How the Spence family updated their kitchen with this gorgeous set of gently-used, high-end knotty alder cabinets.
Pandi Spence has remodeled four kitchens (and counting!) using recycled cabinets.
The Longmont-based interior designer knows a thing or two about taking an idea and turning it into a real-life, functioning kitchen that you love.
So when one of her clients was searching for quality, sustainable cabinets for their home renovation, she dug in and found a second-hand set that worked perfectly for the project.
That was just the beginning. Since then, Pandi has designed two more home-entertainment areas using recycled cabinets.
While helping her clients, she just so happened to be on the look-out for cabinets that would revitalize her own kitchen too. Finally, a set of gently-used knotty alder cabinets caught her eye. And, as they say, the rest is history.
Pandi and her husband Larame recycled the knotty alder cabinets, appliances, and counters from a $1.7 million home in Colorado. They loved the cabinets’ rustic-meets-elegant look, but they also purchased them with their kitchen layout in mind.
“We have really low ceilings, so I knew these would work wonderfully because they had 30-inch tall uppers. Additionally, I needed enough cabinets to re-do our bathroom, and this set had that as well,” Pandi said.
Both Pandi and Larame have quite a bit of DIY experience behind them, as they’ve been taking on renovation projects at their home for the past 20 years. As a designer, Pandi can plan the layout for a space and be super hands-on in the remodeling process, having installed fixtures, dry-walled, run electricity, plumbed, and engineered flooring, to name a few.
She said, “I had my design for the kitchen and how I would use the cabinets completely planned, but it was summertime when we purchased everything, so we had quite a few outdoor projects that we were working on finishing first.”
Instead of gutting their entire kitchen and doing everything at once, the couple put their cabinets in storage and installed them a little at a time. They started with one section of the room, and when that was complete, they went on to another. Pandi said this allowed them to still have a functioning kitchen at all times. Plus, it made the project seem much less overwhelming.