Before & After Transformations: 15 Fantastic Kitchen Makeovers The Kitchn's Best of 2012

Kitchen Before & After: Amanda Hesser's Budget Kitchen Makeover

From dark and gloomy to bright and cheerful; from painfully outdated to stunningly chicthe year's kitchen transformations were a sight to behold! So many Kitchn readers submitted their own projects and shared their tips and design strategies, a number of them on a budget. Here are 15 favorites from the year.

TOP ROW
1 Kitchen Before & After: Amanda Hesser's Budget Kitchen Makeover
2 Kitchen Before & After: A Kitchen Keeps Its Footprint, But Gets An Updated Look
3 Kitchen Before & After: Julie's Outdated Kitchen Gets a Modern Makeover
4 Kitchen Before & After: Kathryn's Sonoma Garden Kitchen Makeover
5 Kitchen Before & After: A White Kitchen Gets a Warm and Traditional Update

MIDDLE ROW
6 Kitchen Before & After: From Drab to Fab!
7 Kitchen Before & After: From Bland Contractor Grade to Chic Modern
8 Kitchen Before & After: Heejoo's Open Floor Plan IKEA Renovation
9 Kitchen Before & After: Cheryl's 'Very Tight Budget' DIY Redo
10 Kitchen Before & After: A Small Outdated Kitchen Gets a Fantastic Green Makeover

BOTTOM ROW
11 Kitchen Before & After: A Farmhouse Kitchen Renovation
12 Kitchen Before & After: Katy's $700 Window-Centric Kitchen Remodel
13 Kitchen Before & After: A 1946 Bungalow Kitchen Gets a Modern Update
14 Alison and Kevin's Floor to Ceiling Remodel in Seattle
15 Kitchen Before & After: A Bland Kitchen Gets a Clean and Bright Makeover

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Welcome to The Kitchn's Best of 2012 roundup!
From December 17 through January 1 we are rounding up some of our favorite (and your favorite) posts from the past year.

(Images: See linked posts for full image credits)

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A West Village Kitchen Makeover

When designer Carly Yates set out to redo this West Village kitchen, she had her work cut out for her. Carly presented her renovation at our last Apartment Therapy Design Evening in New York; if you weren't able to make it, here are all the details.

NYC Kitchen Makeover
Apartment Therapy

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Quick Pork Chop Dinners, Baked Cider Donuts & A $50 Kitchen Makeover Friday Flashback

What were we up to this time last year? We had some quick and easy pork chop dinners, a step-by-step guide to making your own ciabatta, a roasting trick for cooking hard winter squash, Korean chicken wings for the next big game, and much more. Take a look!

PICTURED ABOVE, LEFT TO RIGHT
Pork Chop Dinner: 5 Quick and Satisfying Recipes
Whitney's Fabulous $50 Budget Kitchen Makeover
Unusual (And Maybe Helpful) Kitchen Tools
Quick Tip: An Easy Way to Roast Winter Squashes
Hot Breakfast Recipe: Baked Pumpkin Steel Cut Oats
How to Make Ciabatta Loaves and Rolls

NOT PICTURED ABOVE
Recipe: Korean Fried Chicken Wings
5 Entertaining Shortcuts to Save You Time
Sweet, Salty, and Simple: 15 Snacks & Treats for Fall
Recipe: Couscous with Chickpeas, Fennel, and Citrus
Blacksplash Ideas for Rental Kitchens: Removable Fabric
Cheater Recipe: Baked Apple Cider Donuts

Previous Friday Flashback: One-Pot Meatless Meals, Harvesting Sea Salt & a Halloween Pitcher Cocktail

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Cookie Monster's Cookie Recipe, 25 Freezer Tips, Amanda Hesser's Kitchen Makeover, and 5 Things New Cooks Do Wrong Most Popular Posts Published August 12 - 18

Happy weekend! Popular posts this week on The Kitchn include a list of 10 meals to make ahead for Autumn, how to make perfect pesto, the 3-ingredient cocktail of the summer, a tour though a charming Parisian kitchen, and why you should never use your oven's self-cleaning function. Enjoy!

15. A Quick Trip Around Europe: Classic Recipes from 24 Different Countries
14. Smart Tip: Use an Ironing Board for Extra Counter Space When You Need It
13. How To Make Stuffed Grape Leaves with Cucumber-Yogurt Sauce
12. Busy Autumn Ahead: 10 Meals to Make and Freeze Now
11. Recipe: Penna Alla Vodka
10. How To Make Perfect Pesto Every Time

9. 3-Ingredient Cocktail of the Summer: The Gold Rush

8. Flatbread Recipe: Norwegian Potato Lefse

7. Kitchen Before & After: Amanda Hesser's Budget Kitchen Makeover

6. So You Know: Cookie Monster's Famous Sugar Cookie Dough Recipe

5. Why You Should (Almost) Never Use Your Oven's Self-Cleaning Function

4. Haleigh's Charming Parisian Kitchen

3. 25 Time-Saving Freezer Tips

2. The Top 5 Things New Cooks Do Wrong

1. Weeknight Suppers from Italy: 20 Dinner Recipes Inspired by Italy

Previous Hot Posts: Secret Ingredients in Asian Cuisines, Sriracha In Beer, Budget Kitchen Tile, and 20 Fresh Recipes from Southeast Asia

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Frisky Vegetables, Soda's Health Effects & $300 Kitchen Makeover Friday Flashback

Can you feel it? That hint of autumn in the air? We have a cheesy casserole of summer vegetables, a round-up of crock-pot meals, and our very favorite ice cream recipes to help you get through these last hot days and get ready for cooler ones ahead. Plus some very frisky vegetables!

