Beauty on the Beach! Before and After……
This beachfront condo has been a special place for our family for over 30 years. The time spent vacationing in sweet, warm Florida coming from cold, frigid Michigan is probably what planted the seed of moving down here permanently!! Needless to say, this was a fun project for Team PPKD to embark on. What a treat to take our grandparent’s beloved condo where the kitchen was original (1982) and give it a warm rich update!
Before:
Here is the amazing After!
We were able to truly maximize every nook and cranny in this kitchen. By taking advantage of the small wall facing the dining room, we built in a double door upper cabinet with a beautiful crown. This helped make up for lost storage space when we removed all of the upper peninsula cabinets (that were very hard to reach btw!) to bring in the beautiful natural light. Also now grabbing a morning cup of hot coffee is super convenient and keeps open valuable countertop space in the kitchen for main prep. Notice the beautiful paneled back with faux doors and subtle lower cabinet on the backside? It really completes the space and adds even more storage. We like. No, actually – we LOVE!
Moving right into the heart of the kitchen, new stainless steel appliances brightened everything right up! Not to mention the Franklin Harvest is such a beautiful door. We really wanted to maximize the drawers in the kitchen and what better place to add drawers than right next to the range. Utensils, potholders, dishtowels…. – you name it, it’s got it’s own tidy little drawer!
Great upper cabinetry storage – we did not lose a square inch in this kitchen!
A kitchen remodel isn’t complete without a good demo picture!
But the “after” is where the pain stops and smiles do not. 🙂
And a few of the key details…. hardware. Always the jewelry for your kitchen. This was a favorite, the Amerock Atherley Collection Knob.
And of course the granite…. beautiful flowing movement. Just like the nearby ocean and here we chose a stone that sandy beach and gold color tones. What a great countertop to compliment your evening dinner spread after a day at the water.
A final picture to admire this special kitchen and one that will hold so many new memories too. Enjoy!
- Published in Before and After Pictures, Kitchen Projects done by PPKD, Projects
New Layout, New Kitchen!
When given this much space on a blank wall, a kitchen designer barely knows what to do with themselves! It’s like a kid in the candy store – oh the possibilities!! 
Luckily, this client was open to a number of different options with some amazing ideas herself. With a third set of eyes helping us along ( I will introduce later in the post), here is the start of what we came up with:
Yes, that is the same wall! Is it not gorgeous??
Here is an overview of the new layout which added so much additional storage and a newly expanded countertop area for the owner to bake her heart out at. 🙂
We started this new layout by anchoring the sink under the window with a pretty valance above to connect the two spaces. (A last minute add by the client that really brought such charm!)
We then added lazy susans to the right and left side of the sink, allowing us to turn each corner with the cabinetry giving the kitchen a “U” shape vs. the old “L” shape from before. It also gave the client easy access to those typically hard-to-reach corner units. Cabinetry that did not make the client work hard to have access to her items in the kitchen was a definite must-have on the list. This was one smart customer!
We shifted the dishwasher over to the long wall to create a more efficient workspace being that the client was right-handed as well. Then to lighten up the run of rich, warm cabinetry, we added two glass cabinets with frosted glass. We think it looks amazing! The client chose the granite countertop that highlighted the overall look of the kitchen with a natural stone backsplash.
So far, so good but one question still remains……where did that refrigerator disappear to?
(Image above by eagan independent)
“Phew!” – as the youngest PPKD employee (our five year old!) would say. Thank goodness we had that one in the bag. 🙂 Again – this kitchen turned out just gorgeous!
And just so you can also see the before of the range wall:
After:
Before of sink wall: 
After:
Also on this project we have to make a special call out to the mastermind behind the scenes: Charlie – the client’s adorable cat!
We mentioned above the third set of eyes, and Mr. Charlie was always around to offer his input (and paw print!) during the design phase. Upon execution, he monitored the progress very carefully by darting in and out of the boxes and we think it paid off. The kitchen looks fabulous and we definitely enjoyed working with both the owner and Charlie. Thank you again!
Stay tuned for next weeks blog post! We will go over the many different options for a layout change.
- Published in Before and After Pictures, Projects