Partial Cabinet Refacing - A Process Revealed, Part 2

While we were engaged in a kitchen remodel in Fleming Island, a neighbor of my then current client, caught me getting in my car as I was leaving. She and her husband, Bill were relocating back to the Jacksonville area from Alabama. Bill was still in Alabama and Sue was taking charge of getting the house move-in ready.

Sue had just returned from a big box store where she received a quote for cabinet refacing. She told me the quote she received for refacing their existing cabinets. Sue said she saw the amazing job we were doing for our current clients and asked if I could take a look at her kitchen and give her a quote for redesigning their kitchen. I scheduled an initial consultation for the following day. Other subcontractors were there working on flooring, so we came into a hot mess. But, we're right at home in those "hot messes"! No problem for us!

We talked about Sue's vision for her cream color "Cottage Chic" designed kitchen including all the options she desired.

I immediately realized that taking Bill and Sue's kitchen into the current decade would mean doing a little more than just refacing.

So during our initial consultation, we discussed the following.

1) The first thing I noticed upon entering the dated kitchen was the awkward placement of the dishwasher. Who loads dishes behind the sink? Dah! So we decided to remove the end cabinet and relocate the dishwasher next to the sink.

2) A pot and pan drawer stack cabinet next to the range was needed.

3) We could shuffle and repurposed the cabinets to also house a much needed trash can pull-out and still stay in budget.

4) The corner base on the sink side was a blind corner. Don't you just hate crawling inside those dark blind corner cabinets? So did the client. We needed to add a blind corner pull-out shelf for convenience.

5) Finally, we quickly realized that we needed to add to that short wall if we were going to fit 42" upper wall cabinets there.

Meanwhile we talked about adding wallpaper in the kitchen and bathroom, adding a chandelier in the breakfast nook and some simple window panels to the scope of work. This I could do.

I asked Sue to give me a chance to come up with a design where we could repurpose the base cabinets and make some changes to the upper cabinets. With her wants and desires in mind it was "off to the drawing board".

Keeping Sue and Bill's budget in mind, we were able to give her new 42" upper wall cabinets, new granite countertops, onyx backsplashes, a 3 drawer drawer stack, a farm sink, new faucet, soft close doors and drawers, a trash can pull-out, new hardware with knobs/ pulls and a few other details that enabled her to have the kitchen she really wanted.

Here are the professional after photos courtesy of my favorite photographer , Tiffany Winans of Tiffany Michelle Photography.

Crown Molding,wainscoting and wallpaper were added after the cabinets were installed. We really wanted a third pendant over the bar, but since the ceiling had just been painted by another contractor, we decided to leave the two.