If you follow along with my journey on Simplicity Redesigned on Facebook, you know that I have pretty much been insane lately. I took a hard look at my life and decided to take some time off of blogging to get my home back in order before the city decided to condemn it or I had to explain to the authorities why we were reporting our children missing but only giving them my home as the area they could possibly be missing in. Yes, it was THAT bad. I posted the pics on my Facebook page as well as in the last 2 blog posts about the kitchen that proves it. There are days I question why on earth I decided to keep this blog so real. Oh the pics I post!
I also needed to relax my mind, attempt to de-stress my body and come down from flare up after flare up of PTSD. What does PTSD have to do with a kitchen revamp? A lot actually. Lots of people entering my home, stress of a revamp, sheer and utter exhaustion, not eating properly, a blown budget, getting a new truck, refinancing our mortgage, living in a constantly trashed house, and trying to get one of your children accessed for what you believe to be autism. In a matter of 10 LONG weeks, all those things add up to heavy, serious stress. Making PTSD easier and easier to flare. Each flare up in turn getting progressively more intense and severe. Needless to say, I needed to get my home in order and myself back to some kind of balance once again.
FINALLY……Kitchen pics! WOOHOOOO!!!!!!!
I know my kitchen is not for everyone. I am more than OK with that. It was not meant to be. It was custom built to my specifications and needs. I spent several hours designing it and years perfecting what I thought my dream kitchen could look like. I helped make it into my reality. It was incredible watching it all unfold. I can honestly say that I am in LOVE with it.
I am going to show you what my kitchen looked like before first. These pics are from a couple of years ago, Yes, you see Coke and Pepsi in the pics. That dates the pics to about 5 yrs ago. But you are able to see exactly how it looked.
Kitchen of the past 8 years….
View from the family room into the kitchen….Table area….Sink Before. My youngest decided to first wash the dishes. Then decided to jump into the sink and wash them that way….Sink area….Pantry area….Wall oven area with microwave….Awkward storage area that we decided was always fun to take pics in front of. Here is my oldest on graduation day….This is the flooring in the kitchen before. It was a slate look click in place flooring. I could never get it to look clean no matter what I used on it….Floor as it was coming up….View from office area….View to the entryway and basement areas of our home….Area by my sliding back door. Here my youngest is posing. She LOVES to pose!Ceiling during the revamp. Trust me it is an important pic in the kitchen….This is a pic of my butcher block cart (sorta). My Mom has the exact same cart as I do. Handy for me as I did not take any before pics of it. Yep, this means you will be seeing it in the finished kitchen.This is the top of the butcher block cart….
Now on to the kitchen of present day….
The basic concept for this kitchen design was to be open. I did not want cabinets or drawers. I instead opted for open shelves, baskets and buckets to organize my things.
This is the butter that stayed out in the kitchen during the ENTIRE revamp. It just got moved from place to place. The guys deemed it as the official kitchen mascot. Bodily harm was threatened when I attempted to throw out the butter and wash the container.Message between my oldest and her friend. This is the clean version.My Kitchen Design….It is very different from what we had before in some ways and very similar in others.This the view you get when you first enter my kitchen….The view from my Hubby’s office….Another view from the office area….What you see when look into the kitchen from the family room….This is another view of the kitchen…..This is a different view of the main part of the kitchen….Pantry area of the kitchen….
Now I am going to show you all the details that make it amazing….
These are counter top number 4. LOVE THEM! We always end up going back to Multi Colored Slate. I think I should start there from now on…..The kitchen color I am still not in LOVE with but works incredibly well in the kitchen. We named it Kermit The Frog Green.
This is Croak. You can not have a Kermit The Frog green kitchen and NOT have a frog in here of some form. She will have lights inside her soon so that she glows with happiness….
I have chalkboards all over the kitchen in carefully thought out places. This is my menu board.This is another one of my chalkboard areas. This is my grocery or to-do list area. The kids know NOT to use this area. They have 3 areas of their own in here to go nuts on….New sink. 9 inches deep, 18 inches wide, and 28 inches long. I am in LOVE!Sink….Sink area….This is my seriously kick ass faucet. It is a pro pot scrubber. This makes what we previously bought before from Lowe’s look like wimps.We left under the sink area open so that I could have a place for the dogs water and food. I like the look of it personally.Plywood flooring….Yes, I said plywood flooring. Stained and sealed….Flooring….Chevron pattern on the ceiling. This took us 4 days to put up. Those 4 days did not include all the cutting, sanding, or painting. There is about 3000 nails in my ceiling (give or take 1 or 2)….Knife block I am proud to say I built. I have a LOT of knives, I know!Appliance central. They finally have space to be on my counter top!This is my flat screen that is ceiling mounted. This is not in the original design but got added when I bought it for the kids to use during the revamp. I have Chromecast on this so that I can stream internet and music on it.I wanted to have fun with our dinner ware. So pizza plates in various sizes and stainless steel bowls won out. The top shelf houses our glass containers for warming anything up in the microwave.This is our old table that I revamped for the new kitchen. I stained the top, added different legs, and bought inexpensive chairs to finish the look….Another view of my table area. I LOVE my curtains. They were an amazing find!This was a solution to a load bearing wall that we were unable to take out. We turned it into shelves. I also have a charging station in the second shelf. I will be getting LED lights in these bad boys soon.Hey check it out…it is the butcher block cart making it’s appearance. This is what I am using as my center island. I love the fact that I can move it anywhere I need to and it is truly the perfect size for my kitchen.Top of the butcher block. Prepped with fresh stuff to make homemade pickles.This is on my wall. I love it. Each bucket organizes my stuff perfectly for me. From scissors to scoops, to spatulas, to whisks, to shredders and finally to hodgepodge stuff that gets used regularly….This is my silverware area…. As you can tell, there are not drawers or cabinets in this kitchen.This is a painters bucket from Lowe’s that I use to keep all my cooking utensils in….This is my wall oven and open shelves that surround it. My induction top cook top sits above it. My spices are in 4 baskets in the lowest shelves.Here is my second range I use for batch cooking . Yes, I now have 2 cook tops and 2 ovens. After several years of dreaming of getting a second one, this was one of the first purchases I made.Here is the main set of shelves that house all my mixing bowl, baking / serving bowls, to all our glasses. I choose to use mason jars for our glasses as they also double as my preferred food storage for left overs. This saved on space for us BIG time….Fridge area. Baskets on top hold my must haves for homemade skin care stuff and also our pitchers….This area houses our microwave, and also my youngest’s helping baskets and her mini fridge. She has sensory issues and we are currently having her tested for Autism. I got tired of constantly battling her in regards to eating. She eats more often than we do. The fridge houses healthy snacks and drinks for her that she can get on her own. Eliminating all the food drama we were going through. She has her independence, I know what she is eating, and now she will even eat her regular meals with us.Floor to ceiling shelves that hide the long hole we found that extends from the floor to the ceiling.This area holds my cook books, vases, and medical stuff like band aids etc.This is my pantry. Yes, all of it. No, I am not kidding. I do have a section in my basement for all my batch foods that we can.. Remember, we don’t eat processed foods. I LOVE LOVE LOVE my Coca-Cola bins. The hold all our fresh fruit and veggies that we snack on. I bought glass containers and choose to use chalkboard labels to help us know what is them. The lower half is baskets for all our other pantry items. One basket holds my baking supplies like sprinkles, raw sugar, extracts etc. Another basket holds our homemade dried fruits and snacks. Even our towels are in here. I kept everything simple and open.
So there you have it….My amazing kitchen that we seriously thought would NEVER get done. 72 hrs turned into 10 LONG weeks.
I simplified, purged, and designed it to be the kitchen of my dreams. Stumbling blocks along the way turned out to be the mother of some of the coolest parts about the kitchen. In the end I have no regrets. I did not settle for anything in this kitchen. It is exactly what I wanted and built to my design.
I know that the openness, colors, size and layout of my pantry is not for everyone (I hear it all the time). My response is that’s OK, I can help them design their dream kitchen because they are standing in mine.
Very beautiful!! I love the no cupboards/cabinets. Long work process, but looks so very worth it all.
Sending thoughts for the tough diagnosis process as well. *Hugs*
Thank you Candice!!! I love the no cupboards and cabinets too. We are waiting list For Reine to tested and diagnosed. I am just glad I FINALLY got someone to take me serious enough to have her tested. I have known something was off since she was 6 months old. Our family doctor ignored me.
Wow! I love the openness elements (one of those organizer shows let me know I am a visual person–apparently you are too;) ) and the sheer genius of it! So proud of you that you didn’t “settle” at all! How practical and yet appealing. Congrats! (and what an awesome hubby-man to help put it together!
Simplicity Redesigned 
Very beautiful!! I love the no cupboards/cabinets. Long work process, but looks so very worth it all.
Sending thoughts for the tough diagnosis process as well. *Hugs*
Thank you Candice!!! I love the no cupboards and cabinets too. We are waiting list For Reine to tested and diagnosed. I am just glad I FINALLY got someone to take me serious enough to have her tested. I have known something was off since she was 6 months old. Our family doctor ignored me.
Love love love the industrial look of it! Also, you have a lot of shredders. lol
Thank you Wendy! We do have a lot of shredders, we do not use pre shredded cheese only blocks of cheese.
Wow! I love the openness elements (one of those organizer shows let me know I am a visual person–apparently you are too;) ) and the sheer genius of it! So proud of you that you didn’t “settle” at all! How practical and yet appealing. Congrats! (and what an awesome hubby-man to help put it together!
Thank you! And yes, I am have an AMAZING Hubby!