Our Kitchen: Before & After
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- Coastal Living
- Condo
- ~1,100 sqft
- 3 br
- Couple Living
When we were looking for our second home, we were looking for a place which can fit in a wet and dry kitchen. This was because we had an open kitchen in our first home and we really regretted it. Well, when we first got our first home, as first-time inexperienced homeowners who couldn't cook at that time, we thought an open kitchen will be great. In the end, I learnt how to cook and bake and I really enjoyed it so the no. 1 criteria for our second home was to have a wet enclosed kitchen and a dry area with an island if the space permits. After viewing several condos, we found one which ticked all our boxes but the seller did not accept our offer. After seeing a few more with small and tight kitchens, we finally found this home which checked both boxes. As this home was 8-years old at the time when we bought it, plus it had been a rental unit all along (previous owner was a foreigner), so the bulk of our reno budget went into redoing the entire kitchen. 
This was how our wet kitchen looked like before renovation. 
How our wet kitchen had transformed like after we moved in. We decided on fluted glass instead of normal glass for easier maintenance (see less fingerprints) and at the same time it lets light into the kitchen which is in a darker corner of the house with only 1 window. In our previous home, we had a tiled backsplash which was really troublesome to clean after cooking. I fell in love with Dekton's worktops years ago during our first renovation but at that time, both of us had only a small limited budget for reno and so we had to give Dekton a miss. I was not going to let it go this round, so this Dekton counter top and backsplash was a long-standing dream that was finally fulfilled although it cost us almost as much as a Birkin. No regrets for sure! We also decided on a white kitchen because our previous kitchen was white. And we also used the same laminate from Admira which was also used for our previous kitchen because I love how easy it was to wipe down and it does not leave greasy marks or fingerprints as well. This was how the "dry" side of our kitchen looked like before reno. As the power points for the fridge and microwave were at this wall, we decided to follow the same placements so that we could save on some rewiring costs. Instead of microwave, we replaced it with an oven from Bertazzoni instead. How it looks like after reno, and we went with the same familiar oak laminates from Admira to achieve a consistent look and feel throughout our home. A closer look at the details :) 
Most of my kitchen drawers and cabinets are using BLUM fittings, but this particular stack of drawers below the oven are using the MAXIMERA drawer units from IKEA. We were recommended to use this in our first kitchen by our ID and we loved it, so we told our ID to install this for us in our second home. It is cheaper than BLUM, and also soft closing. Plus, as it is from IKEA, it will also fit IKEA's cutlery trays, dividers and drawer mats perfectly. Lastly, I want to share the small corner of our kitchen which is called the yard in the floor plan. It is where the household shelter, rubbish chute and window is. All in one small tight space. The rubbish chute is also exposed in the original design of the kitchen and I found it very unsightly. 
After discussing with our ID, we finally came up with an idea to create this narrow cabinet to enclose the rubbish chute. Plus the ledge above gives me space to add some decor to beautify this tight and dark space. I also made use of the household shelter's magnetic door as a space to hang stuff which we use often like kitchen towels and oven mitts etc. The good thing about having the rubbish chute in the home is the super easy access to throw rubbish at any time of the day and not having to worry about bumping into neighbours while wearing PJs to throw rubbish. The bad thing is of cos' the risk of having pests enter the home through the rubbish chute door. Hence, I bought this DIY insect mesh for windows from Qoo10 and cut it to fit the rubbish chute. So far it has been putting up a very good defence against unwanted pests.
- 5 November 2023
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