Ikea Kitchen Remodel at Newkirk Painting Plus, Columbus, Ohio

Here’s a picture of the south wall of our original 1950s/1960s kitchen. Some people claim that this style is coming back into vogue. If that’s true, it’s all yours baby. I’ve lived with this crap for 10 years and it is time to move on. Notice the metal cabinets and the speckled sea green countertops and backsplash. How about that light fixture? I did add the dishwasher and a new fridge in the not too recent past. When I first moved into the house, the cabinets were also that lovely sea green color. I’ll call it sea green but am really not sure what specific hue it is. Anyhow, I painted the cabinet doors white to tone down the wretched green.

Here’s a shot of the west wall. I replaced the stove that came with the place and those are plastic faux bricks covering the fireplace (the chimney later became a real obstacle in this process as it just out about 18″ from the wall and thus consumes valuable space). You can see we replaced the original linoleum floor as well. But these were all stopgap measures to just make the place tolerable until the real renovation took place.

Another pic of the corner of the kitchen.

Here’s a pic of the east wall of the kitchen. The portable pantry got moved to the other side of the wood cabinets dividing the room but used to be right by the door. We had the counter space covered with odds and ends including a microwave, toaster oven, keys, cookbooks, etc.

Here’s the north wall with much of the junk we took off the countertop in the previous pic. You can see the hardwood floors in the dining area. Also note the ceiling fan as its days may be numbered as well.

Some of the problems with this kitchen that we will attempt to address with our Ikea Kitchen Renovation Project -

1. Claustrophobia – the wooden cabinets really divide up the room and close it off. We want to open up the space and make it seem bigger than it really is. We also want to be able to move around freely without having to dodge each other if two or more people are in the kitchen. As you can see we have the dining table shoved up against the wall. It would be nice if we could pull it out and have seating and adequate space for four at the table.

2. Bring it into the 21st century – hey, this kitchen has had a great run but it’s time to get a little more modern.

3. Create an effective workspace triangle – our current layout with the fridge shoved into the corner just ain’t cutting it.

4. More cabinet space – despite the pictures, our countertops are constantly cluttered with kitchen junk. Let’s add some more cabinets to house all this junk and keep our counter space free.

5. No pantry – we have no real pantry and no room in our cabinets to store food.

6. Unify the room – let’s make the two rooms into one and bring them together with the same flooring.

7. Don’t break the bank – can we do all this and still have $$$ to eat?

So now you have an overview of how we started – let’s get it on!

A kitchen remodel begins with a plan. Uncle Jer came over and spent a solid day working up a plan. Despite that, the best laid plans often go astray and we have revised the plan several times. We also had a conversation about scrapping the plan altogether and embarking on some additional renovations like moving doors and windows and such. Luckily, we saw the light and decided against such craziness.

If you are interested, here are the kitchen plans. I’ve forgotten what draft this was but it wasn’t the first and it sho wasn’t the last.

That wood cabinet sure photos good. It just lifted right out of the floor. You can see how it just ate up the space in the kitchen. Notice the flooring. The wood floor doesn’t look that good in reality. Damn it! Everything is trying to look good before it gets scrapped.

Here’s where the other half of the wood cabinet resided. Both halves had been there quite a while.

And the cabinets go bye bye. How about that nice yellow paint. Wait until you see the original flooring.

Ok, we scraped up the vinyl tiles, the linoleum, some sub-flooring and here we are down to the bone. Actually, I kind of liked the original stuff for a few seconds.

More flooring going away.

The plastic faux bricks being removed from chimney. These were about 3/8″ thick and were just glued on. Brilliant! They photo much better than they really look.

Here’s a shot with all the upper cabinets gone on this wall along with the backsplash.

The chimney area has been stripped of the plastic faux bricks. We are making progress!

I thought I’d get another shot of the original flooring just for illustration’s sake.

And since it was being cut to hell so that we could relocate the stove. We had a licensed plumber move the gas line.

The puzzler – now how did this go back together?

This photo is actually day 4 but it shows all the cabinets gone and we have been stripped down to nothing here.

But Uncle Jer wouldn’t leave us without a makeshift sink to get by on for a while. The dishwasher, stove and fridge are still hooked up and running so life ain’t all bad. By the way, the free-floating dishwasher is a bit front heavy. We found that out the hard way.

Here we are framing out a wall and a soffit. The fridge will go to the right of that wall and the cabinets under the soffit.

We visited Ikea for most of this day and came up with some computerized plans – a 3d layout and overhead layout as well as a printout of everything we will need. We also picked up the new floor while we were down there.

So you’re doing a kitchen remodel? You’ve planned out the new kitchen, got your cabinets picked out, new flooring, etc., but have you spent any time figuring out what to do with all the old cabinets, countertops, and debris created from this huge remodel project?

What can we do with this stuff besides throw it away?

1. Old cabinets make great storage in the garage and basement. You can add your old cabinets to your garage or basement and increase your storage space. I considered this and kept a couple of my old cabinets for just that purpose.

2. Sell or give your cabinets to others via craigslist.org. I did this and sure enough someone was beating down a path to get them. She asked if I would hold them for her. Of course, I said I would try but couldn’t guarantee that they would still be there as I offered them first come, first serve. This only made her come sooner. She needed them to add to her apartment which was short on kitchen cabinets. It sounded a bit odd to me but I was happy not to ask any questions.

3. Sell cabinets to a scrap metal recycler. I had metal cabinets and considered this option as well.

4. When all else fails, trash ‘em. Here in Columbus, you can’t throw construction debris in your trash can. I had too much debris to dispose of that way anyways. I have rented dumpsters in the past but generally don’t like working around a dumpster for a week or so. They are huge and take up a lot of valuable space. If you have plenty of space and don’t mind the eyesore then rent one. It’s probably the best way to go for getting rid of debris.

You can try to haul it off yourself but you run some risks. If any debris flies out of your truck and damages another vehicle, you are liable. You risk a $500 or so littering fine as well or just at ticket for improperly transporting such materials. Generally, you need to secure your load and cover it in Ohio so that none flies out. Taking such trash to the dump yourself can save you a few bucks but make sure you do it right. Finally, city dumps are rarely pleasant places to visit. Keep these things in mind if you initially balk at a $200 dumpster rental fee.

Here are some shots of the new floor installation. It’s going a lot smoother with the floor from Lowe’s. We had to ditch the Ikea floor. Overall, this is a better floor choice than the Tundra Maple from Ikea which would have probably been too light. This flooring is oak and made by Pergo.

Don’t be fooled by the pieces of flooring laying on top of the floor. This floor is going together very nicely.

Again, that’s a spare piece of flooring on top of the floor so don’t be fooled by it.

This is a blog created to document our Ikea Kitchen Remodel. It is currently in reverse chronological order. Skim through it and check out our progress. Oh Yeah!

Here’s Uncle Jerry working on a transition strip. Check out that hat!

Here’s the finished product.

El piso es almost finito. Here are some shots. Y no es mojado.

Floor should be finished tomorrow.