When we buy a house, we immediately want to make it our own.
We buy furniture that makes us feel cozy, paint the walls colors that calm us, and we even go as far as to add tiny tweaks that make our pets happy — like one woman did when she transformed a tree into lovely living room playground for her cats.
The ultimate way to customize your home, however, is by embarking on a DIY project. That way the personal touches you make around your home really are personal, because you created them with your own two hands.
This is precisely how Imgur user Thenational14 felt when he decided to tackle a pretty ambitious project — renovating his own kitchen.
Not only did he want to update the alleyway kitchen that hadn’t been touched in decades, he also wanted to expand and open up the room.
One month and $15,000 later, he finished his monster of a conversion. The results? You be the judge!
Let us know which version you prefer — the "before" or the "after" — in the comments below!
This is what the kitchen originally looked like. It had a lot of features that were reminiscent of the good old days — like flowery wallpaper, vintage cabinetry, linoleum flooring, and a pink 1950s countertop.
It was a small alley kitchen. “It was extremely cramped and made the entire house seem much, much smaller,” said Thenational14.
This is the original dining room area that led into his small kitchen. It's a darling little space with a vintage feel. His plans, however, were to combine the two rooms together for more space.
First thing he did was remove the cabinets from the wall that had the stove.
Then he knocked down that wall, opening up the space.
He had a hard time getting rid of the living room’s wallpaper, so he decided to go over parts of it with plaster and build things upon other portions, like here where he is creating the framework for a pantry.
Once the entire area had been drywalled, it was time to create the brand new kitchen. It does look a lot more spacious!
He bought handsome espresso shaker cabinets from Lowes for about $6,000.
"Installing the cabinets was fairly easy," he said. "it just took a lot of patience to shim them out and get them perfectly level."
But in the end, all that leveling was worth it.
“The granite guys had a breeze of a time getting the counters on because of how level they were, so it's definitely worth the headache to make it perfect the first time around.”
He had a local granite company do the work and they “only charged me $3,500 for the entire kitchen,” he said. It looks like a job that should've cost double that.
Next he updated the floors with a rich, red wood.
Gorgeous black splash was then added, giving the room a soft but lovely accent.
The end result is a beautiful yet modern kitchen.
It’s more spacious than the previous kitchen.
But was it worth tampering with the classic look of the former kitchen and living room?
Do you prefer the "before" kitchen, or the "after" kitchen? Let us know below!
What would you have done if this was your kitchen? Let us know in the comments!
Please SHARE if you'd love to give your kitchen a full makeover!
