my extreme kitchen makeover, part 1

My loft kitchen, "before" shot. Stay tuned for the "after."

Well, after 8 years of planning, dreaming, and talking the talk, I'm finally walking the walk and am getting my kitchen redone. The folks who developed my building cut just about every corner when they converted this former warehouse space into lofts. So the basic city kitchen I've endured for almost a decade [and amazingly, have used to develop recipes for my cookbooks] included energy-hogging, low-quality appliances and less-than-perfect [read: crappy] finishes.

Still, I was happy with the basic layout and minimal look. And I love my stainless steel chef's table and Ikea stainless steel 3-drawer unit, since I do a lot of chopping and dough rolling, so I planned around these. I wanted to keep a modern, minimal look.  Here's the layout I ended up going with. F-stop's best friend is doing most of the work [and an amazing job, at that]. The appliances were all are supposed to arrive today – but because of a snafu, only the dishwasher and refrigerator came. The oven arrives next week– at a 10% discount for my trouble. Anyway, I'm at the point of no return. I'll let the pictures do the talking.

New kitchen plan, side view 

New kitchen plan, view with 'fridge area. I decided to skip the top shelves on the refrigerator cabinet since they would be too close to my exposed HVAC, not shown in the drawing. Good feng shui is everything; let that chi flow, baby! 

I chose Ikea Abstrakt high gloss cabinets, like the ones in this picture: white for the sink area and grey for the refrigerator cabinets.  I went with different handles than the ones shown here.

Right now, I am living in a construction zone. This nifty little "tent" keeps the rest of my loft dust-free.

As of last night, I am officially without stove or dishwasher. It's kind of like camping in my kitchen.

From minimalist loft to maximal home improvement clutter. All the wall photos are down, too, to minimize breakage.

Pantry raid! All my non-perishables are now perched on and below my dining room table – and in cupboards, wherever I can find a spare inch of space.

I did get a chance to bake one last pie in my humble "Premier" oven… Chocolate-Pecan Bourbon. Hopefully, I'll be baking pies again sooner rather than later. Please light a candle to the kitchen gods for me!