Name: Sandra (sent in by Melissa)
Location: Lincoln, Nebraska
This kitchen makeover was done for our neighborhood chef Sandra. She had a limited budget so the community came together to make it happen. We sent her away for what was supposed to be 7 days, which tuned into 9.
The gently used stove and sink where found on Craig's list for a song. The light fixture brass & glass 80's box store ugly and the vintage 50 aqua blue tile still in it's original box that was used for the stove backsplash tile were discovered at the The EcoStore, a store that sells second-hand building and remodeling materials to the general public.
The light fixture had to be sanded and spray in brushed nickel to match the cabinet hardware. The cabinets where cleaned sanded repainted and given a fresh look with new hinges, bin pulls and knobs. There was just enough in the budget to add glass panels to 2 doors. The butcher block counter tops are made from red oak flooring. After it was installed he wood was rubbed down with mineral oiled instead of polyurethaned so it is food safe.
Original to the home, Quarter sawn oak was discovered under 3 layers of vinyl and linoleum flooring. We ripped it out and refinished the wood floors. The old dishwasher was never used so it was ripped out and replaced with an Ikea Bekvam kitchen cart. This fits the space perfectly and can be pulled out and used for an additional prep area or a place to sit and have a cup of morning coffee.
There where 10 different people who worked on the project. Everyone generously gave their time and skills be it carpentry, cleaning, or just running for beer & pizza at the end of a long day. Needless to say she was very surprised and touched by all the effort the neighborhood put into the remodel.
Sandra loves Apartment Therapy and asked me to submit her kitchen remodel on a budget. We love Sandra and her wonderful cooking and wanted to giver her a space to work in that was functional and beautiful. Thanks for your consideration.
Thanks, Melissa and Sandra !
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Comments (22)
The kitchn looks fantastic! i'd like to see more before shots. great team work!
really lovely kitchen (i especially love the cart tucked into the dishwasher nook--such a nice idea!) and even lovelier story. well done!
What an awesomely inspiring story of a community coming together. You did a wonderful job.
wow, this is so sweet! the kitchen looks great and it sounds like you've got a really great community. the cart in the dishwasher space is really clever. would love to see pictures of the original floors that you uncovered.
Nice result - but the writing is terrible!
Janel - Punctuation and spelling do count!
lol Reminds me of the A.Therapy book, something about allowing twice the estimated time for any project. lol
I didn't want to comment but bepsf opened the door: this was SO HARD to read because of multiple, egregious errors--not just 1 or 2 typos. The pictures seem great, however, and what a wonderful effort.
Oh, and bepsf... since when are hyphens replacements for commas? You shouldn't criticize writing, punctuation and spelling if you don't check your comment first. lol
It's not a hyphen, it's an em dash - which can be used instead of an elipsis.
Wonderful after pics:) How sweet of everyone to do this for her.
What a nice story & a sweet little kitchen.
What a lovely story and even lovelier result!
Heart warming story, and great kitchen...
what an improvement!
Do you want to be my friend?
My kitchen is in desperate need of help.
That's called beauty in all senses
This story just put a HUGE smile on my face. Thank you so much for sharing. I think the kitchen turned out fantastic too! I love everything about it.
Great kitchen! I love the green walls, blue ceiling combo in a kitchen.
Great story and I'd love to see more photos of the kitchen, like the new (old) floors, stove, etc!
This looks so much better and so much more functional. What a lovely thing for the neighborhood to do.
Nice job, and very neighborly.
Have a few questions on the scope of work:
-so, the hood above the new stove was also changed?
-I understand there were no new cabinets added, only the existing ones were cleaned, repainted and supplied with new hardware? Then the storage capacity remained unchanged. Where all the kitchen stuff, that appears to overflow the counters and walls in the "before" picture go?
-can you explain the "flooring as countertops" installation? How deep are the counters and how wide are the flooring planks? What did you use to fill up the gaps in between and how you kept it together - by wood glue? Is there any substrate you attached the planks on?
-Since Sandra is an avid cook (and I assume she'll cook even more now, with a nice bright kitchen like this) - there will be more dishes to wash. The absence of dishwasher, on principle, surprises me. Was it Sandra's preference?
Once again, good work, guys.
Now that's nice neighbors! Makes me want to go find someone and redo their kitchen...but my husband would kill me if I start another before finishing mine!
I wish my friends would do this for me.
ugh! my interest in the floors was piqued and then no picture!