By Danielle Peterson

Michele Jennings disliked how her kitchen flowed, but she couldn’t figure out how to fix it. “I felt the kitchen was too small and the eating area was always in the way. No matter what I did, the area around the chimney always felt awkward. I tried all kinds of tables and chairs, but it always felt cluttered,” Michele says. So she decided to do something drastic: remodel the entire kitchen.

Since her home is only 800 square feet, Michele looked for the best arrangement of furniture. Her dreams for the new kitchen also included an eating bar since there isn’t room for a formal dining room table. After drawing several layouts for her kitchen, Michele decided to construct a decorative counter to separate the food-preparation area from the eating area. Her first step? “I measured everything,” she says, “from the stove to the table I wanted to use and the cabinet I wanted to recycle.”

She started the rebuilding process by creating a counter that would separate the stove and cabinets from the eating bar. “All it took was 2 x 4s, beaded board, and trim. I screwed everything together, instead of nailing it, to make it easy to remove if I ever wanted to,” Michele says. 

When it was time to create the eating bar, Michele had a problem: She already had a table she loved. So she cut the square table in half with a table saw. The two halves became the new bar, which Michele secured to the wall with ledger board.

Once the bar was fastened to the wall, Michele painted everything to match the rest of her kitchen. After the paint dried, she secured her cabinet to the wall, which helped strengthen the structure and provided some much needed storage. Finally, she slid in the stove—Michele had her new kitchen!

Tips from the creator: “You really have to think about everything you’re going to need. Make a list and go over your game plan so you don't waste time and money. And always remember to measure twice, cut once,” she says. Michele also advises visiting your local hardware store for help finding the right tools and the best techniques to get the project done.

To see another view of Michele’s kitchen, click here.

Here are pictures of Michele’s kitchen BEFORE the remodeling!
Photo One
Photo Two

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