Wow..I had to keep looking back and forth to believe that it was really the same space. I wish there had been a better before and after over all pic but...what a tremendous change for so little. Small changes on everything but creativity ! Thank you for sharing. c
I think this could be done on a budget. The kitchen is tiny and it involved judicious use of paint and very few individual pieces of hardware. The hanging light fixture is just a matter of available parts, and in NYC you can get whatever you want relatively easily. Those are components off the shelf put together.
The room also starts out with a high ceiling and a great source of natural light. Would the budget be so low if the kitchen was normal sized? Would it be so easy to execute outside NYC? Probably not, but I don't think they are stretching a truth here.
Interesting why the author says "the space was tiny (three feet by six feet) and dark (no windows)". Looked pretty well-lit to me too.
I would have chosen a sink that one can put a chopping board over. They did not say anything about counters. Perhaps, they couldn't change them?
Just keep thinking that a 33" Kohler Stages would have been perfect for that space to kill two birds with one stone... But it cannot be installed under laminate counters (if I am not mistaken) and probably would not be qualified for a "budget" remodel.
First, to mimic glass front cabinets they just took the doors off some of the cabinets and left them open with some glasses inside. I can guarantee you that if that kitchen is used in the least that cabinet area is going to end up looking like garbage. I seriously doubt that kitchen has decent ventilation and all the grease from cooking is going to end up in the cabinets. Its also a poor use of space given how little cabinet space that kitchen has. When you don't have much cabinet space you don't fill up an entire cabinet with more glasses than you could possibly ever need just because it looks good.
My other issue is the lighting. I would really like to see that kitchen in real life lighting. Its clear that the lighting for the photos does not come from the fixtures in the kitchen. I am fairly certain other lighting was brought in just for the purpose of taking the pictures.
I think it is great. She added usable space by bringing in the narrow console table. It has her toaster, mixing bowls, you only see one pot hanging on the side, but I have a hunch there is only 1 for the photos because otherwise you can't see the shelving under the counter. The kitchen owner says she used to do all the prep work in the dining room and now can use this surface. Plus all the open shelving above they added.
It can be done on a low budget, because it is all paint and a bit of hardware. There were no appliances bought. The floor is not expensive, it was "cut and paste" cork tile squares, pretty sure that isn't too hard. And like mentioned above, the chandelier is just hardware parts put together. They will be doing a tutorial on how to make it they say.
Obviously the room was lit for the photos by the photographer. If they didn't light it, and there is no natural light, then the photo would be, well, dark. They aren't going to shoot it using the lights in the kitchen.
Most NYC have no active ventilation. There is a turbine driven roof vent that continually draws air from the kitchen and bath, and at most they have a recirculating vent over the range. I don't care for open cabinets but if the person does not cook, grease may not be much of a problem. Most of the people that I know in Manhattan do not cook in their apartments, they eat out or bring home and heat up, or microwave. I know a couple that took the kitchen out and left the hookups but turned it into a closet. (They had a bar sized fridge and maybe a microwave.) Manhattan is a way of life that is hard to translate to anyplace else.
I think this could be done for less than $500, I know my kitchen makeover was $500 and that included painting all the 22 cabinets and the ceiling and walls, new sink (Ikea) and faucet (Delta), hardware for 10 drawers (HD $4 each pulls) and 22 cabinets (from Amazon $1 each knobs) and pouring concrete countertops.
All they used was paint, a few squares of peel and stick cork, and a few drawer pulls, a mirror and a light fixture that looks like one sold at Ikea for $30. They did not change the countertop, sink or faucet. I could do this myself for $300, forget $3000.
The thing that I scoffed at in the article was the "3x6 foot space." I'll grant you, it's tiny, but not 3x6. In one direction, it has space for a range, sink, 2 ft of counter and a fridge. In the other it has 2 ft of cabinets and at least a 3 foot walkway (looks closer to 4ft to me--wide enough to put in the console table and still have room to walk). I'd believe 6x7 feet, but 3x6 doesn't pass the sniff test. Unless they were only counting open floorspace and leaving out the space occupied by counters and appliances...but who measures kitchen floorspace that way?
I also got a chuckle about the glasses in the open front cabs. Pretty (and probably staged), but not a practical use of space or reflective of the type of things someone with a really small kitchen would need to store in that space.
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