Green Kitchen Remodel
By Jenn (TinyChoices.com) | September 9, 2010
I moved into my apartment about five years ago, and since then had done small upgrades around my home– I painted rooms fun colors, and replaced the sink and cabinet in my bathroom. These kinds of things made such a huge visual impact while still not requiring a huge amount of time, effort, or money.
But the one room I’d never gotten around to was the kitchen… it needed more love than the other rooms in my place, and I just never had the time to dedicate to it. Fast-forward to this springtime, and Perk #1 of Losing My Job: I finally had time to redo my kitchen! Of course, this directly corresponds to Drawback #1 of Losing My Job: I had less money to redo my kitchen. But this was ok– if anything, it helped with my commitment to keeping this minor renovation as green as possible, which ya’ll know was, of course, at the top of my list.
First, let me present you the Before Kitchen– perfectly functional, yet perfectly depressing:
And now, the After shot:
Let’s break this down piece by piece:
Cabinets: Nearly everyone tried to convince me to get new cabinets, but I just didn’t see the point of that– the ones I had were actual solid wood, even if they were plain and ugly. The thought of replacing those with pressboard cabinets from Ikea just didn’t make sense– even cheap ones would have cost me around $1500, and my existing cabinets worked just fine, as they did and admirable job of holding my plates and cups.
So I did a lot of poking around online, and found lots of before and after pics from folks who painted their cabinets. In every case, the cabinets looked fantastic and made the kitchen look entirely different and wonderful– so, that was the route I decided to take. This was, hands-down, the most time consuming portion of the reno, mostly because I don’t have a garage or other large work space and so did this mostly out in the common hallway of my building. I took off all of the doors and hinges (and made sure to number them, otherwise reinstalling would have been a nightmare, scuffed up the doors and frames using a handheld sander, then primed and painted using Benjamin Moore Natura (no-VOC) paint. They came out fantastic and really brighten up the room! And, the addition of pretty turquoise glass knobs from Anthropologie pulls the whole thing together.
Countertop: The old countertop was chipped and cracked formica, which just depressed me. But I was stuck for a long time on what to replace it with– the eco-countertop options out there are gorgeous but wayyyy spendy, so those were out of my price range. I didn’t want to get another formica countertop, as that’s made from petroleum and uses crazy glues in the pressboard backing. I thought about doing a DIY concrete counter, and while I *love* the look of them I just knew that project was beyond the scope I wanted to get involved with at this time. So after (literally) years of debate, I ended up going with a wood butcherblock countertop from Ikea. I love the way the wood looks, and Ikea has a commitment to sustainably harvesting their wood products– while it’s not fully in place yet, it’s a start… and I needed to choose something, so this seemed like the most practical, eco, and affordable option.
Floor: This was the least eco portion of the whole reno. I could have chosen bamboo flooring, but since my whole apartment has hardwood floors, I wanted a different look. I could have chosen linoleum, but the price per square foot added up surprisingly quickly, and I didn’t really love the way it looked. So instead I chose some gorgeous ceramic floor tile from Italy, in a handmade/terracotta kind of finish. Yes, these are heavy and were shipped all the way across the ocean… but they make me so happy, so I just went with it. You know, we all pick and choose our battles…
Walls: After weeks of paint-swatching and paint-chipping and deep contemplation and a bit of agonizing, I chose an incredible yellow Benjamin Moore paint color. Why is it incredible, you might ask? During the day, it’s light and bright and airy. At night, it’s just about the color of nacho cheese sauce. At first this bothered me, but I’ve come to love my Jeckle-and-Hyde kitchen– it’s like two for the price of one! And of course I chose the Natura no-VOC paint for the job.
Have you done any upgrades/renovations around your home? How did you manage to keep it as green as possible?
Topics: Crafts/DIY, Home | 3 Comments »
Excllent work there, it looks great!! We did a total kitchen rehaul almost 3yrs back. Unfortunately the kitchen was a non-functional mess, but we did bring the stuff to a dump where they sort and recycle to waste (well technically you sort). Alos went with the yellow colour for the walls and totally love it. Yours looks actually much safer too, with the improvement regarding the washer dryer(?) on the counter versus the metal thing, which looks a bit bent.
Wow, it looks great! I love the wood countertop.
Looks great. I’d make two (unsolicited) suggestions: under cabinet lighting and a hanging rail. The lighting will make cooking much more pleasurable and it can be left on during parties as accent lighting. I also find it super handy for not completely blinding me when I need something from the kitchen in the middle of the night. The kitchen rail is equally awesome. I’m a carpentry enthusiast, and I’ve been building my own cabinets for oh, four years now. Anyway, during the drawerless stage of the operation, I installed a rail system from Home Depot. Pretty much everything I need utensil-wise to prepare a meal hangs on that rail. I also have a spice rack and a small shelf that I use as a dish drying rack for small things. Home Depot quit selling the rails but the Rosle accessories work. Unfortunately, the Rosle accessories are crazy expensive. I wish I’d gone the Ikea route, but the Swedes have yet to invade Southern Appalachia.