Before and After: A mostly "After" story, Part 1

I'm not sure what my problem is, but I am really bad a remembering to take "before" pictures. I am also really bad at understanding where my photos go once they leave my phone for life in the "cloud." I just can't keep track of all of these technological "advances." Thank goodness my clientfriend was on the ball. *wipes brow*

In any case, I'm here to share a before and after story. It really is mostly a series of after photos that I took on my iPad because my phone decided to rid itself of battery life for no apparent reason at just the wrong time. I had every expectation that the iPad Mini would produce great photos, but again, technology was tricking me. Superhubs has since informed me that tablet cameras aren't as good as phone cameras and now I want to go cry in my coffee. Oh well. I'm not a professional photographer anyway, so they were never going to be great pictures no matter what gadget I used to take them.

My super-stylish friend had been on the outs with her kitchen and laundry rooms for a while. She didn't love the look of the kitchen, and they needed a better laundry room situation as well. The builder hadn't done anybody any favors when they made the laundry room nothing more than a hallway that connected the house to the garage. There was no drop zone, no place for jackets and backpacks, and hardly any space at all for the act of laundry doing.  To solve this problem, we ended up borrowing space from a nearby bathroom, and ended up re-doing that room, too. 

Since the scope of the project would make for a painfully long post, today I give you...

THE KITCHEN:

The kitchen was a sea of brown and, while she had beautiful things, she never felt this space was representative of her taste. She has always been one to love the mix, and eschew the "match" style of decorating, so this was a project that was just right up my personal style ally. I admit to having a strong case of client envy going on...

The kitchen, before. This is like one those makeover pictures where the "before" photos depict people who have just awakened with a monster hangover and who really need a breakfast taco and a Tylenol, not makeup advice. This is not representative of a normal day; it is a photo taken after an especially crazy morning and I told her not to bother cleaning up:

 

Brown cabinets: Check. Brown floors: Check. Brown Countertops: Check. Brown backsplash.... CHECK.

They didn't love the function of this stove, with the oven being clear on the other side of the island. Also, the room was sorely missing any kind of focal point, so we fixed those problems. They felt a built-in coffee station would be nice, so we reconfigured one wall to hold the microwave and and a fancy-schmancy espresso/coffee maker rather than the previous warming drawer/oven/microwave combo. (I told you about my client envy, didn't I?)

White soapstone countertops, a marble mosaic backsplash, a new range hood, and PAINT for the brown cabinets, made this kitchen go from drab to FAB in just 17 short weeks. (I may have put the last detail in there for the homeowner, who probably just went to pour herself a drink after being reminded of that duration bit. ) No project is without hiccups and, in this case, the timeline was much LOOOOONGER than expected.

We originally toyed with white and gray marble, gray cabinets, etc. as we had liked those kitchens we had seen in just about every decorating blog/Pinterest/online magazine. However, seeing it everywhere also had us worried about longevity and trendiness so, to be safe, we opted for a more classic approach, and I am really glad we did.

The Kitchen, after:

We squared off the arched opening in between the living and kitchen, and had it trimmed out to match the style of the fireplace and to give us a place to add some lighting. With 13' ceilings, most of the recessed light was all watered-down by the time it got to human height, so we brought these sconces in to provide a cozy alternative to the overheads, and ditched some pendants in lieu of some recessed LED lights.

Have you ever wondered what 200 pounds of fruit looks like? It looks like those lovely, antique stone fruits, which are just one of a BUNCH of lovely collections in this home. 

 

Before:

After:

Across the room was a bar/desk area, which was a perfect spot to reconfigure and add extra storage and a little wine fridge.  We had new lower cabinets made and built in the wine storage. For reasons of budget, we decided not to reconfigure the upper cabinets, but rather keep them, and spruce them up with some leaded glass inserts and some better undercab lighting... I don't feel sad about it one bit.

Before:

After:

We had the windows trimmed too, and then had some lovely silk roman shades made. The Chartreuse/Citron color is a fun accent and picks up a subtle tone found in the rug. The stairway near the table needed a little roman too, but we decided to contrast there and did this:

The brown stair rail was painted in the same color as the bar cabinets, so we loved the idea of a bit o' gray in that little shade.  The chandelier is something she inherited from her lovely mother, who also had impeccable taste and was a true southern gentlewoman. I always think it is so great to see those special objects being used in a home. I think it's what gives a space soul. 

So, there you have a pretty good picture of Project Kitchen Update. I'll be back for another installment to show you what happened in the other spaces. I must warn in advance. The bathroom is bonkers awesome and IMPOSSIBLE for an amateur like me to photograph. The pictures do it no justice at all. 

I leave you today with this, a good overall shot from the living room. I just love it (the kitchen, not my mediocre photograph... Oof.)

 

Comments

[Lois Laurie]

Nice job, Stephanie ‼️

[Stephanie]

Lovely design! Please have Stephanie contact me. I live in central Austin and have several areas of my home and guest house that I need help with.
Regards,
Stephanie T

[S. Shaw]

Major heart eyes over that leaded glass! Gorgeous.