Take one old kitchen. Mix in prizes from Canadian Home & Country's Win A Dream Kitchen Makeover Contest. Add willing homeowners and a lot of patience. Work until bright, airy and beautiful.
Newlyweds Cheri and Tony Ventresca love just about every part of their charming century home in St. Catharines, Ontario, with one exception – the kitchen. Cramped and outdated, it lacked both personality and functionality. So when the couple's contest entry was chosen over hundreds of others, they were thrilled. While Tony acted as chief handyman, Cheri, owner of a home decor shop, White on White, collaborated with Home & Country design editor Ann Marie Favot to create the couple's dream kitchen. “Cheri had a clear idea of the kitchen she wanted,” says Favot. “She loves white and pale colours and wanted a pretty, Shabby Chic kitchen.” That's exactly what the couple got. Here, Cheri offers her take on the renovation process.
July: We get the call; we've won the Win a Dream Kitchen Makeover Contest! I do a little happy dance and then we get busy making plans.
Late August: We begin to dismantle the kitchen and the first box goes down to the basement. We're doing the work ourselves and there are some big structural things that need to get done; we move the plumbing and take out a chimney.
September: It's like we've won the lottery. Ann Marie and I go shopping to pick out the fabric and lighting. I find the Wedgwood china we want online. One of the first prizes to arrive is a chandelier from Turn of the Century Lighting (Victoria Candle Ceiling Fixture with Crystals in satin nickel finish). It's beautiful.
The floors are not. We rip up the first layer of tiles and there's another underneath and another after that. Six layers later, we reach wood. We sand them with a machine I've nicknamed The Beast. Finally, the floors are ready for the dark stain we've chosen.
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