior wall. “The doors came out, the wall was reframed for the windows, and everything got put back together,” Juliette recalls, and she loves the new black trim on the windows. “Because we do a lot of DIY, it was so fun to watch pros work. They work fast and efficiently, and it’s more impressive than ever.”
New cabinetry doubles the storage.
Juliette’s cabinet advice is not to go for anything too fancy. “There are some cabinets that are known well for their name, and they have a number of cabinet features that everyone loves. To save money, look to the cabinet brand that offers just *slightly* less feature-centric options, giving you all basic cabinet upgrades, but then saving you a tremendous amount of money in the long run,” she says. She opted to go with linen-colored cabinets from The Home Depot and outfitted them with streamlined pulls.
The “entire wall of cabinets,” as Juliette calls it, offers way more storage than before — not to mention these linen ones stretch almost all the way up to the ceiling, unlike the ’90s orange units from before.
The new island seats six.
The behemoth island also offers drawer and cabinet storage, plus a quartz prep space. One of Juliette’s favorite parts of the island is its wood grain base; she likes the way it complements the off-white cabinets surrounding it.
The new pendants above the island are from Wayfair, and the barstools are from At Home.
The pantry was a total DIY project.
During the reno, Juliette and her family opted to move the kitchen wall back in order to expand the space. This allowed for room for the island as well as a brand-new walk-in pantry with a faux vintage tile look on the walls. “The pantry is a great space for all of our food,” Juliette says. “It’s also the kids’ favorite room — there is always someone in there.”
Juliette painted it using Behr’s Whipped Cream and added stenciled accents painted with Behr’s Creek Bend. (And the kitchen walls are Behr’s Grey Mist.)
Once small electrical details had been added, she installed her own, custom built-in shelving. “The pantry shelving was a learning experience for me,” she says. “I watched a few different DIY videos from YouTube to see how others had done it. I have made small floating shelves before, but this was done on a much bigger level.”
The new kitchen functions better for the family.
Every detail in the kitchen counts — and Juliette loves the “after.” “The new kitchen is amazing — just amazing,” she says. “So many people can be in the space at the same time, eating, cooking, and washing dishes … I love that the kitchen is large enough that it never feels cluttered — even if there are a couple items sitting around, which before would have felt always a mess.”
To see more of Juliette’s projects, check out her bathroom makeover.
This project was completed for the Spring 2024 One Room Challenge, in partnership with Apartment Therapy. See even more of the One Room Challenge before and afters here.
Inspired? Submit your own project here.
This post originally appeared on Apartment Therapy. See it there: An “Entire Wall of Cabinets” Transforms This ’90s Kitchen