We remodeled the whole trailer, but this post focuses on the kitchen.  Learn how we approached the task, important measurements & appliance sizes, what decisions we made along the way + why.  See what tricks we used to maximize storage in our small space and create an open and inviting area that didn’t feel too crowded.  Discover what effected our budget, and whether we felt that to be a good use of our money.  Includes details about different features we thought were important to include in a high end kitchen and photos of the entire process, as well as information about which products we ultimately chose and where we bought them.

This is what the trailer kitchen looked like before we started.  It was all closed in and even though there was a good amount of space and a ton of storage, the cabinets were old and falling apart in places. 

 The paint was too dark for us, and we wanted to open up the space.  We also knew that putting in stainless appliances and upgrading the plumbing fixtures as well as the piping itself, would help sell the place later on.

We knocked both of these walls completely out.

This is what we found after taking all the walls down.  The insulation was rectangular pieces of hard foam, like the kind they use to pack computers and televisions into their boxes. That obviously needed attention, and was one of the factors that increased our overall budget.

 We ended up taking all the walls down and re-insulating with a spray foam material.  It may have cost more, but it was worth it in the end, because we had upgraded the insulation, making the house more efficient. Taking the walls down also made it faster for the electricians, who needed to upgrade our electrical box and bring us up to code by re-wiring the entire trailer. 

As an added bonus, the drywall made a big difference in that space aesthetically as well.  Instead of fake wood panelling painted to match the rest of the walls, we were able to give the entire kitchen, dining, living room a clean, modern feel with drywall on the walls.  The color we chose is Stonington Grey from Benjamin Moore.  It’s a beautiful light grey that we have used over and over, always in the common spaces in a lot of the renovations we have done.  The changing light throughout the day works differently with the paint, making it appear greenish, blueish, and darker or lighter as the day goes on.  But regardless of the hue, it’s always beautiful.  Grey enough to contrast with the white trim, and light enough not to make your spaces feel closed in.

Appliances were sourced from the scratch and dent section of Sears Outlet online.  If you are on a budget, have time to wait for the deliveries, and are organized enough to keep track of multiple orders, this is the only way to go to get the best appliances for the lowest prices.  Sears is not very organized.  They lost more than one of our shipments, used the excuse that items had “fallen off the back of the truck” more than once, some itms never showed up, and others arrived with damages in different places than it was pictured when we purchased them.  Dealing with them was frustrating, to say the least, but money was an issue, so I was happy to do it because every time they screwed up, they offered me between $50 and $125 in credit.  But I had the time to spend and no additional money to burn, so I spent hours on the phone with the help desk and ended up getting over $500 in additional credits after all the appliances were said and done.  If you can afford regular priced appliances, I would use your local appliance giant over one of the big box stores.  Ours here is PC Richard & Son.  They do a much better job at customer service, and your item is installed, sometimes even the next day, instead of waiting weeks for it to arrive.

 Relocating the fridge allowed for an extension of the kitchen so that it made the hallway to the bedroom longer, creating an ideal laundry wall + allowing us to have a place to come right in the door & drop grocery bags on the big island.  It was close enough to the fridge to just unload straight away.  Our cabinets came from IKEA.  Say what you want about IKEA, but they make an excellent kitchen cabinet system.  We were able to get features I thought we could never afford, like soft close drawers & perfectly fitted bamboo inserts for all the drawers.

We did the work ourselves, but it is an option to hire a local professional to install them for you.  I will tell you that this process takes a lot of planning and you need to expect to go to IKEA multiple times during your kitchen installation.  Since timing is always an issue in a renovation, this can be difficult if you do not live nearby IKEA.  Keep that in mind when planning your renovation.  Putting together the actual cabinets is not that bad if you have ever put together any flat pack furniture.  The drawers are more tricky than the doors, and there are no words in the instructions.  I recommend watching youtube videos on how to put together IKEA drawers before attempting to do one yourself.  Also, pay attention to the pictures of the finished drawers as you go through the directions.  Where you locate your screws matters depending on what type of finished product you want.  We added a wine cabinet on the left side of the island, and located a rack with hooks conveniently here near the slider out to the deck, hanging our BBQ tools there.

