Welcome to our new kitchen! This kitchen renovation is something we’ve been wanting to do for years. We moved into our condo 5 years ago, and with the open layout of our space, the kitchen was always the space I wanted to attack first. They are also notoriously expensive, and I was quite intimidated to take it on! After our IVF twin miscarriage in April, I really needed to stop putting things off for our fertility cycles. I also needed to sink my heart into something I could control, and something that resulted in a positive outcome. I’m a huge believer in turning heartbreak around with creativity, and this was just the project I needed. I am SO happy with how it turned out! When your done reading, you’ll find all sources at the bottom of this post.

First… shall we check out the before?! I can’t even believe we lived with it for 5 years!

And, the after!

I wanted the look and feel of our kitchen renovation to be really fresh, coastal and bright. It was white on white all the way for me – I don’t consider myself adventurous with my design style, and I’m completely fine with that! I think this is such a timeless design.

When I started, I had NO idea how to go about even starting a project like this. I asked my design friend Karly Dryer design to confirm some design choices and she introduced me to a few contractors. I interviewed them and got the quotes… let me say that it was shocking to see some of the price differences! Now, I’m not here to put down any profession, but contractors can be a bit, shall we say, challenging. Luckily, I chose a great one, and he worked as the project manager, working to coordinate the trades people like the cabinet maker, tiler, plumber, counter top. Some of the materials I arranged myself strictly to save money (contractors can sometimes get a better price, but it can often be a situation where it’s easy for them to spend your money, and they don’t shop around to get the best price). I spent time looking for better prices than he quoted, and sometimes went with his price.

We ripped out everything to the studs and kept the layout the same. The only thing we could replace was that lovely 90’s glass block window (darn strata bylaws). I considered covering it with a faux window or shelving, but it was a little too risky and I was worried it would be too busy for the space. We made it work, and I think it looks SO much better than it did, especially thanks to that little faux roman shade.

I wanted white on white as a clean canvas and chose a white quartz, white subway tiles (with sealed bright white grout), white shaker cabinets and a white cast iron under mount sink (I didn’t go with the farmhouse apron style because I felt it was too busy for the space).

Gold is still very much ‘me’ and felt that black would have been too dark for the space, so we chose a beautiful bright brushed gold Aquabrass faucet and brushed gold pulls from Bradford Hardware (little story: bought some pulls online and when they came, they were the total wrong colour for the space! Huge fail. I went into Bradford and was able to get the perfect style and colour. Sometimes, it’s important to be able to see things in person, and it was a bit of an expensive mistake).

Choosing a light fixture for the space was a difficult choice for me – something that gave off lots of light, wasn’t too fussy or trendy, I settled on this gorgeous one from CF Interiors, and they were SO helpful in helping me pick juuuust the right one… I really needed a little hand holding on that one.

The custom open corner shelving adds a natural wood element and some decorative appeal. It cut the storage in the kitchen, but I don’t regret it at all.

Now, can we talk about the appliances?! I’ve never had new appliances! It was SO fun to work with Coast Appliances and pick these out. We went with Kitchenaid for the stove, fridge and dishwasher because I just love the look. The team there was so helpful in walking me through the process to choose the best fit (literally and figuratively) for our space.

Warming up an all white space can be achieved with textures – the large jute rug (make sure to also get a rug pad) grounds the space so well, and the linen feel and colour of the roman shade breaks up the all white canvas.

Now, everyone wants to know… how much did you spend?! Hey girl, hey, I LOVE talking about money, so you asked the right person! I had a few items sponsored, but all in, I would say about $17-18K NOT including what you’d spend on appliances. This condo isn’t our forever home so I felt pretty good about that!

I shared a little more about the reno over on VITA Magazine if you want to read a more on a few, shall we say, snafus and see the full spread in their November print edition! P.S: I was also on Global TV sharing my fave kitchen cleaning hacks if you want to have a peek at the segment, here it is.

Sources:

KitchenAid fridge, stove, microwave by Coast Appliances (sponsored), Aquabrass Spaghetti faucet (sponsored), CF Interiors kitchen light, Bradford Hardware pulls, Lower Mainland Ceramics subway tile (sponsored), Kohler sink, Wayfair kitchen rug, Etsy faux roman shade

SHOP SOME OF MY FAVE KITCHEN ACCESSORIES HERE: