Kitchen

Some people like to live in their homes a little while before renovating them, to get a feel for the space and figure out what they want. Before embarking on his kitchen renovation, Barrin took plenty of time; he’s lived in his Carroll Gardens condo for 18 years. The appliances had been slowly replaced over the years, but the almost 30-year-old cabinets had definitely seen better days.

Here’s a kitchen transformation where I think we can confidently say that no one will like the ‘before’ better. When Robyn and Alejandro bought their two-bedroom condo in Brooklyn’s Columbia Waterfront District, the kitchen was in distinctly sad shape (and had, apparently, a basketball in place of a refrigerator). I’m sure it was tough to imagine this space as anything near livable, but Robyn and Alejandro had a vision for what their apartment could be.

When Lee Hoffman, the CEO and founder of photo-sharing app Memoir, bought his co-op in Midtown East last year, he immediately knew that the kitchen had to go. The small, cramped space was cut off by a wall from the rest of the apartment, and to make things worse, the apartment’s previous tenant was a smoker, which meant that everything in the kitchen was covered in a thin layer of smoky residue. After months of research, Lee was finally ready to embark on the project.

The kitchen in Megha’s Midtown West condo had a problem common to lots of older kitchens: it was tiny, and awkwardly walled off from the rest of the living spaces in her apartment. After living with a less than ideal floorplan (and a falling-apartment bathroom) for nine years, Megha decided it was time for a change — and embarked on a renovation that would dramatically change the look and feel of her apartment.

When Henry purchased his one-bedroom co-op in a former tenement building in Manhattan’s East Village, it was in bad shape. Really, really, really bad shape. The entire apartment was falling apart, and the kitchen was, in a word, ‘destroyed’. Never had a space been more ripe for a makeover. Luckily, Sweeten was there to help Henry revitalize his space, and he didn’t just stop at the kitchen.

Cabinet hardware is a little detail that can have a big impact on the look of your kitchen or bathroom. The good news is that these days there are quite a few retailers offering modern, minimally styled pieces in a variety of budgets. Here are seven of our favorites. Superfront makes a line of pulls and knobs designed for IKEA cabinets, but they would be equally nice on other cabinets as well. (Blogger Maiju Saw used them in her kitchen.

This is an ugly kitchen. But its ugliness might seem a bit innocuous to you, if you didn’t know the extent of the fire damage hiding behind its walls. The unit’s owners, Colin and Orli, originally intended a fairly simple renovation, before they realized the extent of the unseen damage their kitchen was hiding. Their renovation was more involved than they originally planned.

We tend to think of tiled countertops as a cheap and imperfect solution, when marble or quartz just isn’t in your remodeling budget. Instead of approaching the update with mixed feelings, look to these surfaces as reassurance that your kitchen or bath will still fresh and clean — they just won’t break the bank. Using longer rectangular shapes automatically makes this surface seem more special and unlike most square tile countertops.

What’s the perfect place for microwaves in the kitchen? They are must-have appliances for many, but they sure do have large, ugly footprints. So, do you prioritize saving space over aesthetics? Put them where you can easily reach? Or, is there that one sweet spot that let’s you have it all? Installing the microwave above your cooktop is a classic space saver, freeing up your countertops to use as workspace — especially when microwave and hood-fan combos do double duty.

When Cara and Jared moved into their Chelsea apartment, they weren’t too excited about the kitchen’s inefficient layout and dated finishes. But the last straw was when the mosaic tiles (the result of a former homeowner’s DIY project) started falling off the wall.

When Lisa moved into her Upper East Side one-bedroom, she loved everything about it but the kitchen. Besides not being very pretty, Lisa’s kitchen had a lot of problems. The upper cabinets were too shallow for dishes, and the lower cabinets were too narrow for pretty much anything, meaning Lisa had to store her pots and pans in the coat closet. The whole kitchen had only one outlet, and there was a large and suspicious stain on the laminate countertop.

I can’t even look at a picture of this kitchen without feeling claustrophobic, so I can’t imagine how Anne lived with it (and cooked in it, even) for almost a decade. I think it goes without saying that after cooking for ten years in a kitchen that measured only 27 square feet (no, really) she was ready for a change. The biggest change, by far, was the removal of the wall separating the (previously teeny tiny) kitchen from the living room.

