Kitchen Renovation, Part I

I've been wanting to redo my kitchen for a few years. When the second child thing didn't seem to be working for a while there we started looking at kitchen cabinets. Then we found out Aaron was on the way and decided to put that project off in favor of the office renovation (so that he could have a bedroom).

The biggest reasons for wanting to reno the kitchen:

1) I hate the floor. It always looks dingy and dirty, and there's nothing you can do about it.

2) The cabinets were poorly constructed, poorly painted and starting to fall apart.

3) The radiator is awful. It takes up a lot of space and only manages to heat up the drawers holding my plastic bags and aluminum foil.

4) Just to update the style.

So about 6 weeks ago, a big cabinet door ripped off (not off the hinges, the wood came apart), and that was my excuse for really needing to get this done. It was great timing since my sister, who happens to be an interior designer, was visiting. I had also just spent about 8 weeks watching HGTV while on maternity leave. So together we came up with a design for the room and went shopping!

Here are two sketches that she made:

Low countertop with glass shelves above.

New built-in seating.