- Project type: Full kitchen gut renovation, Fredericton NB. The home is over 30 years old. The kitchen dated to the 1970s.
- Layout: L-shape with a 100" × 37" island.
- Cabinet style: White shaker with gold hardware.
- Countertops: Taj Mahal quartzite, sourced separately — not through BluePrint Cabinets.
- Cabinet package: $14,550.
- Total kitchen investment: $20,000–$25,000.
- Delivery: ~2 weeks.
- Installation: ~2 days, DIY.
The design process included 3D renderings and floor plan blueprints with two rounds of revisions. This post covers the layout decisions, storage upgrades, where the budget was saved and where it wasn’t, and what the finished space actually looks like to live in.
Walk into this kitchen today and what you notice first is how big it feels. The island runs over eight feet long, there’s a cooktop built right into it, the countertops are Taj Mahal quartzite, gold hardware, soft-close everything.
A year ago it was a 1970s kitchen that had been lived in and left alone for decades.
The renovation that happened in between wasn’t complicated; the cabinets arrived in about two weeks, went in over a couple of days, and came in at $14,550 for total cabinet cost.
“Everyone that comes in absolutely loves the space.” - Homeowner
This project is a story about what happens when you make clear design decisions, work with a cabinet company who respond quickly (BluePrint Cabinets), and don’t let the process become more complicated than it needs to be.
The Starting Point
The original kitchen dated back to the 1970s. Once the renovation started, everything came out.
The home had been lived in, loved, and left largely unchanged for decades. The kitchen reflected that — it was functional in the way old kitchens are functional, which is to say it worked, but certainly not in any way that suited how a modern family actually cooks, entertains, and moves through a space.
Before reaching out to BluePrint Cabinets, the homeowners did what most people do: they started making calls and sending emails. Some other contractors they’d reached out to — companies that could potentially handle parts of the project — hadn’t even responded by the time their BluePrint cabinets were ordered, delivered, and installed. That’s not an exaggeration, unfortunately.
BluePrint’s standard delivery window is about 3 weeks from order to arrival. The whole cabinet phase of this renovation — design, approval, ordering, shipping, assembly, and installation — moved faster than some companies got around to returning a voicemail.
Designing It Right the First Time (Well, the Second Time)
From the first conversation with Patrick at the BluePrint showroom, the homeowners had a clear direction: modern, but not over the top.
The home is over 30 years old, and they weren’t looking for a kitchen that felt like it had been airlifted from a downtown condo. They wanted something brighter, cleaner, and dramatically more functional, but it still needed to feel like it belonged in the house.
Patrick put together a full set of floor plan blueprints and 3D renderings based on their measurements and ideas. Seeing the space visualized before a single cabinet was ordered is one of those things that sounds like a small detail until you realize how much it changes the decision-making process. The homeowners went through two rounds of revisions, adjusting the layout and exploring different configurations before landing on something that felt right.
One of those layout discussions involved whether to remove walls at all. Different shapes, different footprints, different approaches to the island were all on the table before they landed on the final design.
The finished kitchen is an L-shape with a large island — but it got there through actual back-and-forth, not just a first guess. That’s the beauty of working with a local company who can help with the whole custom kitchen design. BluePrint Cabinets does up accurate-to-your-space blueprint drawings and realistic renderings so you can really feel what the space will look like.
The Island Wasn't a Nice-to-Have
As the design evolved, one thing became obvious pretty quickly: the island wasn’t going to be just a countertop. It was going to be the centre of the room.
At 100 inches long and 37 inches wide, the island creates a massive workspace, but more importantly, it changed how the kitchen functions. The cooktop is built directly into the island. That means whoever is cooking isn’t facing a wall — they’re part of the conversation. Friends gathered around the island. Family helping prep.
The homeowners wanted a kitchen capable of handling big meals without feeling cramped, and enough room for people to gather naturally. The island delivers on both.
Solving a Problem Most People Would Never See
One of the more interesting design challenges in this project was a narrow pantry area along the left side of the kitchen.
Like a lot of older Fredericton homes, the space wasn’t designed around modern cabinetry dimensions. Forcing standard-depth cabinets into that area would have left the pantry feeling tight and hard to move through.
Instead, that section was designed with vanity-depth cabinets. Most people walking through the finished kitchen today would never notice that. What they notice is that the pantry area feels comfortable — that the room moves well. That’s often what good kitchen design actually looks like. Not the flashy decisions, but the quiet ones that make the room work.
The Cabinet and Material Choices
White shaker cabinets were the clear choice for this project. They’re timeless; clean without being trendy, modern without clashing with a home that has character. Ten years from now they’ll still look right.
Gold hardware runs throughout the space in five different sizes, scaled to each cabinet type. The combination of white and gold adds warmth and contrast without competing with anything else in the room.
Soft-close drawers and doors were, in the homeowner’s words, not a nice-to-have, but mandatory.