The kitchen in John and Kaija’s Brooklyn co-op began life as a narrow galley kitchen, but a previous owner had the smart idea to tear down the separating wall to half-height, and top the remaining wall with a countertop. This made the kitchen a lot more spacious, but the new countertop, inconveniently located at bar height, wasn’t particularly useful for prep work, and storage was still an issue.

Nathan Rittgarn doesn’t list the square footage in his professional project submission of this kitchen, located in a pre-war Brooklyn Heights one-bedroom apartment. But you can see from the before photos above, it’s not particularly expansive. Coupled with the fact that the apartment’s “entryway” dumps you right in front of this small space, and it’s clear this room needed an update not just for aesthetics, but for function, too.

Unless you’re incredibly wealthy, finding a dream home in New York City can be a real challenge. That’s the position Holly and Christian found themselves in when they started house hunting: the apartments they could afford fell significantly short of dreamy, but they didn’t want to leave Greenwich Village, a neighborhood where they had lived for many years. So they found the next best thing to a dream home: a fixer-upper that, with a little work, could become their dream home.

I’ve always been a huge fan of 1950s style kitchens, and was lucky enough to score a tiny vintage refrigerator from a few years ago. The small size made it a bit of a challenge (we had to be very cognizant while grocery shopping!) so, when we added a member to the family this year, we also decided it was time to upgrade to a bigger refrigerator.

We moved into our house in summer 2011. The house, built in 1944, was in good shape, in a great neighborhood, and priced very competitively. However, aesthetically it was a bit lacking. The previous owners had owned the home for 50+ years, and the most recent updates to the kitchen and main living area had been made in 1974.

This ‘before’ kitchen wasn’t nearly as dire as some we’ve featured — it was just, well, awkward. A previous renovation left the kitchen floor covered in a dreary ceramic tile, with an awkward curb that guests continually tripped over.

This is the story of a kitchen that was once so small that it could barely be photographed. Having bought a place of her very own in Manhattan, Evelyn was living the dream, but her kitchen left a little something to be desired. Besides being (a bit) on the small side, it also featured a leaky dishwasher, cracked floors, and barely-there workspaces. After living in the apartment for a few years, she knew it was time for a change.

While Joanna Harrison has done a stellar job decorating her family’s small Silver Lake cottage, she’s lucky the preservation-savvy developers at bettershelter got their hands on the decaying structure before their demolition-hungry competitors. The company restored the historic home before renting it to the Harrison trio, making Joanna’s renovation process more about adding functional style and less about, um, not dying.

Betsy and Manny bought this 1920s “Kit House” in Savannah after outgrowing their 400 square foot studio apartment in Brooklyn. They remodeled the whole home (while respecting the home’s architectural charm), but the kitchen’s outdated and dilapidated vibes had to go. They ripped the cabinets out, stripping the the kitchen down to the studs. The result is a gorgeous space that fits their personalities and the architecture of the home!

Hissan and Sophia found their dream home in Brooklyn, but the kitchen was less than ideal. Besides the out of date faux-cherrywood finish, the cabinetry also seemed squatty and inappropriate in the space, adapted to a room with much lower ceilings. In their quest to renovate the kitchen and make it more appropriate for the space, they also wanted to rework a long but awkward hallway, a necessary but not particularly attractive part of the unit’s floorplan.

House hunting in New York often involves a few compromises, and for Brandi that compromise was buying an apartment with a kitchen in need of a serious overhaul. The backsplash tiles were cracked and yellowing, the wall oven didn’t work, and the hinges had so many layers of paint on them that the cabinets wouldn’t close. And to top it all off, everything was painted a particularly unappealing shade of olive green.

One of the hardest parts about room makeovers is envisioning what it all might look like. Before you spring for all the materials, how can you be sure it will look great when it’s finished? When working on Tara’s rental kitchen, we tried out some different design options on Photoshop, playing around with various design options. Mind you, these aren’t digital masterpieces. But they do help you see how different paint colors look, or what pattern would do to the floor.

