Before & After: Chicago Bungalow Kitchen
Jarret and Catherine of Bungalow Bungahigh had a classic renovation story play out when rehabbing the kitchen in their Chicago home. What could go wrong, did, and the job took much longer than initially expected. But, I’m sure you’ll agree the results are worth it — just check out the after:
Here’s the story from Jarrett and Catherine: We bought our 1931 Chicago bungalow knowing that we’d have to do one major renovation project: the kitchen! What we didn’t count on was just how big a project that would prove to be. We like to consider ourselves pretty handy people, so we naively thought we could handle a kitchen re-do, no problem. When the work began, though, we ran into setback after setback, including missing floors under cabinets, rerouting drainage pipes, installing appliances in a kitchen not built for modern conveniences, and relocating a radiator.
After three months of washing dishes in the bathtub and cooking every meal on our Weber grill, we ended up with a finished project that we’re incredibly happy with.
We designed the IKEA kitchen using the company’s planning software. The cabinets and countertops are all from IKEA. We were lucky enough to be able to incorporate the original cast iron sink after we replaced the faucet. We installed beadboard after we knocked out the mosaic tiles and badly damaged the plaster walls. And, we were able to reclaim enough original baseboard from the kitchen and back stairwell to cover the entire room.
In the end, we’re really pleased with how the room turned out. I’m not sure we would choose a house with this much work again in the future, but we’re pretty glad for our naivety!
Lots more photos and info: Bungalow Bungahigh
The kitchen on Apartment Therapy: Farmhouse Kitchen in a Bungalow
Images: Bungalow Bungahigh