Young House Love

Home Decorating & DIY Tutorials

| By | | 160 Comments

A Blue And White DIY Kitchen Renovation

It’s no surprise that we’re in the mood for a good kitchen makeover these days. Okay, who are we kidding, we’re always in the mood for one. But Erin & Zach’s do-it-yourself remodel of their 1950’s kitchen is especially familiar (and inspiring since we’re just at the beginning of our current kitchen’s transformation). Here’s their letter:

We wanted to share the redo of our 1951 kitchen (take note of the sweet before lamp and the heavy-duty ceiling beam disappearing act).

Erin Zach Before

We were so lucky to peel up the old laminate floor and the plywood to find original (albeit quite damaged) wood floors that extended into the middle of the kitchen. We found matching red oak floor pieces and filled in the missing & damaged spots.

Erin Zach New Floor

One of the cool things we did was to buy two pre-made cabinets from Home Depot to create the breakfast bar. We put them side-by-side and filled one of the openings with wood pieces to make it seamless.

Erin Zach Breakfast Bar

We also re-used all the cabinets but updated the hardware. Painting that many cabinets and doors definitely took patience … and three coats of paint. The new blue color in kitchen is Behr Primer + Paint in Clear Pond, Eggshell.

Erin Zach After

Thanks so much for checking out our kitchen. We love it!! ~ Erin & Zach

We love it too, guys. Congrats on a job very well done! It’s a reminder of not only how much work is ahead of us, but also what a big payoff there can be at the end! Seriously, it doesn’t even look like the same room.

PS: We’ve announced the winners to this week’s giveaway. Click here to see if you’re one of them.

Comments

  3. Melissa says

    Holy cow….good job guys! I live in Western PA and there are so many kitchens that look like that…you remind me that if I buy a kitchen like that there is HOPE for it. :-)

    Reply

  6. Erika says

    AMAZING! I love white kitchen cabinets, and glad they made use with the old cabinets instead of tossing them.
    Wow – that looks sooo good!

    Reply

  8. Peggy says

    A very nice re-do!
    John and Sherry, I hope you’ll forgive me for meddling, but there’s just one element of your re-design that’s bugging me. I wonder if you’ve considered moving the pantry over to the fridge side. I know y’all thought it looked “monolithic” on that side, but think of the counter space you’d gain on the main work side of the triangle! Plus an unobstructed view of the dining area when you’re on that side of the kitchen.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      We just didn’t want the folks sitting at the peninsula to be staring at the side of a pantry or upper cabinet- so using the low cabinet there will let people at the counter “breathe” a bit more – and make it feel more open from there.

      xo,
      s

  17. Lisa says

    Beautiful job! Sherry, seeing the pendant lights over the peninsula in this kitchen made me wonder – are you and John planning a lighting overhaul as part of your makeover? I can’t recall you mentioning it, but I’m betting you have some fun ideas for that in mind, as well!

    Reply

  20. ashlee says

    sherry & john,

    where you are starting a kitchen reno of your own, i thought i would ask, in your last house, i believe you replaced your windows. did you just go through home depot for that, or did you go through a specialty window place?

    Reply

  21. Tara says

    Looks great. Love the blue with the classic white cabinets and black counters. Any chance you can add a link to their blog or more pictures? I’d love to see a better view of the range and that breakfast bar from the front/cabinet side.

    Reply

  24. Allyn says

    What a fun, happy room!
    Why oh why do people cover good hardwood floors?!
    My parents bought a house and found gorgeous parquet under the nasty carpet in the living room. Christmas came early.
    But seriously, laminate over hardwood?! It’s a travesty!

    Reply

    • tarynkay says

      I was talking to one of my neighbors about that the other day. Miss Betty has lived here since 1950 and she did cover her hardwood floors up with carpet and linoleum, and then uncovered and refinished them recently. She said that back in the 1950s, wood was a real pain to live with. Our amazing modern polyurethanes didn’t exist, so you had to constantly wax it and strip the old wax- it was just a lot of upkeep. Heaters weren’t as efficient either, so hardwoods got very cold in the winter. Everyone was thrilled back then with the introduction of affordable, warm, luxurious wall-to-wall carpet and easily cleaned linoleum. Miss Betty’s husband actually had these installed for her… for Christmas! And she was delighted with his thoughtfulness and invited everyone over to see her dazzling new floors!

