My 50 Shades of Grey Kitchen Renovation

Today I’m talking all about my grey kitchen renovation.  It’s a little bit of a departure from the normal recipe posting—but it’s where all of my recipes are born!  I hope you enjoy this sneak peek behind the scenes into my kitchen!

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My Grey Kitchen Renovation

We are coming up on the 2 year anniversary in our “new” house, and it’s finally time for me to share the after pictures of our massive home renovation!  When we first saw our house I thought that it needed a little freshening up—new paint, new floors, and maybe some new kitchen cabinets.  Ha!  We basically bought a fixer upper without realizing how much of a project it was going to be, and spent the first 18 months in constant construction.  It was….. A LOT.  (and we’re still not done!)  Our kitchen renovation was probably the biggest part of the remodel.  (I’ll share some before and after shots at the bottom of this post!)

Also, can I add a side note?  I’m not a lifestyle photographer!  Give me food any day of the week.  My kids, maybe.  My house—this is hard!  I just snapped pics the best I could with my iPhone, and hope it will give you the right idea!

^^^ I live for this glorious view of the sunset every night!  It’s so beautiful.  We get a glimpse of the Olympic Mountains—the mountain we can see most clearly is named “The Brothers.”  How perfect is that?

50 Shades of Grey

When we bought our house my mind swirled with ideas—things to buy, layouts to figure out, rooms to assign.  One of the first things I thought of a color palette.  Grey was (and is) the hit color of the moment and I love it.  I got right to work painting color samples on poster boards and moving them about the house, viewing them in different lighting.   I’m not sure how many different greys I sampled—it felt like 50?  {you can insert many terrible jokes here—trust me, we did!} I needed a grey that wasn’t too purple, too brown, too green, or too blue.  It had to be a true grey!  I finally settled on Sherwin Williams Knitting Needles and I LOVE it!  A friend of mine coined the term “grite” and it totally is—the perfect bright, light grey.  The trim and ceilings are Sherwin Williams Snowbound.  And the exterior of our house is almost a black grey, Sherwin Williams Iron Ore, and I LOVE that one too!

Down to the Studs

For our grey kitchen renovation we went all the way down to the studs.  Heck, we got rid of studs and put in new ones….and in new places.  We tore out walls, we moved walls, we closed windows, we vaulted the drop ceilings, we made doors.  We changed it all.  And by *we* I mean our construction crew.  Irving and I played general contractors, but didn’t do any of the actual building ourselves.  Because a marriage can only take so much stress!  

9 Weeks without a Kitchen

We went about 9 weeks without a kitchen while we underwent our kitchen renovation.  We cooked out of our laundry room, ordered take out, and got creative!  I had my single burner that I use for blog videos, an Instant Pot, and a microwave.  I was kind of shocked at how well we did eat, considering I was literally cooking food on top of my washing machine.  I didn’t miss a week of recipe posting (which is more than I can say currently!).  I made pumpkin spice oatmeal, coconut tapioca pudding, and Red Curry Soup with lentils.  I used my Instant Pot on it’s saute mode as an auxiliary burner.  We ate pasta multiple times a week.  And by the time that I thought I couldn’t take it anymore…..our reno was done!  Our first meal in our new kitchen was Thanksgiving 2017….and it was glorious!

^^^ Hard at work—we didn’t even have the backsplash in, but we were desperate to cook!!!

The Appliances

Choosing the appliances for our grey kitchen renovation was an important step.  Once we figured out which appliances to get, we built the cabinets around them.  We chose a 6 burner stove—the GE Monogram 36″ Professional Range— and I LOVE it.  I never use all 6 at the same time—but I could if I really wanted to!  Each burner is the same power, rather than a strong burner and a smaller burner.  I like that I can use large pots with room to spare.  We loved the look of an exposed range hood, but didn’t want one that was SO bulky.  We’ve been really happy with this GE slimline version that slides out (it tucks in to cabinet depth when not pulled forward).  Our Microwave is also GE Monogram.  Our dishwasher is the GE Cafe, as it was on clearance at our local appliance store!  It’s big, and gets the job done (often 2-3 times a day).  It also has a pretty flexible arrangement, so I literally throw everything in there!  Pots, wine glasses, even my knives (I know, I know, I’m supposed to hand wash those!)  The only thing I would change about the dishwasher is that the handle and it’s placement in the corner of our kitchen means we can’t open that drawer when the dishwasher is running.  Not a huge deal, but if I were to do it again I would get a dishwasher without a handle.

Our fridge is a bit of a beast.  I mean, it is HUGE.  To the point where we kind of lose things and forget what we have because it is so big.  We purchased the LG Door in Door fridge, with french doors on the top, and pull out drawer and pull out freezer.  It has the knock on glass door that lights up so you can see the inside of the fridge, which is basically just a fun party trick.  I’ve never needed to knock to see what was inside on my own!  It stores a lot of food, and there are a lot of variables to switch around to accommodate different sized bottles, pots, etc.!  The water and ice dispenser isn’t super intuitive, which means that most of our guests get water on the floor before figuring it out, which can also be a fun party trick! 