Storage upgrades included double pull-out waste bins, deep pot and pan drawers, dedicated pantry shelving, and vertical dividers above the fridge for cutting boards and baking sheets — the kind of solutions that don’t show up in the wide-angle photos but make the kitchen easier to live in every single day.
The Countertops (A Note on What BluePrint Does — and Doesn't — Do)
This is worth being clear about: BluePrint Cabinets supplied and designed the cabinetry for this project. The countertops were sourced and supplied separately, by the homeowners directly.
That’s worth mentioning because it’s how a lot of renovation projects actually work, and because the countertop decision in this project was significant enough to deserve its own explanation.
The homeowners debated natural versus engineered stone for months. They knew early on they wanted something special — the cabinet design is clean and relatively simple, which meant the countertop had to carry visual weight.
They landed on Taj Mahal quartzite.
The reason wasn’t performance specs or durability ratings. It was character.
"I wanted that character on what is otherwise a pretty simplistic kitchen." - Homeowner
The natural movement in the stone — the warmth, the variation — brings life into a room that might otherwise feel a bit sterile. It’s the kind of material choice that doesn’t make sense on paper until you see it in the room.
The quartzite ended up costing nearly as much as the entire cabinet package on its own. That surprises some people. It didn’t surprise the homeowners, who had done their research and knew what they were getting into.
Making the Budget Work
The cabinet package for this project came in at $14,550 from BluePrint Cabinets.
The total kitchen investment — cabinets plus countertops — landed in the $20,000–$25,000 range, which was exactly where the homeowners were targeting.
Getting there required a few deliberate decisions.
The pantry area, where most of the counter surface would end up covered by small appliances anyway, was done in butcher block instead of extending the quartzite throughout. That one swap made a meaningful difference to the countertop budget without affecting anything the homeowners would actually see or interact with daily.
Waterfall panels on the island were also removed from the plan. The homeowners liked the look, but when they saw how much material waste the island dimensions would create, the math became hard to justify. That money stayed in their pocket instead of going into stone that would be trimmed and discarded.
These decisions aren’t about cutting corners. They’re about spending intentionally — putting budget into what matters and not spending it just because you can.
How Long Did This Kitchen Reno Take?
BluePrint Cabinets come Ready to Assemble (RTA), flat-packed and delivered right to site. The cabinet assembly took about a day. Installation ran another day and a half to two days.
The homeowners did the installation themselves — and one of the things that surprised them most was how smooth that process went. BluePrint cabinets are designed to go together without requiring a professional crew, and the build quality makes the assembly itself feel straightforward rather than stressful.
From the time the order was placed to the time the cabinets were installed: roughly two weeks for delivery, then two days of work.
For context and a reminder: some of the other companies and contractors they’d initially reached out to about the broader renovation project still hadn’t gotten back to them at that point.
After the cabinets were in, the homeowners lived with temporary countertops for a short stretch while they finalized their stone selection and waited for templating and installation. That part took a few weeks, but by choice, not necessity. They weren’t in a rush to pick the wrong countertop.
The Finished Result
The kitchen today feels completely different from what was there before.
The island is exactly what it was supposed to be — a gathering place, a workspace, the centre of the room. Cooking feels like participating in the house now rather than retreating from it. The pantry area keeps small appliances organized and out of sight. The storage solutions work quietly in the background without requiring anyone to think about them.
And the room still feels like it belongs in the house. Not because it looks dated. Because the design respected what was already there and built on it rather than erasing it.
Everyone who walks through comments on it. Friends love it. Family loves it. Guests notice the openness first, then the island, then the countertops.
The old kitchen served one family for decades.
This one is ready for the next generation.
Project Snapshot
Detail | |
|---|---|
Location | Fredericton, NB |
Project Type | Full Kitchen Gut Renovation |
Home Age | 30+ years |
Layout | L-shape + large island |
Cabinet Style | White Shaker |
Hardware | Gold pulls, 5 sizes |
Cabinet Package | $14,550 |
Total Kitchen Investment (including countertop) | ~$20,000–$25,000 |
Delivery Timeline | ~2 weeks from order |
Installation | ~2 days (DIY) |
Countertop Supplier | Sourced separately (not BluePrint) |
Design Revisions | 2 rounds, including 3D renderings |
Thinking About a Kitchen Renovation in Fredericton?
Most people who come into the BluePrint showroom aren’t sure where to start. Some have measurements on their phone. Some have a Pinterest board. Some just know their current kitchen isn’t working and want to understand what’s possible.
All of that is a fine place to begin.
What we do is sit down with you, look at your actual space, talk through what you’re trying to accomplish, and put together a real design with real pricing — including 3D renderings so you can see what you’re getting before anything is ordered. No pressure, no commitment required to get started.
BluePrint Cabinets doesn’t supply countertops, flooring, or appliances — we focus on cabinetry, and we do it well. If you need referrals for other trades, we’re happy to point you toward people we trust.
Visit the showroom at 103 NB-105, Fredericton — Monday to Friday, no appointment needed. Or get a price estimate online.