    • Kathy says

      @tarynkay – Cute story from Miss Betty, and it’s interesting to hear the practical reasons people in the 50s and 60s decorated the way they did. Makes sense!

    • LauraC says

      I’ve asked my mom the same question, as my parents refuse to ditch their carpet for the original wood floors they know are underneath. She remembers as a little girl in the 40s/50s getting carpet in their farmhouse and how much she loved it. It was really popular and soft and warm. She also lived with painted wood floors when I was a baby, and as much as they are raved about now, she hated them too, as they were chippy and cold, cold, cold (I was a toddler crawling around and she said she wouldn’t let me in the morning when it was freezing in NY). She actually made the landlords give her new paint to redo them, and she repainted them herself (which she said was SO much work). So yeah, there are reasons. I really love talking to people and learning the logic and history behind things. I think it’s important not to criticize designs and fads from yesteryears b/c people in the future will do the same to us! And we know how popular the stuff we do is ;-)

  27. GreenInOC says

    Wow! What vision you have!!

    I’m curious what’s on the other side of the breakfast bar, where the stove is. How much space is between the stove and breakfast bar, is there a cabinet to the right of the stove?

    Reply

  29. Allison says

    We just got rid of that EXACT same lamp from our kitchen. Now I wish the rest of our kitchen looked as great as this one!

    Reply

  31. Linda says

    Love a kitchen with white cabinets, dark counters plus an interesting accent color on the walls.
    stylish and classic w/o the risk of being dated for a very long time.

    Reply

  33. JennP says

    I love that they removed the uppers on the right wall and just featured the gorgeous range hood! There’s plenty of cabinetry without them, and it really opens up the room. I can’t imagine how much money was saved by finding the old wood floors, reusing cabinetry and opting out of a backsplash, but it is still such a huge transformation!!

    Reply

  35. Amanda says

    This looks incredible!! It’s amazing how much brighter it looks, love the white cabinets and of course, the blue walls.

    Reply

  37. Lissa says

    I have those exact same cabinets in my house. Now I know what they will look like white without the ugly (at least in my opinion) hardware on them. Now to just find the time to paint mine!!

    Reply

  38. Vicki says

    Beautiful – we just redid our kitchen (in fact, the contractors cleaned up their stuff when I was on my way to have our baby!) but seeing you guys work your kitchen and this beautiful kitchen re-do make me want to do it again! (But I don’t want to live without a kitchen again…).

    We do have a TINY (if I only I could make those letters tiny) bathroom that needs some serious love. It will have to be a stand in.

    Reply

  43. Wom-mom Ethne says

    I’ve never been a huge fan of white cupboards. But I have to say the more I see on your site here and Pinterest, the more I’m starting to like them. I’m gonna dog my mom to paint her cupboards white. What was your favorite color of white for cupboards, Sherry?

    Reply

  44. Melody says

    Those are the EXACT same cabinets and hardware we have in the kitchen in the house we just bought!!! We just started taking the doors off last night to paint them and I was worried about the raised panel in the middle of the doors looking alright once we painted them white, and this just made me so EXCITED! I literally jumped up and down excited when I saw this! Thanks for featuring this! This made me believe that my kitchen can look beautiful with these ugly cabinets! :-)

    Reply

  46. Erin says

    I love seeing budget makeovers and I am constantly amazed at what a huge different paint can make! So bright and beautiful.

    Reply

  47. Lindsey says

    Does anyone else find themselves scrolling up and down, over and over, not believing this is the same room? I do this with all the before and afters!

    Reply

  49. jbhat says

    I’m going to say what Sherry said the other day, in response to my own friend’s kitchen: Beyond gorgeous!

    jbhat

    Reply

Stuff We Love

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *