• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Home Made Modern

| DIY - Cooking - Crafting | Blog

  • Home
  • About Me
  • Home Made Style
    • Budget Decorating
    • Crafts
      • Kid Crafts & Activities
      • Knockoffs
    • DIY
      • Furniture Facelifts
    • Easy Entertaining
    • Gift Giving
    • Home Made Holidays
      • Christmas
      • Fall
      • Halloween
      • July Fourth
      • Spring & Easter
      • Summer
      • Thanksgiving
      • Valentine’s day
      • Winter
    • Home Organization
    • Outdoor Projects
    • Shortcuts & Tips
  • Recipes
    • Baking and Desserts
    • Kid-Friendly Recipes
    • Quick and Easy Cooking
  • Life at Our House
    • Blogging Life
    • Family
    • Home Updates
    • Motherhood
  • Retail Therapy
    • Tightwad Tuesday
  • Contact Me

For the Love of Banquettes (a.k.a. Demolition!)

September 14, 2012 by Valerie Ott 7 Comments

Do you ever just wake up one beautiful Sunday morning, and over breakfast, decide to knock down a wall? Well…that’s exactly what happened in our house last weekend. I was innocently perusing Pinterest while my husband read the Sunday paper, and the next thing we knew…drywall was flying.

We have been living in our house for over two years now and have wanted a new kitchen since the day we moved in. But, seeing as how we had very little furniture, zero window coverings, and like, two lamps to our name (why did our last house feel so CROWDED I ask you), we’ve had bigger fish to fry. Now…well, now we have a bit more furniture, a few of the windows are covered, and we can at least read a book after dark; however, every single room still has projects to be completed and we are by no means finished furnishing. Seriously, the list of stuff to do in each room is as long as my arm. Nevertheless, the kitchen bugs us and we decided to spur ourselves into action by exposing the studs on one wall. As if we needed more to do.

So, what we REALLY want is a floor to ceiling remodel. We’d like to remove the soffits, get taller cabinets, put in wood flooring and knock down most of the walls to create a completely open floor plan. But because of our aforementioned arm-length list, and because we’re just not QUITE ready to live in that kind of mess with two small kids, and because of our budget…we decided to give ourselves a kitchen we could happily live in for at least five more years. Hey, maybe we’ll love it and never change it (I doubt it), but until we save up the coin and the fortitude to undertake a complete gut-job, we’ve started with this wall. In the end, we hope we can incoporate what we’re gonna do NOW into the final product.

Ok, so here’s the before picture of the wall. (Sidenote: If you ever want to light a fire under yourself to update a room, take a picture of it. As I said, we knew we wanted to change our kitchen since the day we moved in, so we’ve never bothered to decorate it. I mean…Not. One. Picture. So when I saw the room through a camera lens, I was shocked at how PLAIN and awful it has looked and was even more sure my husband should take a hammer to the drywall.)

And here’s the new view.

Now…here’s the million-dollar question. Do we build a peninsula here with bar stools on the kitchen-side? Or do we put in a banquette like one of these?

Coastal Living

House and Home

source unknown

Better Homes and Gardens

Young House Love

Seriously, don’t keep your opinions to yourselves…I wanna know what you think! I know what I’d love, but I’m trying to be practical, too. So…updates will follow but don’t hold your collective breath. We have to get an electrician to move our themostat and some other wiring, and then we’ll take the next steps. That is, unless we get distracted by that arm-length to-do list.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...

Related

Filed Under: Home Updates

Previous Post: « Recipe of the Week: Creamsicle Smoothie
Next Post: Craft of the Week: Leafy Monogram Door Hanging »

Reader Interactions

Share

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Google+
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Explore

Comments

  1. Tara Sanders says

    September 14, 2012 at 2:12 pm

    Definitely a banquette! Stools and peninsulas = indoor jungle gym! 🙂

    Reply
  2. Carissa Rasmussen says

    September 15, 2012 at 12:17 am

    banquettes are so cozy and charming. If you have the space DO IT. peninsulas are for those of us who can't have a full banquette!

    Reply
  3. Christine Dunning says

    September 15, 2012 at 1:32 pm

    We had to laugh when we saw your post, it seems this is how our projects start as well 🙂 Love your ideas!

    Reply
  4. Jane Campbell says

    September 16, 2012 at 1:34 pm

    Go for the banquette – much more practical – especially if you have storage underneath!

    Reply
  5. Val @ Home Made Modern says

    September 19, 2012 at 3:00 am

    Ah, good point. Thanks for sharing!!

    Reply
  6. Val @ Home Made Modern says

    September 19, 2012 at 3:01 am

    Thanks, my friend!! I pin a lot of your ideas as well. 🙂

    Reply
  7. Val @ Home Made Modern says

    September 19, 2012 at 3:02 am

    So far, banquette is winning. But I have to say…there's still something appealing about having people "hang" at the peninsula while I'm cooking. ARGH! Decisions!!

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Looking for Something?

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Google+
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Reader Favorites







Footer

Connect With Me

Val is the Home Accessories Expert for About.com and the author of Home Made Modern. Learn More…

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Google+
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter
soap dish
pretzel rods for Valentine's Day class treat
word of the year 2017
yarn pom-pom wreath
Find thousands of craft supplies online!

Copyright © 2021 · Foodie Pro Theme by Shay Bocks · Built on the Genesis Framework · Powered by WordPress

HMM_Logo

I'm super-happy you're here!

Sign up to be inspired.

Guys, I have too many ideas and not enough time to blog about them.  Sign up and I'll send you exclusive and FREE ideas for making your house a home.

Thank You!
Something went wrong!
Privacy policy

We respect your privacy and will never share your information