Saturday, May 14, 2011

Kitchen Remodel



We are remodeling our kitchen. In its day, it was a top-of-the-line St. Charles kitchen, but it's now about 50 years old and in real need of updating.

A brick chimney that vents the furnace runs through the corner of our 80 year old bungalow kitchen. When we gutted the kitchen, we pulled the plaster off the chimney and found the brick to be in surprisingly good condition.

We prefer to keep the brick exposed rather than cover it with drywall, although it'll be partially covered with cabinets. I wasn't sure how to prep and seal the brick, and turned to Google. The information out there is all over the map, so here is how we handled the prep work:
  • A small chisel and hammer were used to remove the bulk of the remaining plaster from the brick.
  • Dust and more dust. Protective eye wear and a mask helped a bunch.
  • A wire brush scrubbed off the remaining bits of plaster. More patience than elbow grease was needed.
  • A spray bottle of water helped keep the dust down.
I read a lot about muratic acid but we didn't need anything harsher than a wire brush, thank goodness.

Next up: sealing the brick.

2 comments:

  1. Do you have any pictures of the cabinets on the chimney?

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'll dig around a bit and see what I have of the original look. Before we remodeled, we had an old St. Charles kitchen and the chimney was completely concealed. When we remodeled, we left the brick chimney exposed.

    ReplyDelete

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