Our Teal Kitchen Remodel

The teal kitchen of my dreams! I’m sharing all of the details and how this kitchen renovation project came to life after several months of planning and weeks of installation.

This post is sponsored by American Home Kitchen and Bath, located in Okemos, Michigan. We worked together to design our dream kitchen! As always, all opinions and thoughts are my own.

I can’t believe the time is finally here where I get to share about our teal kitchen remodel! When we first closed on our new home last spring, I was dreaming of ways we could make this our own. This is our second home we’ve purchased, but the first home where we could see ourselves staying for more than five years. Which meant I got to work on Pinterest creating a “Dream Home” board and started gathering inspiration for a new kitchen immediately.

Before

The kitchen before was a standard peninsula kitchen with wood cabinets, laminate countertops and soffits. Because working in the kitchen is such a big part of my job, I found the space to be smaller than I would like and not the best functionally.

So right away I knew I wanted to change the layout a little to remove the peninsula and opt for an island in the center with more storage.

The Process

As soon as we knew a kitchen remodel could be our first big project, I started looking for a kitchen and bath studio to help us with the design. I looked at online options (i.e. ordering cabinets through an online retailer, such as IKEA) as well as a few local places, but ultimately ended up at American Home Kitchen & Bath, in Okemos, Michigan. Because we plan on being in this home for awhile, I wanted something higher quality. Plus, it was nice to shop local and work in person with the team. My brother and his wife had just redone their kitchen recently with them and had a great experience.

American Home Kitchen & Bath is a full-service design studio, meaning they can help you source just about everything for your kitchen remodel. You can learn more about their products, here! We ordered our cabinets, countertops and hardware with them. And I sourced the sink, faucets and tile.

I had my first initial meeting with one of the owners, Kami, and design associate, Kayla, where we discussed budget, looked at samples and overall just got a general feeling of what to expect working with a kitchen design studio. Because it was my first time working on such a project, I had a lot of questions. Kami and Kayla were so helpful and I left our meeting feeling excited to get started.

If you’re in the area, I highly recommend getting in touch and stopping by their location!

After

A full transformation from start to finish! We stuck with the original layout for the perimeter and added a large island for ample storage and working space.

Timeline

If you’re wondering what it’s like to design a kitchen from start to finish, it can be a long process! From several weeks of communication working on the design, to selecting materials, ordering, setting up contractors and making everyone’s schedules work, it’s best to factor in the appropriate amount of time – your design team can help you with this!

July-September: Design

I worked closely with American Home Kitchen & Bath designer, Kayla, on everything design and layout. We discussed door options, paint colors, layouts, my must-haves, extra design features and so much more. I had a pretty strong idea of what I wanted, but still had so many questions. Kayla was beyond helpful and worked with me through all of my concerns and questions that came up throughout the design process all the way through the install, and even after the project was completed.

September-January: Order and Wait.

Because we did a custom color cabinet for the perimeter (Raging Sea by Sherwin Williams) the lead time was 20 weeks for the cabinetry. During that wait time for the cabinets to come in, I was making final decisions on hardware, countertop, lighting, hood design and other design choices.

February: Start install.

We had Drew and a friend remove the cabinets and soffits prior to our contractor coming in (which was a nice way to save some money, I might add). Once our kitchen was ready to be worked on, the contractor and his team did electrical work, drywall/ceiling, installed the cabinets, re-did a small section of the floor and made the hood, all within 5 days. Yes – super quick! They even got us plywood countertops to place on top of the cabinet bases and reinstalled our old sink, which meant we had a working kitchen while we waited on the countertops to arrive. Highly recommend doing that if you can!

March: Countertop.

Once the cabinets are fully installed, then you can get your bases measured for countertops. The timeline for this will depend on the type of countertop you select (and the company’s lead times). We went with Silestone brand Quartz, and the countertop supplier told us the lead time was about 5 weeks.

Note: Our cabinet install started February 6th and was wrapped up by February 10th. The following week we had our countertops laser measured by the technician and the lead time was about 5 weeks from that time, but it actually only took our quartz countertop 3 weeks to arrive, so our countertop was installed early March.

April: Tile backsplash.

If going with a tile backsplash, you have to wait for the countertops to be fully installed and sealed before getting to the backsplash. We went with Riad Zellige Tile (Natural White, 2×6 Thin tile) and had our contractors install that for us as well.

Note: We had a slight delay with our timeline here so our tile backsplash would have originally been completed mid-March, but we had to get the sink countertop re-meausured and wait on an end cabinet re-install for the tile to be completed. More on that below.

How We Saved Money

Original Layout – We stuck with the original layout for the appliances and sink, which is a huge cost savings for a renovation, since you don’t have to worry about re-plumbing, electrical, drywall, etc.

Same Flooring – We also kept the original flooring, which is an engineered hardwood, as it was fairly recently installed and runs throughout the main floor. The only place they had to replace flooring was where the peninsula originally sat.

Appliances – The appliances were only five years old so I didn’t feel it was necessary to completely upgrade those just yet. Of course, I do have my eye on some gorgeous white and bronze accent ones, but those will have to wait while we make plans for other areas of the house.

Things to Plan For

Time – The amount of time will vary depending on several factors. Whether it’s the design process and initial communication, the lead times from the cabinetry manufacturers and countertop suppliers, getting on a contractor’s schedule, and so many other things. Definitely ask all of the questions you can think of with the design team and plan accordingly.

Budget – If you’ve been researching kitchen renovations, you’ve probably seen to plan going over budget. I had an initial number in my mind of what we were hoping to stay under, but also kind of knew I’d have to give myself some wiggle room. The places I tried to set a more strict budget were things more in my control, such as lighting and stools.

Mistakes – We had a couple of different “oops” happen during our timeline when it came to the cabinetry manufacturer and countertop supplier, which led to a delay in getting the kitchen fully completed. American Home helped us sort everything out immediately and were very accommodating, so it wasn’t too long of a delay. Mistakes happen and you just gotta roll with it as best as you can! There are a lot of moving parts when it comes to a kitchen remodel, so prepare for delays, whatever they may be.

Any Other Questions?

And that’s it! Of course there are so many little details, it was challenging to convey everything in one blog post.

So if you have any other questions, feel free to leave a comment here or reach out to me via email: ashley(at)fitmittenkitchen(dot)com and just add the subject line: Kitchen Renovation!