We made the mistake of going to look at a fantastic high-end custom kitchen store called DOM which sells Valcucine kitchens imported from Italy.  The sample kitchens are all beautifully put together and everything fits perfectly. In fact, the way the Valcucine product goes together reminds me of an airplane: everything has a machined quality and uses just enough (not excessive) amounts of material to get a cohesive look. We ended up in the store by accident; we were down in a certain area of town that has funky cafes and galleries and wandered into the store just to quickly take a look. Well once you're in, its hard to leave because its like being at the premier of a

Well, I finished the $100 kitchen reno and as you can see in this earlier post, we managed to stay under $100 even including some other items, like the mirror I put up and the 'blackboard' I created by painting the end of one of the cabinets (just out of view in the foreground). The new counters and floors make the kitchen feel more included in the rest of the house. Lets start with the floor: it took a lot longer than I thought (but of course you knew that by now!) I put the tiles on the diagonal for more interest and it also seems to make the space bigger. Even though it is way more graphic than the

Here are the latest numbers as I am getting into actually doing the work on the kitchen makeover. Knobs (bulk Pack of 20!, Lee Valley)  $5.95 Backsplash embossed wallpaper (roll, HomeDepot)  $19.99 Silver paint (1 can, HomeDepot)  $11.97 Sandpaper (leftover from another job)  $0 Primer (leftover from another job)  $0 Floor Tiles (Black and White, Vinyl, Rona)  $45.00 Melamine Paint (leftover from another job)  $0 PaintBrushes, tape etc.  $8.99 Blackboard Paint (1 can, Benjamin Moore Store)  $19.99 Mirror (IKEA)  $7.99 Trim for Mirror (Home Depot)  $8.00 Trim for Blackboard section (leftover from another job)  $0 Total $123.88    $95.92 OK, so I was over 100, but we added in a couple of things to spruce it up on top of

What do you think it takes to make a kitchen more livable? That's what we're trying to find out as the cost for really doing it right is quickly spiralling out of control. By 'right' I mean that in addition to new cabinets, countertop, backsplash in the kitchen itself the floor needs to be leveled. Since this will make the rest of the floor look funny (and we can't match the old worn out floors in the rest of the house) we want to carry new flooring front to back. Now it is open concept, but a very small space as you can see in other pictures here, so it isn't out of consideration, but kinda out of reach for