The Cabinets

We ordered our cabinets through Home Depot.  The quality is pretty good—we sprung for the soft close on all of the doors and pull outs and are so happy about that!  No doors for the kids to slam!  We chose the Shaker style to be a bit minimal and a bit traditional—we didn’t want to be overly modern.  Though sometimes I look at those swanky smooth and modern finishes with a bit of envy—next house!  We chose “Dove White” for the upper cabinets and full height cabinets to keep it light and bright.  We anchored the kitchen with darker “Greyloft” for the lower cabinets. 

The ordering process was pretty tedious.  We worked with one of the HD designers, but in the end it didn’t feel like he really listened to us.  We came with a proposed layout, but asked to avoid corners.  Instead we ended up with 3 lazy Susans!  Whoops.  But they store more than we could ever need, so it’s fine.  We learned a lot through the process, and thought of several better layouts after we finished.  Whoops.  Again…next kitchen!  The one thing I do love about the layout is that when we entertain my friends can sit at the counter and snack on appetizers while I cook the main meal!  Same for the boys doing homework while I prepare dinner.  I’m never cut off from the activity, and I love that.  

We made sure to order several large pull outs to store appliances and I’m so glad!  We store most of our appliances like my Instant Pot, mixer, Air Fryer, and food processor in these pull outs and it keeps the counters less cluttered.  The only appliances I store on the counter are my Vitamix and my toaster (and you can probably see in some of the pictures—they sit in a little nook on the counter tucked to the left of the microwave, so they are out of the way)!

Drawer Dividers

I didn’t love the drawer dividers that could be built into the drawers, so we opted to buy our own organizers separately.  I love having these large drawers that fit all of my cooking gadgets!

Grey Quartz Countertops

We chose a grey quartz for our countertops.  We originally wanted a white quartz, but really struggled to find the right white.  A lot of the veining looked a little too much like varicose veins—eeeuww!  And as the designer we talked to at one store said, “whites fight.”  Nothing matched our cabinets….until we looked at the greys!  I really love this grey, as it looks a bit like concrete.  The slabs are massive, and it took 4 strong guys to carry the pieces up the stairs of our split level and into our upstairs kitchen.  We had a waterfall style made for the end of our peninsula and I love how clean and finished it looks!  

Mini Subway Tile

We have a mini 1/2″ x 1″ grey marble subway tile backsplash.  Again, it feels modern without being overly so.  It adds a lot of texture to the kitchen!  I hope to use more of it when we finally get to our bathroom remodels! 

Single Basin Undermount Sink

We chose a large undermount single basin sink in black quartz.  While it’s great for washing big pots, I do miss having a divided sink.  I find it to be challenging to cook when there are dishes in the sink between dishwasher loads.  It’s especially cumbersome when I need to drain pasta!  Irving loves it, but he does more of the big pot washing and less of the day to day cooking.  Irving jokes than in our next house we can just get two sinks so we can both be happy!  

We chose the black quartz finish and it hides/prevents dirt and stains well!  We also chose a matte black faucet and instant hot water, and I really love the look!  (we thought we would also choose matte black cabinet hardware but it looked so “stripey” and we ended up going with stainless steel handles. I like the mixed metal look.)

Hardwood Floors

We opted for engineered hardwood floors by Shaw for all of the flooring (so far) in the house.  Because the space is so open we didn’t want to have seperate tile in the kitchen area.  The hardwoods have held up really well so far.  The color we chose is Timberwolf—a slightly grey brown, with heavy scraping, which seems to be hiding the dirt and scratches.

The Dining Room

Our grey kitchen renovation was sort of like that old sweater with a loose thread—tug on it and the whole thing unravels!  Our kitchen shared a wall and a drop ceiling with our dining room….and we took that all down.  Once that was down we “had to” fix up the dining room as well.  We actually closed a sliding door in the kitchen and replaced it with a window over the sink.  We then made french doors in the dining room where a window had been previously so that we could access the deck (which we also rebuilt…but that’s another story!).  The dining room led to the center staircase of the house, and that led to the living room, so it was one project after another.  It was a lot of work and chaos, but now it all flows together and we’re really happy with it.

Our dining chairs are from Dania, and are made from “manmade materials!”  I love them—especially that they are wipeable!  The table is from Crate and Barrel, and the rug is from West Elm.  Our barstools are another “manmade material” find from Ashley Furniture Homestore.  (In this picture the deck doors look like they are leading to nowhere, but we have since finished our deck!)

^^^ Stairway light from West Elm

Before and After Kitchen Renovation Pictures

Whew—it’s been a long haul, but I’m so glad our grey kitchen renovation is finished!  Ready for the before and after pictures?

There was almost NO counter space in our original kitchen.  The counter space to the left was the only accessible counter space, as the space on the right was tucked under the cabinets around the stove.  On the very left edge of the before picture was a wall…without cabinets.

We knew we needed some serious storage in this kitchen.  We built massive pantry cupboards and they store everything we need and more.

The old dining room was carpeted in wall to wall white carpet—shudder!  We opened up the stairway with a cable railing that makes the space look larger as well!

I hope you’ve enjoyed my grey kitchen renovation, and has given you a glimpse into the room in my house where I spend the most time!  I love working in this grey kitchen—it is such a refreshing change after so many years in a teeny tiny galley kitchen!  I love testing and creating new recipes in this space!  

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