PICTURED ABOVE, LEFT TO RIGHT
20 Homemade Ice Cream Recipes to Keep You Cool, Sweet, and Satisfied
Ill Effects: How Soda Pop Consumption Affects Your Body
Tomato, Broccoli & Mozzarella Pasta Casserole
Hot Pepper Hands: An Easy Way to Stop the Burn
Summer Squash with Baked Eggs
Kitchen Tour: Piper's Dream-to-Reality Kitchen

NOT PICTURED ABOVE
Before & After: The $300 Kitchen Makeover
Black Bean and Heirloom Tomato Quinoa with Lemon Dressing
What Are the Differences Between Kosher and Sea Salt?
Yummy & Healthy: Chickpeas as the Main Ingredient
Keep the Kitchen Cool & Clean: 5 Crockpot Meals
Frisky Garden: Vegetables That Will Make You Blush

Previous Friday Flashback: Crisp Coleslaws, Banishing Fruit Flies & Lucky Charms Ice Cream Sandwiches

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Kitchen Before & After: Amanda Hesser's Budget Kitchen Makeover Kitchen Renovation

Let's say you wanted to make over the look of your kitchen (which you detest) but feel, rightly, that it would be unwise to spend a huge amount of money on a full renovation. What approach would you take? What would you do? Well, we should all take inspiration from Amanda Hesser's recent kitchen makeover, which turned what was rapidly becoming a dated space into something more sophisticated and modern, better tuned now for the video and photographic work done every week in this kitchen. Want to see the after?

Dark to light, right? We think it's pretty stunning!

Hesser's kitchen was renovated by previous owners before she bought the Brooklyn Heights apartment. It had a lot of the signature luxury items of a high-end kitchen: Sub-Zero fridge, Viking stove, Miele dishwasher. She installed a pantry in the dining room for extra storage space, and then proceeded to use that kitchen hard for the next 10 years. Hesser says she tested over 1,400 recipes there, and now it is the site for weekly photo and video shoots for Food52.

But the kitchen wasn't ideal. Some of those "luxury" touches made Hesser uncomfortable. Cherry wood cabinets and shiny green marble showed up unpleasantly on video, and the kitchen felt dark and dated.

So Hesser decided to renovate, on a budget. This kitchen was the place where she spent the most time, and it was the place that visually represented her business. Hesser hired a new designer, Lithe Sebesta, who helped her get the kitchen freshened up and freshly styled. A few months later, she has what she calls a serene gray kitchen, not to mention a fresh dining room area and all within her modest (by New York standards) budget.

Amanda Hesser's kitchen designer: Lithe Sebesta

It turns out, too, that the budget constraint was actually a blessing. Hesser has smart insights on the benefits of budget renovations:

It made me wish I'd done all our previous renovations on the tightest possible budget. First, because you don't make lazy decisions, get bitten by the-most-expensive-must-be-the-best bug, or buy everything at once.

Second, because you must work harder and more creatively to get every detail done every little knob that you track down on sale, every fixture from a little-known shop in Brooklyn, feels like a triumph, and you appreciate the results so much more. I've never been this happy with a renovation.

So, what did her budget cover? How did this kitchen move from cherry-cabinet-green-marble-darkness to the lighter, sleeker look you see here? First: Lots of resurfacing, including painting the cabinets and honing the marble countertop. The contractor cleverly masked the tile backsplash with concrete-covered boards, and Hesser and Sebesta searched out lighting and cabinet hardware that fit in the budget. There are smart upgrades and small but important improvements throughout this kitchen makeover, from re-covered chairs to a painted refrigerator.

See photos below of two of my favorite upgrades: The smart, inexpensive backsplash solution, and a fresh walnut butcher block countertop.

The original tile backsplash.

We rather adore this kitchen makeover. It transformed what was rapidly becoming a dated look into something more modern, much better for photography and video (key to Hesser's business), and altogether more lovely. Many more photos and details, including budget and notes on each step of the process, can be seen at Food52. Go take a peek, and let us know what you think!

Read more about the details and see more photos:
Amanda Hesser's Kitchen Makeover at Food52

Hesser's dining room pantry.

More Kitchen Before & Afters
Kitchen Before & After: Heejoo's Open Floor Plan IKEA Renovation
Kitchen Before & After: From Bland Contractor Grade to Chic Modern
Kitchen Before & After: Cheryl's 'Very Tight Budget' DIY Redo
Kitchen Before & After: Theresa's 11-Day Gut Overhaul
Kitchen Before & After: A Small Outdated Kitchen Gets a Fantastic Green Makeover

(Images: James Ransom)

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