Kitchen Remodel

David McIntosh
by David McIntosh
We wanted a more open space... with more storage... so I made a few changes to the layout and added some more cabinets.
This is what out kitchen looked like when we bought the house. We hated the brown and the peninsula with the raised cap at the end... It just was not working for us.


As you can see.. the two floor to ceiling windows in the corner limited wall space... so one of them was going to have to go in order to get our sink against the wall. We never liked the "eating nook" area... made it all too closed off.


Ohh... I forgot thee hardest part... The peninsula had a "pony Wall". No Hardwood was under any of these cabinets.... plus the sink had a leak which caused some nice water damage.... so I had to stitch in new hardwood and try and stain as close as possible to the existing floor.
Here is a breakdown of what I did:


  1. I removed one of the large windows and replaced it with a smaller one.
  2. I built upper cabinets above the existing cabinets.
  3. I built some custom cabinets on either side of the windows to hold glasses.
  4. I added an island. I simply used two stock cabinets for this from the Big Box Store. Saved me some time.
  5. I also built a custom cabinet to hold the new farm sink. I needed to build new doors and drawers as well for those.
  6. Sanded and painted all of the existing cabinets.
  7. New Countertops.
Here you can see the custom cabinet for the sink. The bookshelf, sink section, and side drawers are all one piece.


The big long mat on the floor is to hide the floor patchwork. Not a perfect color match, but I figure one day we will resurface all the hardwood and it will match perfectly then.
Here is the big picture. I hope it inspires you to make some changes as well.


Overall, I did the electrical, pluming, window replacement, and cabinet builds. I contracted out only for the quartz countertops. I only needed to get a new sink and touch-controlled faucet.


Hope you like it! We sure do. so much more open.


I found some more pictures of this project... Here you can see where I removed the tall cabinet at the end... Since there was no hardwood underneath, I cut a hole for me to access the pluming and electrical easier than running outside.


Cabinets after I painted them. What a mess.
Here you can see the LEAD strip I put around... the wire is hidden behind the crown molding when spanning to the next series of cabinets. You can see the lights on. Keep in mind it is before the shelf was installed and the glass doors.
Tile... this was the biggest pain... I debated if I should stop the tile at the edge of the cabinet or run it to the molding on the left and right. You can see which way won.
Frequently asked questions
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  • Wowhavs Wowhavs on Jul 08, 2017

    I have been planning to add glass-door cabinets above my existing cabinets, and wondered if you used the top of the lower cabinets as the base shelf for your new uppers... Also, how did you attach the framing of the new upper cabinets? AND could you clarify how you got the led strip to shine from inside the cabinets if it is behind the crown molding and where is it connected to power for turning on and off?

  • Julia Julia on Jul 11, 2017

    Do you hire out? Lol great look!

  • Cheri moreno Cheri moreno on Mar 03, 2020

    How can I hire you, it looks beautiful.

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