Kitchen Renovation

The majority of the kitchen renovation was done about 2 and a half years ago. I did the demolition myself, which was a thrilling, frightening, fun, and most of all, loud experience. I had no idea if neighbors might blow my cover. Lucky I have uber-cool, tolerant neighbors. Here are some shots of the demo in progress:

The only tools I used to demo the kitchen. Crazy, eh?

This is the vent and where the upper corner cabinets used to be. All the black stuff on the ceiling and around the vent is dirt and grime built up over the years. It was disgusting.

Original sink and counter.

Original wall oven and counter top stove. With oil build-up on the wall behind the stove. Gross.

Floor and original lower cabinet footprint. A typical tiny NYC kitchen.

And the after shots. Cabinetry is from Ikea. Very budget friendly. Design concept, to use high gloss red cabinets, and slate floor tile, was suggested by a friend. The overall design was by me. I went with black granite counter tops for their durability and resale value. Ikea has preferred kitchen installers. I hired Basic Builders and they were terrific. Their contractor, Peter, answered all of my questions, reviewed my design ideas, made suggestions, advised on electrical wiring options, etc. He also had no problem busting a hole in the wall to create a pass-through window between the kitchen and dining area.

Slate floor tile, purchased from Craigslist. Doing this myself saved me about $2,000.

Pass-through from the dining area into the kitchen.

Pass-through from kitchen into the dining area. Where the wall oven, stove top and nasty oil wall used to be.


New sink, counter tops and horizontal cabinets. Also, new vent cover, unpainted, in the upper right corner.


New cabinet footprint. Still a tiny NYC kitchen. But much nicer.