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Coronavirus Kitchen Chronicles I

In keeping with these “Stay Home” days, I’ve been photographing my kitchen more than anything else. 

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I never intended to redo my kitchen during a pandemic. It was completely an accident, but possibly one brought on by occasional “arrow prayers” for a kitchen leak. Please, please, please! 🙏🏻

My kitchen was completely functional and relatively new construction, so I didn’t *need* a new kitchen, but the medium-brown cabinets and sixteen-year-old linoleum were the last holdouts in the Old-World-to-Farmhouse transformation my friend Joy Elben had worked on our house in the last three years. Realistically, the kitchen was next in line after “pay off the minivan,” but that seemed really far off. The only solution was a nice, insurance-worthy leak in the plumbing. As it happened, our leak wasn’t catastrophic, but it was enough to get the ball rolling. And oh boy, did it roll.

It all started one day in early February when I was rushing my family out of the house to go to my nieces’ birthday party. I bent down to grab their gifts from my office floor, and I felt that the carpet was curiously cool . . . damp, actually. By the next day we had fans and a dehumidifier doing their noisy work in our kitchen. The refrigerator hose had popped, and there was already mold growing in the wall.

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The flooring on both sides of the wall was damaged, and the stage was set to put in the “coastal oak” vinyl we had been eyeing. Warmer than tile, more resistant to water than wood, and much, much easier on the eyes than our ugly old linoleum, it was a good solution for the whole downstairs. We jumped right on that, and Antonio Romero’s team (contact info below) installed it within the week. Another week or so and Bob Stauffacher had painted our walls a nice “greige” color – Revere Pewter – a nice, warm gray that complements the flooring and is eggshell rather than flat, like our old paint. (I know, I know. I regretted that decision for 9 years.)

The flooring and paint were beautiful and looked great in every room of the house . . . except the kitchen. Those brown cabinets!

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With everything already in some degree of disarray, we decided to bite the bullet and take on the kitchen project.

In my next post, I’ll tell you about the cabinet solution — we have a BIG kitchen and were on a budget, so it was an adventure! But for now, check out the before-and-after of the office and living room spaces that I sent to Joy when the flooring was in and the paint was done. My big office dresser wasn’t even off casters yet, but I was so excited by the way everything turned out that I couldn’t help but jump the gun and send her an “after” video. More about Joy in the next post, too.

Joy Elben Design

Antonio Romero Flooring – 619-726-4852

Jose Romero Drywall Repair – 619-666-0215

Mountain View Painting

Home Depot Coastal Oak Luxury Vinyl

Benjamin Moore Revere Pewter Paint

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