Kitchen Before and After

We finally splurged and got new counters for our kitchen. We also had the cabinets painted. We thought about replacing them but after getting estimates, we decided painting was better! Especially since the cabinets are in good shape and I am happy with the door style, just not the color. We added a slide in range which gives us more space than the cook top and a second oven to supplement the baby oven I have hated for years. We also put in a wood hood with lots of help. Then we installed slide-outs for some of the cabinets so the kids wouldn't be climbing on our new counters to get a dish. 

Before: Dated oak cabinets, builder grade hood, white laminate counters, tiny oven.

After: Thanks to lots of help from Steve, we installed the new wood hood and raised the cabinets. 

I love how pretty and homey the hood looks at night with the light on.

We had installed a new faucet and sink a few years ago, so it looked pretty good, but we decided to replace it so we could have just the one hole in the granite. 

By the time I thought of before pictures, I had already replaced the side of the island with bead board.

For this island, we debated going to one height, but decided to keep the pony wall because it hides some of the junk that always winds up there. We added back splash tiles to the back, and extended and rounded out the top counter a bit. 

Because we took out the cook top and put in a slide in range, we wound up with less pan storage. So we added these rev-a-shelf pull outs to help with storage. I think they are my favorite feature of the new kitchen!

I love the lid storage on this one!  And how many pans it stores below, easy to access! 

We also added this one so the girls could reach their dishes so they wouldn't have to climb on the new counters. And the best part of this is the girls can now unload the dishwasher!

I also found these cool spice organizers and installed them in the upper cabinet. 

This is our baby oven, which makes a great second oven!

I love having a regular sized range again, plus the range top has more space than my cooktop did. Plus, I found it for only $100 on Craigslist! Can't beat that!

During:

We decided to remove the old countertops ourselves, both to save money and because we had to change the cooktop cabinets after they were off which we wouldn't have had time to do during the granite install. 

I learned some new things like how NOT to use a pry bar, and how to repair drywall.

Grandpa was a huge help doing the hood work!

After getting bids from a lot of companies, we decided on HDS Stoneworks of Richardson and we couldn't be happier! They did a beautiful job. 

We are so excited about our new pretty kitchen! Now, to try to keep those white cabinets clean! If you were wondering, the paint color is cream froth by Benjamin Moore and the granite is Taupe.