So here’s what our kitchen used to look like:
I’ve talked before about my hatred for that cabinet on the end there. Whoever remodeled our kitchen made the very odd decision to use a corner cabinet in that space, even though it’s not, well….in the corner. The result is that it looks weird and juts out too far so that people hit their heads on it when they’re not used to our house. And it has a really sharp edge. Also, I hated it.
WHY?!
So I made this picture:
….and that’s where we left things for awhile.
But now there is progress!
Or maybe it’s more that part of doing a project where you actually go backward before you get to the progress part. But really I think it already looks better even though it’s just a blank wall right now.
So first we pried the crown molding off from around the cabinet (carefully, because we needed to reuse it on the wall once the cabinet was down):
Then we got a little worried about how heavy cabinets are, so Dave assembled this weird contraption:
But mostly we just had me and Ari holding the cabinet up while Dave unscrewed it from the wall. This worked fine….it didn’t just immediately fall of when the screws were out; we still had to wiggle it some to get it loose, so there were three of us to get it down to the floor without anyone or anything getting crushed.
Stupid cabinet.
Then it looked like this:
Just plain sheetrock underneath. We used drywall tape and spackling to fix the cracks and sanded it all down. Now it’s ready for paint.
And we needed to get the crown molding back up, so things would not look funny.
Dave took one piece and used it to set the angle on the miter saw:
And matched things up all nice and neat:
And then cut another little piece to make an end cap sort of thing for where the sheet rock ends and the tile above the sink starts:
Oh! Dave finally got to use the compressor and nail gun he bought awhile back for this:
It looks better now, because it’s all caulked and painted, but I forgot to take a close up picture of it that way.
Anyway, here is our newly opened up, head hitting hazard free kitchen (well, actually, people hit their heads on the chandelier over the kitchen table sometimes, too):
Open shelving will be going up in place of the cabinet. Not just any open shelving–we have a secret, surprise open shelving PLAN! It’s very exciting and I’m only 30% sure it’s going to work. So it might be just any open shelving. We’ll see how things go.
So much better now without that cabinet.
Taking down that cabinet was totally worth it! Shelving will look great and keep the kitchen open. I think everyone goes around their house wondering what the previous owner was thinking when they made their design choices!
There are SO MANY things to puzzle over in this house! 🙂
What’s funny is the next owners are going to wonder why you ripped that cabinet out because they won’t know it was some weird corner cabinet. They should thank you.
It’s true! I hadn’t thought of that. Oh well, if things go according to plan, I’ll die here rather than moving again, so it won’t bother me!
the open shelving there will be a million kajillion trillion times better.
That’s the figure I came up with when I did my calculations, too!
already looking much better!!
What a strange placement! Hooray for kicking it out of there! xoxo
Looks Great – can’t wait to see that secret open shelving!!!
Thanks, Cheryl! Fingers crossed things go smoothly and we can reveal the secret next week 🙂
I love it! It opens up the space so much!
Whoever designed that cabinet should not be allowed to design kitchens! Bring on the open shelving plans buddy! I SOOOO want to add some to my kitchen!! It looks so amazing! Like night and day…it even feels lighter if that makes any sense! Can’t wait to see more! Nicole xoxo
Thanks, Nicole! I can only hope it was a DIY job and that no one PAID someone to decide to put that weird cabinet there, at least 🙂
Oh, that was such a good decision! I don’t know how you stood it. It looks so much better. And I think the open shelving will be awesome!!!
Thanks, Jeanne! We’ve been planning to take it down for a long time, but our list of things we’re planning to do is always so long 🙂
What?! That is the strangest thing! I’m anxious to see your shelving!
A surpirise open shelving plan!!! I cannot wait to see it! Looking better already.
I can’t wait to see it, either! It was supposed to happen last weekend, but there were…problems 🙁
So much better now that’s it’s gone! Woohoo!
Hooray for a clear line of sight! I still don’t know why they put a cabinet like that there in the first place. How silly. It’s so much more pleasing to the eye now. And, I know you’re on the fence now about that open shelving plan, but I say DO ITTTTTT! Just go for it, because it’s going to look stellar.
Thanks, Kenz! I have $200 worth of unreturnable surprise shelf material now, so it’s going to have to happen!
It looks so much better now and I love open shelving in the kitchen! I’m excited about your secret surprise project 😉
Thanks! Hoping to make progress this weekend!
It has changed your kitchen ,now it looks so much more open and spacious and more light is coming in.well done.
thank you!
Love the open shelves …. another solution could have been to remake/resize the cupboard so it sat “flat, back to the wall” like all the other cupboards, and had glass doors made for its new dimensions. (Probably cost even less than the roll of copper did.)
Remount newly configured cabinet with glass doors and voilà …. a different kind of display option. 🙂
Good idea! We did like the idea of having a few open shelves to play around with without the commitment of having all the top cabinets gone, so we saw this as a good chance for that 🙂
Nice job on the cabinet,the copper was real creative. We are about to take down a large over counter cabinet,this thing is a real headbanger.
people don’t think things through when they’re picking out cabinets, it seems!
I think it would look sharp to duplicate the copper shelving to above the opening. the opening looks sad although you would need to remove the tile up there……they should have put in a small cabinet instead of the tiling?