The hardest thing about before and after projects is remembering to take a before picture! I think that’s what probably happened during Oona’s parent’s kitchen remodel. Either elves ransacked the cupboards, stole all the food and left behind a shiny new double-decker dishwasher thus necessitating a complete remodel … or this picture was taken in the midst of the work. Something is telling me that dishwasher isn’t original to the kitchen. That something would be the baby blue sink.

Isn’t the after ahh inspiring? Love the backsplash, love the contrasting wood counters, love the sky high display cabinets. Love it want it need it. Check out lots more (like built-in bookcases in the kitchen!) on Oona’s blog Little Pink House.

Would you like to hear a scary story? Because I have one for you. It’s titled “The Case of the Portable Dishwasher and The Embarrassment It Causes Its Owners Whenever Anyone Sees Them Rolling It Across Their Kitchen and Subsequently Attaching the Nozzles to the Kitchen Sink In Order to Do a Load of Dishes Like They Are Some Kind of Cave People, Not That This Ever Happened To Me In High School When My Family Had One of These Stupid Dishwashers and My Friends Were So Confused to See No Dishwasher One Day and Then A Dishwasher Squatting in the Middle of the Kitchen Like it Ain’t No Thang the Next, But Seriously, I Just Wanted a Regular Dishwasher Like the Rest of the World.”

That’s a working title, by the way. But it does have a happy ending! Mike and Katrina are enjoying their kitchen’s layout much more after rolling their darn portable dishwasher down to the basement, where it currently serves as counterspace. Trust me, hand washing the dishes is a much better option.

The floors are the original hardwood that were hiding out under the linoleum. Mike and Katrina came up with a lot of other nifty space saving solutions for their kitchen and you can check them out on their blog At Home Alterations.