Home renovations can definitely be hard labor, but this Jackson Heights kitchen remodel brings a whole new meaning to the phrase. Fran was nine months pregnant during the transformation of this fixer-upper, and reports that the fastest way to speed up your contractor is to have contractions!
By the time we were completing construction on our kitchen, I was nine months pregnant. Nothing will motivate a contractor to wrap things up faster than his client going into labor before his eyes. I waved away an offer to be driven to the hospital and said between deep breathes, "I just need it done!"
Purchasing our first fixer-upper apartment in the heart of New York City's Jackson Heights historic district proved to be an up-close and personal lesson in home-renovation for an industrial designer and an architect. We liked to think of our apartment as our "lab", so when it came time to tackle the kitchen we wanted to apply our high/low philosophy of mixing inexpensive items and materials with a few splurges to elevate the spatial experience - and do it on a shoe-string budget.
In its original condition, the kitchen was an ode to fake dark wood cabinets, cappuccino-colored plastic-laminate walls and counters, peeling vinyl tile floors, and lots of grime. We delighted in ripping out every last bit of it.
Since the kitchen was quite small, and to keep costs down, we utilized the same footprint for the cabinets and appliances. In order to maximize light and visually expand space, we mixed light-colored wood with aluminum and glass-fronted Ikea cabinets, along with white Corian counters, touches of stainless steel, and strategic lighting. For the floor, we used inexpensive cork tile. Our splurges included a beautiful glossy glass mosaic tile backsplash, an 18" GE Monogram stainless steel dishwasher, and the Corian countertop.
The transformation was dramatic and well worth every shoe-string penny.
See more photos over on Frances Temple-West Architect.
Thanks, Brook & Fran!
Have your own Before & After project you'd like to share with the editors? Submit it here.
(Images: Frances Temple-West)
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I'm about to renovate my kitchen in a couple of weeks and my splurges are on corian and my back splash too. Great job! Glad to know the baby pushed the contractor. Looks good.
Oh, wow! Fran & hubby did a fantastic redo on their kitchen and what a difference without shelling out big bucks to change the layout. The backsplash and the mix in of clear cabinet doors is both modern and charming.
Cute little kitchen! Nice work on making the most of your space and budget. Is it a boy or a girl?
Beautiful work on that bathroom remodel as well!
OMG, we were doing a bathroom remodel when I was 8 1/2 months pregnant and boy did those contractors start moving more quickly when I started hinting that our daughter might come early.
Respect!
It looks like you kept the fridge. You can get a nicer one when this one breaks.
I love this because (of course) it's beautiful, but also wholly realistic. The "high/low" approach makes it seem doable to someone who's not an architect by profession (or millionaire). There's no crazy demolitions of walls or creation of windows that would be out of reach by most, just some light rearranging (the sink jumped over a few feet) and updating of materials. The space is still as small as it started out as, just way more efficient and nice to look at. Well done!
This is really gorgeous, and congratulations on welcoming your new baby into the world. :)
WOW!! This is incredible. It's like a time warp! I love those cupboards. Sleek and yet not crazy modern. Great job!
What a great little kitchen! I thought my kitchen was small, but I think this one is even cozier. I love the window. I don't have a kitchen window, but I wish I did. I like the new cabinets. I also like the fact you kept the same fridge. No use changing it out if you can use it for awhile. The over the range microwave is a plus in a small space. Good job on the reno!
This is exactly the approach we're taking to our kitchen as well. Mine as well put your money where it counts and/or where you will appreciate the most.
Breaking ground on my kitchen in a couple of weeks. Our splurge is definitely our Cambria countertops. As my MIL said, "you cant put hide countertops away." Ended up being less than Corian at Lowe's! Gotta love local businesses.
Beautiful re-do! We gutted our kitchen 2 years ago and we had those same dark, fake-wood cabinets. I still shudder when I think about them. You are going to enjoy those late-night feedings so much more in your beautiful little kitchen. Congratulations!
What a great transformation!! I love this site it has so many ideas for my daughter as she lives in a one bedroom apartment with a huge balcony overlooking the downtown core. That I would say is inspiration!
I wanted a better look at the cork tile floor but the blog site doesn't really show it either. I love that they eliminated the cabinet that was on the wall across from the stove. It really opened up the space.
Wow, beautiful job brightening up the space! Small spaces can be so hard to make the most of. Great job!!
Wow, what a gorgeous redo! Congrats, all your hard work paid off. I bet you love being in that space, now. Enjoy it!!!
Beautiful! Though, maybe my eyes deceive me...but that sink is awfully tiny.
Really great -- I agree with the commenter above who noted that it's a realistic re-do, which actually makes it much more inspirational to me.
I feel happy that the phone is still on the kitchen wall. It seems like those are disappearing, and to me it's a homey detail.
Off-topic: Does anyone know what would I call that kind of light fixture in the Before if I was looking to find an old one? There's a sort of similar petal-type pendant in the 80s kitchen on the new tv show The Americans, and I kind of want one.
Beautiful job – and THANKS for not painting everything including the cabinets white!
What is the reason why so many of us have no problem with white, light or neutral solid surface countertops but so many home buyers just HAVE to have granite?
Any theories?
Great job... I love how you made everything work so well with the white appliances. And I agree with @KHinNJ - THANK YOU for not installing granite countertops. Blech.
Good job!
Love the bathroom wall cabinets! Does anyone know where can I get them?
Granite is associated with high class or wealth, I guess. I mostly looked at fixer uppers, so most of the houses I was in the market for had original kitchens with terrible formica countertops. After we bought a house, we installed granite because it was cheaper than other materials. We thought it would be comparable in cost to silestone but it wasn't at all.
Wow. It looks great. I would have kept the old light fixture, though. My grandmother had one in her dining room, and I took it when she moved. I love those!
Its called "slag glass" Eliz.They were HUGE in the 70s,try Ebay.What an amazing transformation.
Great job! That was one hideous "before" kitchen.
Definitely a nice transformation of the old kitchen to the new one. I love how the owners used a style of medium toned wood that has some character to it, not that overly honeyed colored wood you often see in newer construction these days, often paired with black granite and it definitely looks pedestrian and, well, anonymous.
I like how they mixed some of the cabinet doors for a variation in the look, while keeping it cohesive.
Nicely done!
Love that stove, and it looks less like a basic apartment stove than most as it looks almost expensive.
As to the "phone" you see, it's really the intercom system used in many apartments/condos.
What darling of a kitchen! well done, it looks so beautiful and I am sure it't very functional as well.
Congratulations on the baby AND the remodel. Fantastic redesign of closet-sized rooms. Honestly, I, too, would sacrifice a larger sink to get an 18-inch dishwasher. I had the smaller dishwasher once and I found it worked out fine for two people. I never run my standard-sized one every day unless I have guests for dinner.
I would never have thought of that combination of bathroom tiles, but surprisingly it's a space enhancing choice. The bathroom cabinet could well be the same IKEA one as is in the kitchen but with less depth and white shelves instead of glass ones. In any case it looks great.
Everyone is following the lead of the interior designers in that all of the upscale houses/developments have granite countertops so since the general public is a
slave to the so called arbitors of what is cool and upscale, everyone follows the
trend instead of expressing their own person expression. Personally, I think that
the cambria countertop look nice and fresh in the space. Also, the glass cabinets
add a nice modern touch.
lovely...i hope they put the older hardware and the pendant light to some sort of reuse...they are too good to be landfil
For some reason I can't see the 2nd picture. ARGH! As to granite....I think people have it because its not the *most* expensive and yet it is durable. I've always been anti granite but after a string of 10 apartments w/ laminate and the house we purchased just happening to have granite....I kind of like it. It probably isn't what I'd choose if I were designing a kitchen, but it does the job...and kind of well.
Isn't corian more expensive than granite?
glad you put the sink in front of the window. so pretty.
It's amazingly done. The re-arrangement of the sink helps the looks of the area. Great!
This is similar in size and layout to a kitchen that I have remodeled. The challenges taught me a lot about appropriate choices for smaller kitchens (eg, choose an oven with door that slides under and out of the way when open; carousels that make the most of 'dead' corner space; under-counter fridge; ceiling track lighting for an uncluttered look, etc.) You have done a great job here. The white Corian, blonde wood and glass look fresh and modern, yet warm. Well done!
I love that the appliances are NOT stainless steel! So much easier to keep clean! Great redo.
From my experience, yes. Even at a big box store like Home Depot, corian is about the same price per square foot as granite. My gripe with people who just hate granite and don't understand why anyone would want it is that they just don't seem to understand that there are all kinds of granite in all sorts of patterns and colors. Just because one pattern or color oesn't suit their needs, everyone is an unsophisticated sheep. I hate those snobs.
Re granite: it's extremely practical for kitchen counters - hygienic, heat resistant, hardwearing and doesn't stain. I don't understand the snobbishness about it, either.
great ways to update without huge demolition --- though why am i obsessed with that light fixture from your before??
What Pi said -- a lot of granite haters on AT, and it's ridiculous. I love my granite, Verde Butterfly, looks like big greenish black chips interspersed with some very dark red crystals and some amber colored ones. With my maple Shaker cabinets, I think it's a striking looking kitchen. And it was cheaper than Corion, which is also fine but pretty static looking. My granite sparkles in the sunlight and has more dynamism than flat colors. (And a trip to a granite showroon will definitely open eyes about the "artistry" of nature. *I* wouldn't want something too patterned that I could get tired of, but oh my god, there are some totally GORGEOUS slabs as beautiful as any abstract painting ever made!)
As for this project, just "Bravo!" (Brava??) Looks great!
It looks SO much brighter. I love it.
What a really great use of the space and a modern update!
This really is lovely! I am just wondering how practical that tiny sink is?
@rosygirl it's New York, "practical" isn't in our vocabulary :)
RE granite: Speaking for myself, it's not all granite. Just the ubiquitous and boring black, sparkly granite that was featured in about a million homes on decorating shows on cable and network. I *think* I remember it being called "galaxy black" or something very similar. 99% of all female homeowners featured on HGTV/Fine Living/Networks wanted the sparkly gold-flecked granite throughout the late 90s and early 00s. I can't count how many times I heard someone say it looked "rich" because the gold flecks made it look like it was made of real gold or had jewelry buried in it or something equally ridiculous. Also, the stereotype that was associated with those comments, no doubt due to editing in some cases, of women always being obsessed with vain and materialistic things was repulsive to me. Sparkly granite will never recover as far as I'm concerned.
I love this reno. My kitchen has a similar layout, but bigger. And we're planning an almost identical reno in a few months - IKEA cabs, tile backsplash, solid surface counters, and cork floors! It's awesome to get a preview of what's to come. It looks great and I can't wait to do ours!
This is a really nice budget remodel.