Piggy slippers be gone! We have…a laminate kitchen floor.
Sunday, we transformed a concrete floor (smeared with remnants of a silverfish genocide) and the trodden-in brownness of ancient carpet underlay. All that grotty stuff that keeps you coming back. As we’d originally planned to install tile, we’d spent about a million years ripping up the vinyl. That added a tragic note to the day – a totally unnecessary step when installing laminate. Oh well, I’ve got muscles now. Plus I’ll sleep better knowing it’s not lurking underneath… what if it one day escaped and got us?
Parts of what we’ve reclaimed as kitchen were even worse than bad vinyl flooring. More shag carpet! Imagine the horror of visiting the fridge at night, barefoot, and padding across something very greasy, very furry, and weirdly lumpy. Just kidding – that’s never happened. You know I don’t touch the shag with bare skin. Ever. Before? Scary. After – safe.
The installation, uh, lamination process? Now members of the lami-nation, we knew what we were doing this time. Whistling and dancing, we laid out some sample pieces and unrolled green underlay from one end to the other.
Next I talked to long-ignored cookbooks while Paolo measured things. Then, we annoyed the neighbours with a hundred table-saw cuts and liberal use of the rubber mallet. In just a few happy hours our galley kitchen was ten times more livable. Maybe a million times more? You decide.
State of the union? Glorious.
Every good party ends up in the kitchen: we threw down the Nucasa laminate and then sat on it, chugging champagne.
So now I’ve got more or less my dream kitchen: a laminate floor I can walk on with bare feet, a dishwasher, a big sink, tons of counter space (Ikea butcher block)…and a fridge big enough to hide dirty dishes when I revert to student habits. Is it a magazine kitchen? Probably not – we haven’t quite figured out ‘baseboard’ or ‘backsplash’ and there are some AWOL slabs of countertop (Update - solved: Ikea Bekvam cart). Figure it’s the pageant kid who’d win best personality. But who cares!!! It’s the nicest kitchen that’s ever been mine. (Dangerously close to plagiarizing Miss Swift, I believe).
Next up? Quality control. It’s time to take this kitchen for a spin. I see you there, Nigella, and I’ve got plenty of butter.
P.S. Interested in doing something similar? Check out the cost of a small kitchen renovation, and the clever way we found the money for our kitchen’s laminate.
Pin ItHey, you want a s'more? Some more of what?
Huge improvement – and we love the floors. We’re about to tell the story of our countertop selection ourselves… just tying up a kitchen reno that’s taken us a whole 9 months to complete. I continually love where you’re going with the place… Looking forward to seeing the flip happen.
Thank you Fred! Am looking forward to reading the kitchen reveal & wrap-up on your site. Celebrations from coast to coast it sounds like!
Yay! Looks so pretty!
And I had to suppress a shudder at the lookback at the old carpet.
You better continue to blog about any minute changes you make to that place, whether you flip it this year or in 10 years, else I will have to come to Vancouver, and with your mother at my side, have strict words with you.
I found some of that old carpet in our washing machine the other day. How did it get in there? Is it breeding?
When The Day of Stern Words arrives, I’m ready to distract with a twin-cylinder corkscrew and ample libation.
Oh, that’s so gross! The carpet that just wouldn’t go away!
Woo-hoo! You’re back!
Love, love, love the kitchen progress! And what you’ve done with those repurposed cabinets — hope to see them featured in an upcoming post!
The cabinet post will be dedicated entirely to you Sally. Glad you like it!!
Wouldn’t consider stealing your thunder! You and Paulo deserve ALL the accolades for “Most Creative Kitchen Redesign Using Exisiting Onsite Materials!”
“And conscripted silverfish labour”. Haha thanks Sally.
Like Karrie, that carpet made me shudder as well. Thanks for the visual!
The floors look AWESOME and so does your kitchen progress.
I’m so envjous of your gorgeous collection of cookbooks! I think my kitchen needs some Nigella in it, as well.
It needs a lot of Nigella – but if you’re going to start with just one, my favourite is definitely Domestic Goddess. How to Eat is good but there are no photos (a fail grade, as far as I’m concerned). The others are largely (delicious) variations on a similar theme.
Glad you like the floor, thank you!
Your ugly duckling is turning into a beautiful swan! I’m in love with the wall color.
And hiding the dirty dishes in the fridge? That’s a good one. If I knew my guests wouldn’t be asking for a drink I would definitely do that. I’ve hid them in the oven plenty of times. It’s no fun realizing you forgot they were there 3 days later! Stiiiinky!
Heh – thanks! Soon no one will recognize it & that’s ok by me.
I don’t do the dishes/fridge trick now I have a dishwasher… ok well maybe only the hand-washing. I’m game for trying out the oven though. Trading tactics in dubious hygiene… now this is a good use of the internet.
Such an amazing difference, you could totally eat off that floor!
And I totally would if we had anything to eat!
Your floor rocks! And the before gives me the willies, just as a good before should.
It’s looking gorgeous!
Ugh, wasn’t it so disgusting? I can’t believe I didn’t contract something fatal. Thanks, glad you like the way it’s shaping up!