The Kitchen / Dining area Renovation

Clever budget designs that uses Home Depot products

What we did:

• Took out a wall separating the kitchen and the dining area
• Made a kitchen peninsula re-using old built-in cabinets
• Ship lap design on ceiling and side wall
• Bamboo countertop
• DIY subway tile backsplash
• New faucet from Home Depot
• Knobs has been painted in gold paint
• Semi-flush lighting from CB2, Pendant light from Wayfair
• Carrera Marble self-adhesive film on granite countertop

The History

This is how the kitchen was when we moved in. It is custom cabinetry made in B.C, and was about 10 years old then. I liked the over all style of it, but never was a fan of the tumbled tiles (backsplash and floor) Maple colour, and the granite colour, boob light, and the gap between the ceiling.

First thing I did was painting the cabinets in Cloud White by Benjamin Moore. It made the white appliance not stand out and I was happy with it for a decade. Years has gone by and I was tired of cleaning the bottom white cabinet that shows every stains, so I wanted to make the bottom cabinet some other colour.

Dark green came to my mind since green is my favorite colour, and dark colour would be easier to clean with. but once I painted the bottom cabinets dark green, There were too much contrast between the floor and the cabinets, and the brown granite looked awful with it.

This is when I bought the carrara marble stickers for the counter top off Amazon. My husband (who NEVER gets involved with fixing up the condo) installed the contact paper on the granite for me on my birthday <3 It’s been 1 year with the carrara marble look, and I love it! If we want the brown granite back, we just have to take off the contact paper, it comes off very easily. No granite was land filled either. I changed the bottom cabinet colour to Fossil Grey by CIL, with Behr Marquee paint. Very happy with it.

Good thing about the marble contact paper is that it’s so affordable! Use some calking around the sink if you have drop-in sink, especially the back part of the faucet.

Let’s talk about DIY subway tile backsplash

Although I never liked the tumbled tile backsplash, I lived with it for 10 years by just painting it white, seen above in the picture. As soon as we moved in 10 years ago, I wanted to put in the good old white subway tiles, but I thought it’s too trendy, and I wanted to see how my taste changes. 10 years later, I still wanted the subway tiles, so I just installed them myself. I went OVER the existing tile. It was TIME! and I cannot be happier with the result.

Nobody helped me with the tile installation, I just watched Youtube videos, and went at it. The tiles are VERY CHEAP, $2 something for a sqf, so I wasn’t afraid of making mistakes. I also chose these white ceramic subway tiles because I could use $30 tile cutter and cut them myself very easily. I would say around $300 for the tile job.

For around light switches and behind the decorative molding, I had to use a grinder. Luckily my woodworking friend had them and rented me it. It took me about 6 unsuccessful tries, then I was a grinder master. As soon as you get over the fear of this loud machine that shoots little bits of tiles straight to your face while cutting it, its easy to handle. Use clamps to secure tiles to solid surface (in my case, Ikea crate). Have a strong grip, imagine that you are a strong robot and zip, zip, zip, done! Make sure to wear your safety glasses!

Take out the Wall!

Taking out this wall made all the difference, the space feel much bigger and brighter, I now have floor space for yoga.

• Demo the wall
• Relocate the electrical line
• Patch the ceiling
• Hide the patch with ship lap
• Build the kitchen Peninsula

I cannot say enough thanks to my buddy Pete for helping me with the renovation. One word of advice for demolition, is to HIRE A PROFESSIONAL! I don’t mean a kid that started demo job 2 weeks ago, I mean a person with experience demoing a condo. If somebody shows up with a sledge hummer, send them back!

Professional demolition job means, cutting the drywall, and removing them. The result is minimum dust, clean reusable drywall. Pete cut the metal bits with his tools, and everything was clean and fast. He also did a fantastic job with our built-in in the living room, see the post here

The Built-in Update

I patched the whole re-using the drywall that came off the wall and a tub of plaster, and a carpenter’s glue.

We left the bottom half of the wall, so we don’t have to re-do the flooring. (A designer I got a quote from for the peninsula cabinet told me to remove the entire wall. but I knew I didn’t have to)

Building the kitchen peninsula

We used our old cabinet from the built-in, then built the counter top around it. Handy Pete and I finished the peninsula’s side and back part with ship lap.

The countertop I chose isn’t a counter top material. I was thinking to use plywood, but my wood working friend Raf told me bamboo is better. He was pushing for regular countertop thickness, but for the unusual size I needed it for, I chose this bamboo ply that is meant for side paneling or what not.

I white washed the bamboo with mixing 2 products. A water based white stain, and water based counter finishing sealer. I would say 3:7 ratio, I just mixed them in yogurt tub, then brushed it on for maybe 6 times. You should brush length wise, with the grain.

When I just used the white stain by itself, the stain didn’t work on bamboo. I left it on over night, then it was still sticky. I wiped it off and no colour went in the bamboo (which is grass, not wood). By mixing the sealer, the stain dried beautifully. I can still enjoy the grains, goes much better with white surrounds.

The old built-in cabinet wasn’t the same size as we needed for peninsula. After building up the counter structure, I filled in the gap with a handmade wine rack using the materials I had. No nails required for the shelving structure, I used shiplap on both side, notch side up, then I sawed left over shelves from my old built-in in size, then placed the shelve on the notch. repeat until desired height then you have a wine rack! I finished the rack with the old trims that came from the built-in demo (thanks to handy Pete’s awesome demo job).