Take Down Kitchen Cabinets & Rehang One, step by step

Well, that can of worms is officially open. We have began making some changes in the kitchen. I realize this is not totally new news, since we took out the wallpaper in there a few weeks ago, but towards the end of last week we used that little jolt of momentum to start down the path of some more serious changes.

We still want to live in this house for a pleasant long time (and save up some money) before we take on our full kitchen reno – we are still changing our minds daily about what configurations and countertop materials we’d like for the long haul – but this is officially the beginning of a series of what we hope to be fairly transformative “Phase 1” improvements so that we can enjoy this room and make the best of it in the meantime (you can read more about those Phase 1 updates and why we like them here).

We had hoped getting the wallpaper out would make a greater aesthetic improvement on the space. But instead it simply kinda underscored how brown, beige and blah everything is in there. The appliances, counters, and walls kinda wash together in color that certainly is not improved by the fluorescent light – while the dark cabinets, trim, and doors simply feel looming and heavy in person. Our first course of action was something Sherry’s been ready to do since day one: remove some upper cabinets. Both of us miss the look and the functionality of the open shelves that we had in our last kitchen, so fairly much since move in day, Sherry has dreamed of swapping this long upper to the right of the window for some open shelves to lighten things up.

So Sherry unloaded everything that was in them (fortunately we have barely used the uppers flanking the microwave, so there was plenty of room for all of this displaced stuff), and then I could start demoing away. First I carefully pried off the crown molding with a crowbar (since I planned to reuse it) and then pounded at this header piece across the window with a rubber mallet.

That was the straightforward part.

Taking the cabinet down was tougher than we anticipated. We figured it’d simply call for removing a few screws like the last kitchen, but it turns out these cabinets were nailed in. So instead it took plenty of prying and good ol’ fashioned jostling to free it from the wall. Since it was fairly heavy I took the doors off (so they were not flapping in my face the whole time) and I put a can of paint on the countertop to prevent it from crashing down directly on the counter when it eventually came loose. It also saved my foot from getting smashed.

Despite some lack of paint behind it, we consider it an instant improvement. Especially when you are sitting at the table on the other side of the kitchen. To have a clear shot of the window (which we will maintain with some open shelving) is truly pleasant.

So much so, in fact, that we chose to take down the small upper on the other side of the window too. We realized that would keep that wall looking more balanced and would let the window breathe visually.

The plan will be to put a pair of floating shelves on either side of the window. We in fact already own a set of long white Ikea Lack shelves for the right side (we purchased them about two years ago with plans to put them in our last home’s sunroom, but that idea fell by the wayside and we never even took the shrinkwrap off). And they sell a shorter version that will be ideal for the left side. So even though we have took out some cabinetry (which we plan to reuse in the garage) we will not be losing plenty of kitchen storage.

Before we hang those open shelves, we have some painting (and priming) to do to those walls first. But with our cabinet mojo firing at full steam, we turned our attention 180 degrees to another cabinet issue. This utterly useless upper cabinet that was tucked waaaaay back behind the fridge.

It was so far back that neither of us could reach it without a stool (and I am a fairly tall guy, so that is saying something), which is why we threw the basket up there as a lose attempt at disguising it. We hoped to move it forward to be flush with the wall so that it’d be reachable and make it look a bit more like the built-in fridges you see in modern kitchens. Like the other cabinets, I pried off the trim and shimmied its nails loose from the wall. Aaaaaaand then it got stuck.

Turns out the wall narrows slightly as you come out and the cabinet was built-in quite snugly. But with a few more pulls (and a couple of drywall dents) it eventually came out. And happily, the dents were covered when we rehung the cabinet.

The snug fit alerted me to another problem though. Since the nook narrowed towards the front, I’d have to trim it before putting it back up to get a pleasant seamless fit. Fortunately the overlapping part is simply the face of the cabinet, so it was straightforward sufficient to shave off a quarter of an inch on each side with my circular saw. I put tape down on the edges before cutting to assist discourage the wood from chipping or scratching during sawing, which worked (the tape sort of shreds itself but protects the wood).

The other problem to solve was how to hang it. It previously had been nailed to the back wall, but now that we were looking to float it about 14″ away from the back, I chose to construct two plain braces out of 2 x 4″s. They were sort of U-shaped, with the short side pieces that would be screwed into studs on both side walls for stability. That gave me a pleasant, long, sturdy front board into which I could secure the cabinet with screws.

I made two braces – one for the top and one for the bottom of the cabinet – so you can see the bottom one was not installed yet in the photo above. I was quite quite careful with my measurements during this step, because if I attached the braces too far forward or back, the cabinet would not sit flush to the wall. There was a lot of measuring three times before cutting once.

Thankfully my triple-checked measurements worked out strong and the cabinet sat perfectly where we hoped it. I propped it up in place with some wood, checked that it was level, and then screwed through the back of it into the braces (being sure that my screws went through the thick framing of the cabinet, not simply the thin, flimsy back panel).

Not only did it look much nicer, but now we could in fact put stuff in it. Functionality for the win! The last step in this project was reinstalling the crown molding – a careful process since I was matching existing cuts (of the pieces I did not take down) and because I did not have any spare pieces on hand- simply the ones I had took out at the start of this project. So all it would take is one bad cut and I’d be, well, quite angry at myself.

But it worked out well and I got those gaps filled. We will eventually be painting these, so I can do some caulk touch-ups then so they are even more seamless in the long run. And man, it looks a whole lot better than the strange empty wall-hole-looking thing above the fridge that we began with:

I also hung the crown molding on the other side of the room so it goes all the way around again. This wall looks especially crazy right now, but with some paint and shelves and a pendant over the sink, we think it’ll be a large improvement.

While I would not consider the space amazingly transformed yet (it is far from that!) we think these first couple of changes are steps in the right direction. It is hard to tell in the photos, but in person it already feels noticeably more open and less heavy.

I felt kinda silly putting “After” on that photo above because it does not truly deserve that title yet. And in fact, there are quite a few steps in this “Phase 1” kitchen makeover before we are ready to call it done. So here is our Phase 1 To-Do List as we are right now envisioning it:

• Remove wallpaper
• Move fridge cabinet forward
• Remove upper cabinets on window wall to prep for open shelves
  
• Reinstall crown molding
• Paint pantry and garage doors
• Paint walls and ceiling
• Hang floating shelves on window wall
• Paint trim and paneling
• Possibly craigslist the existing microwave and get a countertop one (the we can put in the pantry?) and add a low-cost range hood (we have seen some like this for $20 on craigslist) to lighten up that wall?
• Update or upgrade the old cabinet hinges and knobs
• Paint the cabinets
• Make solid back to the peninsula (the cabinet doors are not functional on that side, and we think it’ll be less busy with a sheet of beadboard or nicely framed out wooden look)
• Replace florescent lights (including the one over sink)
• Replace and center the light over table
• Get a rug for eat-in area? Possibly install peel and stick tiles everywhere?
• Curtains for windows?

Plenty of bullets, huh? But thankfully nearly every one of these steps will also be “paid forward” to Phase 2 (for example, painting the trim and walls and ceilings and doors and replacing lights will all be things we can carry into Phase 2 of the renovation down the road as well). So there are not quite many things we are doing simply for Phase 1 that will not come in handy for Phase 2 later. It is sort of like the before is the first step on a staircase, and the major reno is the third step, and Phase 1 will simply act as that second step to bridge the gap and bring us closer to a bigger transformation down the line (and make us smile in the meantime).

You can also see that there are a whole lot of question marks going on, but we have faith that if we simply focus on the one-step-at-a-time approach we can figure things out as we go. Oh and one thing missing from that list is new appliances (except for possibly a tabletop microwave/inexpensive craigslist range hood) which is because as much as we do not adore the creamy oven and fridge (and as much as we know they might interfere with the final look of Phase 1) we are trying to be smart and hold off on getting new stuff ’til we are ready to do a full reno because that way we can stay open to future options like a wall oven, or a gas range, or who knows what else.

In addition to working around those appliances, we are going to try to work with the off-white counters for this phase since we will likely reconfigure things in here down the line (so our final countertops will likely have distinct dimensions). Sherry has already brainstormed some colors that she thinks will lighten up the space while working with the existing counters and the cream appliances, and this time we are not going to our default “paint the cabinets white” instinct!

Speaking of replacing the cabinets – I know a few folks have wondered why we are not going to permanently work with these folks. We have talked before about how not getting new cabinets was one in-hindsight regret of our last kitchen reno. But also, these cabinets are not in strong shape when you get closer. There are so many chips and dents and scratches and gnaw marks (??) in both the doors/drawers and the cabinet frames themselves, that despite any amount of attempting to putty and sand them before painting, we do not think they’ll ever look flawless (and even if we got new doors, the frames are still gnawed). But the good news is that I plan to repurpose them for a garage workshop, so they will not go to waste – and painting them will not only allow us to enjoy them more in here before our bigger reno later, but it’ll also accomplish a pleasant clean look for the garage when we eventually use them out there.

The other question that comes up a lot is why we do not try doing something with our fake brick floors, like painting them like Jenny did with hers. We would ENJOY to be able to do that, but our floors are faux brick vinyl, not brick pavers – so they are one solid vinyl sheet as opposed to a grouted stone-like material. And while we have seen some strong walkthroughs from folks who have painted theirs, ours already scratch so easily that we are fairly sure it’d be a lost cause. The top layer of vinyl is so old and crusty that it flakes off when we do things like roll the fridge out or move a chair too suddenly. Boo. Update: the plus side of this situation is that our house was built after asbestos was phased out, so we do not believe there is a risk for that with the flaking floor – simply extreme ugliness.

So if we truly cannot take them any longer, we will likely do some low-cost peel-and-stick tiles over them like we did for Phase 1 in our first kitchen (it took us about a day and ran us $100 but we were so glad about the difference they made for the year or so before we could afford our major kitchen reno in there).

Has anyone else opened up a can of project worms lately? Sherry’s crazy excited about it, but I will admit that I did not quite realize that taking down a few cabinets would result in a page long to-do list (silly me, after seven years of this I should know that by now). But as much as I am bracing myself for all of the work that we are about to dive into (priming and painting all of that trim, woodwork, and cabinetry is going to take a while), I am kinda relieved simply to be doing something instead of groaning every time that we walk into the room. Bring it on kitchen!