Save My Reno: Rebecca + Eric's Brewmaster Kitchen
Eric and Rebecca were true entertainers—and I speak from experience.
From the first day we showed up until the night of the reveal, they always had an ice-cold beer with our name on it... literally. They actually created a Save My Reno blend that was a light wheat beer—I'm not kidding! (Missed this episode? Watch it here!)Which is exactly why their kitchen brought them so much anguish. It was closed off and even two bodies was one too many in the kitchen. The cabinets were original, the countertop and backsplash were vinyl with gold stars on them (which I kinda actually liked) and there was barely room for a fridge let along a dishwasher, toaster or microwave.
And outside of their kitchen wasn't much better. In between the kitchen and dining room was an awkward office and there were four types of floor within one step of each other. If I could sum up in one word what the space really needed, it'd be: cohesion.
Both engineers, Rebeca and Eric were handy enough to remove a wall—but even they had to admit that they needed help. Although, not before Seb and Eric tested out his framing handiwork to their corgi Newton and I's chagrin. ;)
Funny anecdote: The trees still said summer but the air said late fall, so to not look crazy during our interviews in big jackets, our best option was to stay warm from camera-down and freeze a tad for a few minutes waist-up, haha! We're super fashion-forward ;)
As far as demo was concerned there was nothing worth saving. Although the cabinets reminded me of my Nonna and the pegboard was cute in theory, we had to say bye-bye to everything—everything except for their original solid copper cabinet hardware, that is.
As you can see below, the only challenge we faced could be a good thing depending on your point of view: things were made super well back in the day. So even my full jumping weight wasn't enough to take a cabinet door down. That's where Seb stepped in to lend some elbow grease.
To save some money and nod to their love for beverages, we got the idea to up-cycle whisky decanters that we nabbed for $20. We did have to spend some money getting them professionally cut by Ross "the glass boss" but it was an expense that was well worth the pride of making them ourselves.
And yes, the blade Ross cut the glass with is made of DIAMONDS. Nuts! Another cool aspect was that, technically, you could use the leftover bottoms from the decanters as cute candy dishes. To put it how a cute grandma would, Rebecca was a hoot. She was always game for anything and loved the whole experience. Wire a light? No problem. Give us the keys to your house to tear apart and rebuild? Okay! Always excited, pumped and grateful.
Initially, my drawing and vision was to cluster three decanters of very different shapes and sized, but we only found square decanters in super-similar looks, but I'm actually really happy with how it turned out more than if I found round or tiny ones, too.
You can watch the whole DIY video here so you can do it at home!
In the end, the space was a true testament to how peppering in just a few high-end features can really elevate an entire room. The cabinets were pre-fab and inexpensive, as was the barn-board in this case (as it was leftover form another job). This allowed us to splurge a bit on a mini beverage fridge, glass rinser, and a bold copper backsplash, evaluating the entire room.
Other than the authentic copper pulls we reused from their original kitchen, my favorite part of the build is the glorious and huge 7 foot island we installed. It not only allows for oodles of prep space, but offers seating, too. And the DIY decanter pendant lights look amazing and cost us just a fraction of what similar fixtures run for. It wasn't shown in its full glory, but Newton was a pretty happy pup on reveal day, too!
And be sure to head to HGTV.ca for all of the before and after photos. And below, feast your eyes on some online finds so you can get the look for yourself.
Get The Look:
