Vote for the Winner of Our Kitchen Makeover Contest

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Men laying new hardwood flooring

Last month we told you about the chance to win an amazing $10,000 kitchen makeover courtesy of Atlanta Home Improvement, Kitchen Fronts of Georgia and Premier Surfaces as part of our “I Want a Beautiful Kitchen” contest. Well, we have selected the top four finalists for the contest, and we are leaving it up to you to decide who wins!

To enter, each applicant had to submit an essay explaining why they should receive a kitchen makeover and photos of their existing kitchen to demonstrate that need. We received many compelling entries and saw plenty of outdated kitchens–lots of old white cabinetry out there! In the end, four entries touched us the most. Please help us decide which kitchen should receive a makeover, including new, solid-wood cabinet doors and drawer fronts as well as new countertops. Vote for the winner by leaving a comment below. Voting ends July 22.

The “One-Butt” Kitchen–Submitted by Anne Boatwright

Kitchen-contest_Anne

“We are a family of five with a galley kitchen of approximately 11.5 x 7 feet. Our friends have affectionately dubbed it the “One Butt Kitchen”. Ideally, we’d love to expand our space in a full-scale renovation but as we are unable to afford such an expensive project, a facelift would be a fabulous alternative! Our most frequented room has become rather weary-looking with use in the 17 years we’ve lived in this house. We pretend that we live abroad in a cottage in France or Italy where kitchens are small but food is celebrated. Since both my husband and I enjoy cooking and entertaining, we very much want the space to look fresher and more inviting. We’re also trying to teach our three boys to cook as well and think that a few key upgrades would help motivate them to spend more time in it.

The cabinets are made of average-grade, wood/plywood with recessed panel doors and are painted white, though the paint chips easily. The countertops are plain laminate, complete with a few knife marks. The faucet is a standard single handle (low not arc spout) with a side sprayer. The el-cheapo, fake linoleum flooring is tearing in several places, adding to the shabby look.

I’ve been reading Atlanta Home Improvement for years and have always dreamed of winning a contest in which we could beautify our home. We also love to watch “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition”; our kids keep asking when we can enter our house in the running for that show! We tell them our house isn’t in that bad a shape but this could be our mini-makeover and couldn’t happen at a better time for our family (and our finances)! My husband owns his own business and I’m a freelancer and, though we’re happy to be employed in this tough economy, there aren’t extra funds for improvements.

Please consider the Boatwright family kitchen – the One Butt Kitchen – that wants to go from twice-baked tired to sizzlin’ superb!”

The “Almost-There” Kitchen–Submitted by Jolanta Haughn

Kitchen-contest_Jolanta

“What better way to bring a dull, lifeless-dated kitchen back to life than with a makeover? People get them all the time! Just watch any of the talk shows, if they can, then why can’t my kitchen. I won’t have to worry about the upkeep especially with makeup, designer clothing, or the newest Christian Louboutins or the latest hairstyles.

My classic and elegant kitchen will never go out of style. I can just imagine how fresh and inviting my kitchen will look with a makeover? Newly resurfaced cabinets and countertops will only enhance the timeless beauty of the existing stainless steel appliances, it will create a very inviting kitchen to be enjoyed for years to come while entertaining my family and friends. We can all gather around telling stories, while prepping and cooking our sumptuous meals together, exactly like what a kitchen was intended to do. It would be a great way to spend quality time, while enjoying my newly updated kitchen. I love to cook and I could get lost in the countless recipes that could be magically created in a beautify kitchen. Oh how I would LOVE a NEW DREAM KITCHEN…..but then again DREAMS due come TRUE!!!!”

The All-White Kitchen–Submitted by Christine IndechKitchen-contest_christine

“When the 1998 Atlanta tornado blew us from out first house in Peachtree Corners to the next – a vacant builder spec house with the nearly instant availability we needed for a family of 6 – home décor was not on our minds. Remaining finishes were chosen within minutes and declared perfect.

The new house had a good roof and a 12-foot deep basement, our singe non-negotiable feature. The blandness of white on white in the heart of the house, the kitchen, was a comfortable antidote to the wildness of the storm. The already dated white tile island countertop was practical, although a bit irregular for homework. The white laminate with wood edge at the sink at least wouldn’t break the dishes, if our fingers were shaky during the next thunderstorm.

The cabinets had sturdy real wood boxes, although the fronts were a manufactured wood product painted high gloss white to match the boxes. The knobs regularly fell off their short screws, until we bought some longer ones at the hardware store and added washers and a nut. The cute little wine rack was above the refrigerator, needing a chair and very long arms to retrieve anything, libation for giants. (In the old kitchen, cabinet doors had concealed the rarely used dishes in that spot).

Given all that whiteness, it was easiest to have white walls, too, although over the years the kids’ art and pictures provided at least a little color. After more than a decade of being the heart of the house, for conferences, celebrations, music making, education and all the other activities that keep a family running, the kitchen is showing its age. The layout and location remain wonderful, perfect in our eyes. But surfaces and facades have improved and color is back in the kitchen. We’d love to see what updating could do to improve the heart of our home.”

The “Make-Do” Kitchen–Submitted by Janet RileyKitchen-contest_Riley

“PRECISELY what I’ve been wishing for… new counter-top and cabinet fronts!!! They are exactly the components I have not been able to find a way to bring from vision to reality. Following our marriage in 1999, I moved into my new husband’s house. Not thrilled with parts of the kitchen, I accepted the laminate counters and pressboard cabinet doors since it was to be our home for only a short time. Ed would retire from the Army in a couple years, by which time we would have nearly completed our personally designed new home. We planned to build OUR dream house together which included MY dream kitchen. The dream was never realized, however, because my husband passed away little more than 2 years later. My sweet husband didn’t make it to retirement. Not only was our dream home not to become reality, ALL our dreams together ended abruptly with his rather sudden passing. Today, 9 years later, I still live in that “temporary” house. It’s a lovely, comfortable house with great outdoor spaces. I have come to love it and I’m very happy to call home this house I did not choose. I’ve made changes where possible to make it more my own. One of my favorite things about the kitchen is that it gets the morning sun. Hanging in the window is a crystal, which also hung in my husband’s hospital room. When the sun hits the crystal, it makes rainbows dance around. These rainbows always make me smile and give thanks for the happiness and love I feel in this house. I digress. Back to the kitchen – I’ve been replacing appliances one at a time, (budget, you know). I long to fix the scarred counter-top and those pitiful coming-apart cabinet doors!! Great counter-tops and real wood cabinet fronts will make it my BEAUTIFUL dream kitchen and I know my soldier angel will smile, smile. COME ON, make it happen!!”

Which kitchen do you think should receive a makeover? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

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