We were going to aim for a high selling price, so I wanted to make sure the details were as good as the overall look of the place.  We chose a silent Kitchen Aid dishwasher with a stainless steel tub, third rack and a quick wash function.  It proved to be an excellent choice since the space was small and eventually was all opened up, if we sat to watch tv after dinner, we could never hear the dishwasher.  For all the other appliances, we went with Whirlpool.  What drew me to them was the smooth handles, clean lines and blue lights on the displays.  The reason I ultimately chose them was for the features they offered.  Anti spill racks in the fridge with water and ice available in the door.  Double ovens on the range, a 5 burner cooktop with warming station & select a size burners, a large microwave with a steam rack and an extra 30 second button.

Because it was a trailer, and we were short on space, I used three small pantry cabinets spread around the kitchen.  We used drawers instead of doors on as many cabinets as possible, and used both glass doors & open shelves in the upper space to keep it feeling larger than it was. We hid the garbages (often an unsightly element in a beautiful kitchen) in a pull out drawer in the middle of the island.  A pull out garbage underneath your main prep space has proven invaluable.  We put an electric strip with 5 outlets in between the wine cabinet and the hanging space for the BBQ items, and chose a Vigo kitchen faucet that had a pull down commercial sprayer as well as a traditional faucet, all controlled by one valve. 

For extra storage, we used an actual cabinet under the seating part of the island.  Since the island was basically a large square, this served multiple purposes.  Obviously, the added storage, secondly, we would have had to support such a large island somehow, so it made sense to use a cabinet instead of leaving wasted space underneath.  Third, because I could choose the size of the cabinet, I was able to gain an additional seat on the other side of the island. Open shelves for cookbooks & larger, more beautiful display pots was one idea I had, but I decided in favor of the closed off cabinet because I didn’t want people to accidentally kick the items underneath, and I also thought it may take away from the overall aesthetic if there were items you could see under there.

The original kitchen window was not centered over the sink, and we planned to move it.  So we were able to add a corner cabinet, an oversized sink, and when we were ready to put the window in, we decided to make it extra special and add this kitchen window pass though to an outside bar!

This is what the kitchen looked like after we were finished.  Total transformation!

Tech Specs:

Before you begin, I recommend measuring everything. Twice!  Take the time to draw it out from above on graph paper and mark where everything is.  Use one box per foot, or two boxes per foot, for a smaller kitchen. You can look up the average sizes of kitchen elements, but I will include some here for you.  A countertop is normally 25″ deep. The cabinets below it are 24″. A 1″ overhang is normal. A dishwasher is 24″ wide. A standard fridge is 3′ wide by 3′ deep, so it will come out a whole foot past your cabinets.  Counter depth fridges are available. They cost more, have less space, and come with less options. But if your space doesn’t allow for a full sized fridge, they can be very useful. A standard range, whether gas or electric, is 30″ wide.  It will protrude slightly from the countertop.  Plenty of options for ranges now exist, and you can upgrade to a chefs style one at 36″, 42″, and on and on. Remember to check the measurements of the range’s interior compartments if you are looking at something that is not standard.  If you don’t have much space, we love the double oven option available in the 30″ size.  It gets rid of the useless bottom drawer and replaces it with an additional, smaller oven at the top. That oven heats up more quickly as well.  Spring for convection if you can swing it.  It will speed up your cooking without effecting results.  Ideal aisle space (between cabinet rows) is 4′.  Any less and you will bump into each other when using your kitchen.  Also, with less than 4′, you need to remember to sketch out the door swings and drawer pulls for every single drawer, cabinet and appliance in the kitchen to make sure they don’t hit.  I like to use dotted lines for that to differentiate from the cabinets.  For example, you want to be able to fully open your dishwasher and also have your garbage drawer pulled out at the same time.  So take the time to make sure it all lines up well.  Not many people have room for 4′ aisles.  But 3′ is pretty much the lowest I would go.