Sometimes the hardest part about doing a big remodel is being able to visualize what it is actually going to look like when it’s done. Luckily for Ryan, he happens to be a pro at photoshop, so he was able to whip up a digital version of his kitchen before the hammers ever started swinging.

Our blog is full of pretty extensive info. We had no idea what we’re doing. I’m an artist, love modern design and know Photoshop…and that’s how we pretty much figured it out. We really shopped around for deals on cabinets, faucets, drawer pulls, tile and flooring. Even if a reader of your blog didn’t want to do EVERYthing we did, I think they could find bits and pieces of what we did quite helpful.

Our project extended a bit outside of the kitchen (entry door, stairs, etc) which added to the cost. But we completely gutted it and did every piece brand new.

I’ve been lazy about posting good finished pics of the kitchen. If you guys dig it, let me know and I’ll make sure to get them up. You can see everything on our site though in much more detail.

Approx price: $26,000

For more info make sure you check out underdover.blogspot.com.
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Those of you that have been following me on Twitter know that last Friday I started on my own kitchen project. We got the entire old kitchen demoed out, as well as the room underneath it (scope creep). We put down new subfloor to get rid of all the squeaks, and got a good start on the plumbing. Today we are ordering our flooring, white rubber tiles, and looking at countertops. I hope to finish up the plumbing and start on the electrical.
Check out my tweets to see how I’m doing!

This may be the smallest entry so far, but it packs plenty of punch. Ayan has made good use of the small floorplan in his Brooklyn Co-op.

My wife and I bought a co-op in Brooklyn earlier this year. The kitchen looked like it was all original from the late 50’s, and in pretty rough shape. We gutted everything, including knocking down 2 partition walls, doing a pass through into the living room, and stripping lots of wallpaper. The cabinets are Ikea, counter tops are granite from a local shop, back splash is glass tile, and floor is cork, which we laid right over the existing linoleum. The appliances are all new GE.

Approx price, $6,000 for materials, $5,000 for appliances.

Keep reading for more pictures including a before shot that puts it all in perspective.

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Ikea must be trying to do their part at easing the pain of the recent economic downfall because it seems that they have had an unprecedented number of great sales lately. This one may beat them all however. From this Saturday through Monday the 13th they are having another “Seize the Days” sale with some big savings. TUNDRA flooring is $0.49 a sq ft, the NORDEN dining table is $199 and Ikea 365 cookware is super cheap too. That’s over 50% off on some things. Plus did I mention free breakfast again on Saturday morning?

Ikea 3 day seize the days sale, this weekend.

If you remember a while ago we got a new Avalisa 5 x 8 rug for our living room. We had originally wanted the bigger 8 x 10 size, but had settled for the smaller one. After much deliberation we finally realized that the scale of the smaller rug didn’t quite fit the room. We were able to work things out with Avalisa and our new rug arrived just a few days ago. We were relieved to see that the scale really does work much better for the room. While the $1360 price tag can be hard to swallow I just keep reminding myself it’s only $16 a square foot Our bare floors do look much better now that they have a large rug, and the quality is such that I’m sure it will be around for quite some time.
Rugs available from Avalisa from $310 - $1360.

I have some good friends who have recently purchased a wonderful old Mid Century Modern home in Salt Lake City, and they are in the middle of updating the interior. While looking at kitchen appliances online at Jenn-Air they found this picture entitled “Scandanavian Oasis” and completely fell in love with all the white. The cabinets and appliances will be easy to reproduce (Ikea and Jenn-Air) but the white flooring has got them (and me) stumped.

So how do you get white flooring like the one in this picture?

It’s amazing how much some paint, flooring an furniture can change a space. Much like our old home, we painted everything bright white (we used Behr pure white eggshell enamel). The white paint, along with getting rid of all the baseboard make the room look so much cleaner. It’s great to finally get our furniture in the house, now we can start to get some of our artwork up and make it look like a home.

More pictures below!
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The fact that it’s done is probably the best thing about it. We pretty much knew from the beginning that the floor was pretty beat up. There were a lot of stains that I hoped we would be able to sand out, but in the end they were all full depth and not going anywhere. I ended up going pretty slow with the drum sander to try and get through all the old layers, and since I’m not a pro we have a little of the washboard effect. If I were to do it again, I may try an orbital instead of the drum sander.
Even though it’s not perfect, we still like it though. It’s way better than what we had before and of course you get what you pay for. We spent around $0.90 a square foot, most of which was in the finish. Our stain was a Minwax oil based, natural color. I really like all the color variation we got from the different shades of boards. I’m not usually an oak fan, but I actually like it. We then used a water based polyurethane from Glitsa that was expensive but very easy to work with. We’ll see how well it holds up. I wouldn’t hesitate may to do it again on a floor that was in real rough shape like ours, but if I had a real nice floor to begin with, I might think harder about just calling a professional.
Cost for 800 square feet; $600 for repair boards, stain, polyurethane and applicator pads. $140 for sander rental and sandpaper.
It took me about 14 hours of sanding and about 4 hours to apply the stain and polyurethane.
More pics below.

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I’m off to Diamond Rental to pick up a floor sander this morning. I’ve never actually refinished any floors before, but I have talked to plenty of people that have so I figure it can’t be too hard. I hope to get them all sanded today and get our natural oil stain on. Tomorrow I will be putting on the protective finish.
If everything goes as planned I will be posting on Monday about our newly refinished hardwood floors.
Wish me luck!

Flor has been expanding their collection of carpet squares in leaps and bounds lately. I noticed that they now have a Martha Stewart line, as well as a Disney line. While neither of those two sound too appealing to me, the idea of an Alexander Girard line does. Although Alexander Girard has and extensive range of iconic patterns, it seems like they are focusing on his famous suns from the La Fonda Del Sol restaurant. These brightly colored sun faces with their bold patterns may be a little much for most rooms in my home, but they may fit in perfectly in a nursery. What do you think, would you be interested?
If your are interested, you can sign up now for a special introductory offer and more details at Flor’s website.