When Maxine of We Love Home moved into her home she inherited a less than ideal kitchen. Not only was it pretty blah aesthetics wise, it was basically falling apart. Not one to be deterred, she saw this as a golden opportunity to design her dream kitchen. From Maxine: In my old flat, I inherited an almost-new kitchen so could never justify changing it. I hated it though. As it is had been designed by for someone else, by someone else – it never suited my needs.

Sam hated her kitchen, but she and her husband couldn’t afford to make real changes to it. Being on a budget meant they had to prioritize and focus on the floor — her least favorite part of the room. From Sam: I really really hated our kitchen, but we basically couldn’t afford to make real changes to it because each change begets another change and the whole thing really needs more work than were personally willing/able to put into this house and at this time.

Purchasing an apartment in New York is no small feat (financially or otherwise). Rima knew she wanted to renovate as soon as she bought her Brooklyn co-op, but was a bit hesitant about pulling the trigger. After four years of dreaming of a new kitchen, she finally worked up the guts (and the money!) to make a big change. Her previous kitchen had a problem common to a lot of NYC kitchens: lack of space.

Chokers, Tommy Hilfiger, Wynona Rider. The ’90s may be back but Kirsten really wanted them to get out – and stay out – of her kitchen. With a little help from her husband, she was able to create a classically cool galley kitchen that won’t be going out of style anytime soon. From Kirsten: When we first looked at this home to buy, I remember thinking that the biggest transformation needed to be the kitchen. It was dark, too enclosed and feeling very 1990s.

Tara Bellucci, our News & Culture Editor, just moved into a new apartment in Boston’s South End this fall. The space definitely needed updating but, since Tara’s renting, a full on, rip-it-all-out reno just isn’t in the cards. She got permission from her landlord to make a few changes — simple inexpensive updates to make it more livable and inviting. And yes, a whole lot less ugly.

Sarah and Keith knew it was about time to leave their cramped ’90s kitchen behind. While functional, the space was outdated and closed off. They wanted a space that flowed seamlessly with the rest of the vibrant, contemporary house. They opened up the floor plan, and chose design elements like a neutral wall color and tile, white cabinets and light marble countertops.

Sophia’s 400-square-foot apartment on New York’s Upper West Side was the perfect size for one person. After her husband Leon moved in, the apartment seemed a bit cozy, but they made it work. Then came baby. Three people (and all that baby stuff) in 400 square feet was just too much, so they started looking for a place to buy. They looked, and looked, and looked, but none of the two-bedrooms in their price range were even remotely livable.

In the 50s, General Electric made the fabulous Wonder Kitchen—an entire wall unit with all the appliances built right in. The units came in amazing colors: Canary Yellow, Turquoise Green, Petal Pink, Cadet Blue and Woodbine Brown, all under one stainless steel counter surface. Letitia acquired one of these units, along with other matching cabinets, which were salvaged from another kitchen, and she renovated her dark and gloomy kitchen around this gleaming, wondrous wall unit.

I love both blue and black kitchens and all their loveliness and drama, but after seeing 50 million of them over the past couple of years, I start itching for something new to make my eyes happy. So it’s refreshing to see another shade emerge lately as contender for the role of hottest kitchen color. We’re calling it “bruised” green —anything from olive to army to deep forest.

When Matt and Amanda first looked at this house, they were able to instantly imagine fixing up all of the rooms — except for the kitchen. It was a dark, dated galley kitchen with a wall smack dab in the middle. Matt writes: “We went back to look at it one last time and I just sat there trying to visualize what the solution could be. When I realized it could be done, I did my best to explain the mess in my head to Amanda and we went for it!

When Tim Sheehan bought an 1860s Greek Revival home that had been abandoned for six years, the kitchen was crammed into a small room at the end of a hallway. The house was used as a rectory for 80 years, so a full kitchen wasn’t necessary when the home was first constructed. So Tim gutted the back hallway, knocked down a wall that once enclosed the tiny, impractical kitchen and removed sheet rock and a drop ceiling to reveal wood walls painted white.

Chris and Amber had a problem common to a lot of New York City homeowners: a family that kept growing, and an apartment that stubbornly remained the same size. After the birth of their first son they decided to look for a two-bedroom apartment, but were unable to find anything acceptable in their price range. When the impending arrival of a second baby really raised the stakes, they decided that maybe the solution was to renovate the apartment they already had.

First of all, shout out to Tanya’s mom for choosing kitchen elements way back in the ’80s that wouldn’t look totally insane to our modern eyes. As smart as her choices were, time waits for no man and since the kitchen was showing its age, Tanya figured she would jump in and help her mom update her space.

After fifteen years of living in their one-bedroom Brooklyn apartment, Deniz and Ramon had plenty of ideas for upgrades they could make to the place. So when they finally embarked on their long dreamed-of renovation, the result was some very dramatic changes indeed. Previously, the apartment, while quite spacious at 1,000 square feet, was broken up into small, choppy spaces. The kitchen, separated from the living and dining areas, had no natural light at all.

You may remember Nisha and Tim Stevens’ house in South East London. Having spent most of their budget buying the house, Nisha and Tim had to be creative when it came to decorating. Luckily the couple is pretty handy and they saved a lot of money by renovating most of their old kitchen themselves. Nisha’s Advice: Paint an ugly kitchen worktop with an oil based blackboard paint. Ours was a not-very-nice wood-look laminate which we sanded back and then painted.

Kitchens are the heart of the home, and islands provide kitchens with their heart: a place to gather, additional seating, more counter space, extra storage, and so much more. This collection of islands range from the ubiquitous IKEA STENSORP to DIY pipe and scrapwood versions to luxurious custom models with marble tops and wine fridges — but they all are essential to the function and life of their kitchens. Explore ideas to find an island that speaks to you: Do you have a kitchen island?

This galley kitchen in a Brooklyn one-bedroom wasn’t quite the nightmare that some of our ‘before’ kitchens present — but as soon as they closed on the apartment, homeowners Hari and Kaity knew they wanted to do something about the kitchen’s dark, cramped layout. Under (and over!) cabinet lighting didn’t quite make up for a lack of natural light, and the layout of the appliances meant that what countertop space there was was strangely segmented.

For almost ten years, John lived in his Hell’s Kitchen co-op while it slowly crumbled around him. The apartment, built in 1923, was definitely showing signs of its age: plaster was falling off the walls, moldings were caked with years of paint, and the kitchen cabinets, which had been replaced sometime in the 90s, were starting to fall apart. Faced with all this, and with the prospect of his partner, Katherine, moving in with him soon, John decided it was time for some big changes.

If you love the look of an apron front (or farmhouse) sink, look no further than this handy guide, where we’ve rounded up 22 different sinks, in all kinds of different materials and price points. No matter your budget, you’re sure to find a sink that will be a complete showstopper in your kitchen. Before you shop, here’s something you should know about apron front sinks right off the bat: they’re not cheap.

If you’ve ever found yourself a bit dismayed by a remodel where the homeowners took a perfectly serviceable kitchen and subjected it a complete gut renovation, then this project is for you. Instead of starting from scratch, Lindsay and Matt made just a few small changes to their Brooklyn kitchen, creating a fresh, modern space with a minimum of hassle (and a minimal budget).

If you love the modern look but are starting to tire of all-white kitchens, then this kitchen, from blogger Molly at Almost Makes Perfect, will be a breath of fresh air. It mixes together white and wood cabinets for a look that’s fresh yet timeless — and there are plenty of other ideas worth stealing, too. Mismatched upper and lower cabinets are gaining a lot of traction lately, and in this kitchen, it’s the perfect choice.

Eric and Joel’s new apartment in Prospect Heights had a lot going for it: generously sized rooms, lots of light, proximity to dog parks. What it didn’t have going for it: an incredibly awkward floorplan where a closed-off kitchen adjoined a mostly useless ‘dining foyer’ — an orphaned bit of space that was too wide to be called a hallway and too narrow for anything else.

Name: Ana and Patrick Kamin Type of Project: Kitchen Update Location: San Francisco, California When we moved to San Francisco and started looking for apartments, 85% of the kitchens we saw were not acceptable by my terms. On the one side, you have the ones that are newly updated, but the landlord chose the countertop and cabinets straight from the ’70s. Or you have the kitchens that are totally rundown — and the renovation will cost a fortune.

The ‘before’ kitchen in this Upper West Side two-bedroom wasn’t in terrible condition, but it was plagued by a few issues common to small kitchens — teeny tiny appliances, and a serious lack of cabinet and counter space. The dark finishes and awkward, chopped-up blocks of cabinets made the small space seem even smaller.

Every square inch of this kitchen was ripped out and lovingly put back together — this time in a much more functional and stylish way — by the homeowners themselves. As designer Michelle Gage writes on her blog: “The floors were dirty and sticky. The appliances appeared to be original to the house. The counter tops were held together with tape.” It took two years to save enough money to finally tackle this outdated kitchen’s remodel.

Shaila’s kitchen came with both a fun connection to DC history and a pretty funky layout. Aesthetics aside, it was time for a reno; the kitchen had begun to fall apart. Taking a cue from the age of the building and her personal love of art-deco, Shaila gave her new-to-her old kitchen a stylish updated vintage-inspired look. Take it away, Shaila… After serving as a diplomat around the world, it was time for me to come back to Washington.

House-hunting in New York is a notoriously harrowing process. After months of searching, Nikki and Chris thought they had found the perfect apartment in Astoria. It was beautiful, had all the features they wanted, and was within their budget. But after a few weeks, the deal fell through. Incredibly discouraged, Nikki and Chris wondered if they would ever be able to find a place that felt like home. Two days later, they were putting in an offer on another place.

Lately, new designs for the kitchen look more and more like old designs for the kitchen. There’s a certain style of British kitchen — vintage-style appliances, Shaker-style cabinets, a bit austere but with very traditional accents — that’s becoming very popular. Looking at these kitchens, I am struck by the fact that they look remarkably similar to some of the 1920s kitchens I came across while researching this series about the history of kitchen design.

When they decided to start a family, interior designer Meredith and her husband realized that their one-bedroom duplex (with the bedroom accessed by a dizzying spiral staircase) was just not going to cut it anymore. After being outbid on four different houses, they finally found their perfect place: a charming Tudor townhouse in Brooklyn’s Kensington neighborhood, with an apricot tree in the front yard and even — an amenity almost unheard of in New York — a garage.

The kitchen in this Brooklyn brownstone — before its reinvigorating renovation and revival — was dismal. Dark, dated. Grimy and greasy. Peeling paint, cracked walls and a floor you wouldn’t want to walk barefoot on. The whole home needed a lot of work, but the kitchen perhaps most so. After all, for many families the kitchen is the heart of the home. The hub of action. The hangout space of party guests.

Considering the amount of spectacularly hideous light fixtures in rental kitchens around the country, it’s almost as if installing the ugliest, most unflattering light fixture was at one time the law. That’s of course not true, but for anyone who’s ever walked into their rental kitchen, looked up at their light fixture and wondered “why that?,” this post’s for you.

It's just as cheap and available as subway tile, and you're not tired of it yet.

There are few words whispered with more veneration than ‘the kitchen work triangle’ — a decades-old term that still dominates kitchen design today. But does it still hold true in the modern world? Before you start your next remodel, get the latest thinking on layouts and decide what’s best for you. As Nancy recently wrote in her series on 100 Years in the Kitchen, the concept came about in the 1940s, based on industrial motion studies aimed at increased efficiency.

Noticed one or two Shaker cabinets on Apartment Therapy or Pinterest lately? You are not the only one. The traditional style adds clean architectural interest while still blending in nicely with whatever else is going on. And it’s absolutely everywhere right now. But is it the only option if you want something timeless?

Although this Greenpoint kitchen, at 100 square feet, is much larger than many NYC apartment kitchens, it was suffering a bit from dark, heavy finishes. The black countertop sucked light out of the space, and glass-front cabinets left nowhere to hide clutter, making the kitchen feel chaotic and cramped. Plus, two of the cabinets were blocking a window — never a good look. The new kitchen embraces lightness and brightness, but, refreshingly, doesn’t go all the way white.

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This kitchen above designed by Laura Butler-Madden, is very pretty, with deep blue cabinets, brass accents, and open shelving. It sits on one end of a huge, open concept great room with soaring ceilings and beautiful herringbone floors. But this room’s highest achievement may be achieving “peak kitchen island”. Let’s zoom in on it and discuss, shall we? First off, it’s freaking huge.