Any seasoned DIYer knows how it typically goes: you get a good chunk of the way through a project before you run out of something you need, and it inevitably stalls. That’s what happened to designer Sarah Sherman Samuel and husband Rupert, who had completed most of their kitchen remodel before they ran out of supplies for the last pieces of trim. So they let the project languish for six months.
But when Sarah’s dad came to town to help with the finishing touches, the family finally wrapped up an epic kitchen transformation that took the room from utterly generic to over-the-top luxe and filled with chicness and personality. Here’s how the family team did it.
Making room
Previously, the tiny kitchen had been completely closed off to the rest of the house. To better use the space, and also make it feel expansive and airy, they gutted and expanded it.
“Even though it is still a relatively small kitchen, having it open to the rest of the house makes it perfect for entertaining,” Sarah wrote on her blog.
They also added on a separate laundry room, which would allow them to move the washer and dryer out of the pantry and away from the dishwasher.
Custom countertops
Sarah found the Calacatta marble from a slab yard in Los Angeles, having visited several local places in an area with a dense concentration of stone suppliers, and she suggests that other DIYers cast the same wide net.
"Your best bet is [to] hop from one to another. Just a warning though, some of them only supply to contractors, [so] you might want to ask first before getting your heart set on the perfect slab.”
Cabinet transformations
To make their IKEA cabinets look and feel like designer pieces, they outfitted them with doors and drawer fronts from Semihandmade, a company that makes parts custom made to fit the big box retailer’s cabinets. They painted the cabinets with a rich gray color known as Pigeon from Farrow & Ball.
She wrote on her blog that she always knew she “had to have brass in the kitchen,” and found what she considered to be the “perfect” pulls on MyKnobs.com.
DIY pride
Sarah estimates the project was completed with about 95 percent DIY labor. The only thing the family outsourced was the marble installation and half of the cabinet painting.
“After living with the new kitchen for quite a few months, I couldn’t be happier with the result,”
See more photos from Sarah's kitchen here.
Alesandra Dubin is a Los Angeles-based writer and the founder of the lifestyle blog Homebody in Motion. Follow her on Facebook, Instagram, Google+ and Twitter.