DIY’ing my Toronto Home Series:

Mini Kitchen Renovation & How my Honeymoon to Tuscany Inspired our Design Style  

If you keep up with my socials, you may recall that we just moved into a home in Toronto! Yay! What I did not  share with you on my social media, was how we went straight from a condo to homeownership with overwhelming feelings of buyer’s remorse. After living in a condo for 5 years, we had gotten used to practically non-existent home maintenance responsibilities and now we owned a house that needed a lot of TLC. 

There are always a few surprises when buying a new home, even with a home inspection. We ended up spending most of our fun decor money on cement and electrical work so I had to get creative on elevating the space aesthetically. 

The aesthetic inspiration of this old Toronto home is our time spent on our honeymoon in Tuscany, because this was one of the most beautiful times of our lives. I wanted to keep the charm, leaving a few rustic elements of the home that reminded me of old world Europe, but I also wanted to modernize many others, creating what I think is the perfect mix of old meets new, while reliving our trip to Italy every day in our Toronto home, or shall I say villa Martino?  

I wanted to start with the kitchen and customize it while still following a budget, so I set out to pinterest and my favorite home magazines for inspiration. 

left image: https://studio-mcgee.com/

right image: https://www.elledecor.com/design-decorate/room-ideas/g191/white-kitchens-63080/

left image: Villa Lena      right image: Ryan Street Architecture 

BEFORE: We wanted to change the color scheme to a more modern combination which included light white open cabinets on top and charcoal cabinets  on the bottom. We went with a  natural stone countertop called Crystal Himalaya that tied in with the tiles and warm floors throughout the rest of the house.

Kitchen Selections:

Benjamin Moore paints:

White Dove OC-17 (upper cabinets and wall) 

Black Beauty 2128-10 (lower cabinets) 

Light Fixture

BUDGET: $5000  was my budget for this project and here is what I did so far to stick to that budget. I cut corners on purchasing new cabinets as you can see, they were solid wood and in decent shape so we just decided to sand and repaint them. We bought new appliances on sale. We also went to a countertop shop called Quartz Co and purchased a remnant piece, saving ourselves $1000’s of dollars on our countertop. The whole renovation took about 2 weeks, part-time. We had a contractor install the countertops and relied on our family for the electrical work and plumbing.  

Paint – $200

New Oven – $1700

New Light Fixture – $170 

New Sink – $400 

New Counter – $1200 

For a step-by-step tutorial on how to refinish your countertops, see this IG post here! 

For an honest opinion on when it’s a good idea to refinish your cabinets vs. replace them, watch this IG post here! 

AFTER: Here is the finished look so far, so far it cost around $4000 and we still have some work to do. My thoughts are while most everything was worth it, I still want to replace the lower cabinet drawers and doors because I feel I want a more modern look as the kitchen is more rustic than I want it to be right now. 

That’s all for part 1 of the kitchen renovation and mini home renovation  series! There will be more to come, so be sure to follow along for more updates!

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Elis halenko

"I do not consider myself as anything special unless I am able to achieve success. I strive to keep moving forward, organizing my life, and facing challenges head-on."

Elis Halenko

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