Lina has been planning + waiting on renovating our kitchen for years. I’m pretty sure that she had the idea to renovate as soon a we bought the apartment. But, of course, we didn’t have the money then, since we’d just bought an apartment. Nevertheless, she got to drawing + planning + researching. Every year, we discussed renovating, but I had a hard time committing to thinking about spending the money. Plus, I didn’t think it was that bad. At the same time, as times passed,I understood more + more the need to redo our kitchen – as the dude who renovated it before we moved in, did a sloppy, lazy job of it. Not to mention, so much was done wrong.
Just as we were about the make the commitment to renovate, the pandemic struck. And we had also had the idea to buy a car. We weighed the pros and cons, and decided to buy a car and put off the kitchen. Best. Decision. Ever. The car gave us a sense of freedom during the pandemic and has made our entire life so much easier.
But, after a year of the pandemic + some life changing experiences and decisions (the loss of our little Peanut + deciding to move from this apartment – yep. I just snuck in that little announcement), we decided it was time to renovate! Of course, Lina already had a design completely planned. Since we are moving out from this apartment, though, we decided to tweak the plans a little in order to make it a bit cheaper. The plans would still have our style, but not be our absolute dream kitchen. We’re saving that for the house that we want to build!
We went back and forth on how much to renovate, but in the end, we decided to tear out everything except for a pantry cupboard + the refrigerator/freezer and go with a new, minimalist IKEA kitchen.
Lina re-designed, organized, and planned the entire kitchen completely by herself. We went through it + discussed it, and then ordered the whole damn thing from IKEA. In the meantime, Lina also contacted different contractors who could come in, tear down our old kitchen, and build/install the new one. We decided to go with builders just to make our life easier. And we had worked hard to save enough money to be able to afford that as well.
In early March, the kitchen was delivered to us, and we had boxes and appliances everywhere. Of course, a few things were not available (some cabinet doors + the dishwasher), so we had to wait a little. In any case, the builders came + tore out (and took away/recycled!) the old kitchen and began to build the new one. It took them about 4 days to get the work done, plus one morning a week and a half later to put up the things that were late arriving.
As of today, the new kitchen is in + the whole room (plus the entire apartment!) has gotten a fresh, clean coat of white paint. We did the painting ourselves, though, to save mou-lah. I’m so excited that I thought it was time to share a post of my photo documentation of the process.
before: the tired, old, mismatched kitchen
delivery + demo = chaos!
progress: it’s happening!
painting the entire apartment: gaaaaah
it’s all about the details
after photos from a sunny saturday morning
Well, what do you think? We’re super satisfied! And very excited to have painted the entire apartment as well. So, we’ll enjoy this fresh, new kitchen over the next 3 months and then hopefully the next owners will make tons of memories + yummy meals in here as well. More about our move in an upcoming blog post!
one last look: before + after
happy weekend, loves. xoxo. liz.
Looks great! A lot of work went into that. I’m happy for you two!
Thank you! It was so worth it!
That looks great. Wonderful that you get to enjoy it before you move and your new tenants will appreciate it as well I’m sure!
We are so glad, too, that we get to enjoy it for a little while, yes! And, so far, I’m loving it. 🙂
Very “spiffed”! Looks great.
Why thank you! 😉
Awesome job! Also, this inspires me to tackle a similar project starting this fall. (And – happy moving/building!)
Thanks! Ohhhh will be interesting to see what you do!