She posted her remodel on Reddit expecting the usual “beautiful!” comments. Instead, hundreds of strangers argued over which photo was the before and which was the after. Some swore the first picture was the finished kitchen. Others called it the Sopranos kitchen. A lot of people said the before was already nicer than their own kitchen at home.
Then she dropped the number: $65K on cabinets and countertops alone. Seven months of work. And the thing most commenters missed, buried in her replies, is that she did most of it herself.
Here is what she started with, what she tore out, and why she still says she would do it again.
The kitchen she started with
This was a 23-year-old kitchen in a well-kept suburban home. Cream beadboard cabinets. Granite counters. An arched window over a deep double sink. A corner glass cabinet. Trash and recycle drawers labeled in script. In 2003, this was the dream kitchen on every magazine cover. In 2024, strangers on Reddit still called it a dream.
She never once said it was ugly. That matters.
The desk nook was part of the problem. “Never used,” she said. The angled peninsula with the wine fridge at the end? “Very annoying.” Some cabinets were too high to reach. The fridge stuck out past the counter line. The kitchen looked beautiful but did not work for how her family actually cooked.
[IMAGE: original-kitchen-foyer-view-dog-before.jpg] Original Kitchen, Open View Toward Foyer (Before) | Credit: u/simmy7111 via Reddit Alt: Open view from the kitchen toward the home’s front foyer, with hardwood floors, cream walls, and a golden retriever lying on a rug by the leaded-glass front door.
Her wife wanted a second sink so she could prep and still talk to people in the room. Her daughter bakes bread and needed real island space. She makes homemade pizzas and was tired of walking to the sink every two minutes. They also wanted to retire the kitchen table and just eat at the island.
So they made a plan. And then they tore it all down.
The seven-month gut job
First, the cabinets came out. Every door, every drawer, every piece of trim. Nothing got thrown away. The whole set went to Habitat for Humanity, and she said the family receiving them was waiting at the truck when she pulled up.
That one detail changes how the project feels. It was not waste. It was a handoff.
Then the walls came down. They opened up part of the back wall to steal a few inches from the laundry room so the new fridge could sit flush with the counters instead of sticking out.
The ceiling got cut open in more than a dozen spots for new recessed lights. Old insulation out. New electrical in. Her two golden retrievers wandered through every stage.
Here is the opening into the laundry. That extra depth is what let the new fridge finally sit flush.
Fresh drywall. Mudded. Taped. The room finally felt like a room again.
The new kitchen going up
The first gray cabinets went up on the pantry wall. Full-height towers on either side with deep drawers in the middle. Way more storage than before.
Along the window wall, uppers went in with oval-circle glass fronts. Those glass doors are custom, and they are the one feature that keeps the kitchen from reading as a flat gray box.
The island is 9 feet by 5 feet. Painted almost navy black, against the lighter gray perimeter. That two-tone move does most of the design work.
The finished kitchen
Two crystal chandeliers over a quartz island the size of a small dining table. A farmhouse sink in the island so her wife can prep and chat at the same time.
The island also hides the microwave. One of the smartest moves in the whole remodel, because it freed up the wall above the stove for a real vent hood.
She kept the arabesque tile but swapped the flat version for a raised, almost lace-looking one. Brass pot filler above the cooktop. Pink kettle because her daughter started the color accent and it stuck.
The arched window stayed. A second apron sink went in under it for dishes.
The desk nook nobody used? Gone. In its place: a dedicated coffee bar between two full-height pantries.
Crystal knobs on the uppers, brass bars on the island drawers.
So, was it worth it?
She says yes. Her family uses the island as their dining table now. Storage doubled. The old desk is a coffee bar. The fridge sits flush. Her wife has her prep sink.
Reddit was split. Some called the before warmer and more timeless. Others loved the glam. She answered every comment, kind or mean, with “to each their own.”
The real takeaway is quieter than the drama in the comments. A kitchen can be beautiful and still not fit the people who live in it. When that happens, you can either learn to live around it or spend seven months tearing it out. She picked door number two, gave the old one to a family that needed it, and ended up with a kitchen her daughter bakes in and her dog naps in.
That is a win, no matter which photo you thought was the after.
