The story of this kitchen remodel is truly the best.
I met the client, Nancy, just over a year ago. We were meeting on behalf of two local service organizations to see how we could work together on a community project. After brief introductions, I shared with Nancy that I owned a kitchen cabinet painting business. She was immediately intrigued, because she'd been working on upgrading all parts of her home in Eden Valley, and all that was left was the kitchen. She already knew she likely would opt for having her existing kitchen cabinets painted to match loads of beautiful built-in cabinets throughout the rest of her home. She'd previously enlisted Schlangen's Custom Cabinets in Eden Valley to build those cabinets for her... and so the journey of the kitchen makeover began!
Here's a shot of Nancy's kitchen before we began:
We connected right away last fall to put together an estimate for the project based on photos she sent, and then she began the process of taking the time to decide when she'd like to proceed. And, for the record that's something we're totally cool with. We understand that committing to having your kitchen completely renovated by beautiful fresh paint, hardware, possible construction-type modifications, etc. is a big decision.
Anyhow, a handful of months later when the time had come to further consider the project moving forward, we were in discussions once again. The one remaining piece of the puzzle to resolve was what to do for an island, and how she could potentially incorporate a dishwasher into the mix as well. This is where Sean from Schlangen's and interior designer Cait Schneider joined the fun! Cait suggested a built-in cabinet along the far wall, foregoing an island completely. Sean and his team was the obvious choice for this job, and so it was promptly built and installed while I proceeded to work on the existing cabinetry.
Here's the beautiful new built-in installed in lieu of an island before I began painting it:
As a complete sidenote, since she's out and about in the community, Nancy's got all sorts of great connections. Take her neighbor, who happens to be a professional woodworker. While Nancy was telling him about her plans for upgrading her kitchen, he offered to remove the handles, fill in the existing center holes and drill new ones for us. And he did it beautifully, so it was one less thing on my "to do" list. Score!
After spending time in her kitchen working on the base cabinets and in my workshop on the doors, today was the day to install. My absolute fav day! And now for the final results.... (my apologies, the dishwasher is being installed tomorrow, but I just could NOT wait another day to share the goodness that happened in this kitchen)!
Here's how fab Nancy's kitchen looks now - existing cabinets first (and LOOK at all that space she now has for cooking, dancing, etc.):
And next up is the beautiful new built-in cabinet:
And my fav photo of them all, Miss Nancy basking in the glow of her freshly painted cabinets:
The one thing to note about Nancy is she's a woman after my own heart. She is associated with many service organizations and selflessly volunteers boatloads of her time to Eden Valley area communities. Because of this, we always had fun things to chat about (I very much enjoy working on Lions Club projects in the Watkins area, too). I love meeting new clients, especially ones I could potentially end up working on projects in the area with outside the scope of cabinet painting. It's great being part of a collaborative project where other local businesses can be brought in to contribute to resolving any open smaller pieces of a project, and when it all comes together - it's fantastic.
Thanks for enlisting my help on this project, Nancy! I hope you enjoy your new kitchen for many years. <3
I really do have the best job in the universe.