Friday, March 20, 2015

The Kitchen is Done!

Don't ever let anyone tell you moving is a good time. Wow, that was a lot of work - and there's still a LOT to be done! But, we are making some progress in getting things organized and decorating a few rooms at a time, so I thought I'd share some of that today. 

Getting the kitchen put together was, of course, at the top of the priority list right after E's room. I also received the fun news that our kitchen is going to be featured in some marketing done by our custom cabinet company, so that provided some extra incentive to get things moving in this room and make it look pretty. 

Here's a semi-wide shot of the whole room:



and just for fun, here's the same view from the before:


Just a few changes, huh?

I'm loving how this little breakfast nook area came out:


The upholstered bench brings a nice touch of softness and pattern to a room full of hard surfaces. The bench is the Ballard Coventry bench, and I'm really happy with it. 

Someday I may replace the table with the Saarinen table I covet, but for the time being, we've got the Ikea version there. I think it looks great and like that it's a modern, clean-lined table. It cleans up really nicely post-mealtime, and the center pedestal makes it easy to get in and out of the bench too, which is important. 

Display for some of my favorite cookbooks was something I knew I wanted to incorporate into the kitchen. We settled on this built-in bookshelf above the bench seat:


I like how this turned out and I LOVE having a place to display my most favorite and prettiest cookbooks. Even though most of my recipe-hunting these days is done online, I love using books as decor and having them to reference or jar my memory when I see them displayed. 

The little butler's pantry area is a nice space that we can use for drinks staging during parties and to keep some of our immense collection of glassware on display:



We keep some glasses in the dining room and some in the basement bar as well, but I like having our most-often used drink receptacles readily accessible here.

The cabinets, hardware, countertop, and backsplash are the same as used throughout the kitchen but we added these decorative corbels to this space to dress it up a little bit:



The island came out just as I'd hoped it would, and I just love it. The cabinets beneath have nice pull-outs so it's easy to keep everything organized. We built in this little microwave nook down at the far end and it includes space for our larger cutting boards, etc. in a really handy spot. 



I like the open shelves for glasses and mugs and I love that we were able to incorporate a ton of storage into the kitchen while still maintaining all the windows and keeping things nice and open-feeling. I think using glass fronts on the uppers really helps with the light and airy feeling: 



Note to anyone designing a kitchen: I'm 100% thrilled with my decision to go with mainly drawers for the lowers rather than cabinets. It's so much easier to find things, keep things organized, and get into and out of. I'd highly recommend this approach! 



The range is a 36" professional model and it definitely feels like a solid appliance that we'll have for a long time. The hood is totally functional, but I happen to think it looks really cool too. 


The tile backsplash is pretty, and I love the double herringbone pattern I chose, but there was a miscommunication between our tile setter and the GC so instead of the medium-grey grout I wanted, I got plain white. 

I was very annoyed at first, but it's one of those things that just happens in the course of a big job like this, and there's not really an easy way to change it (we'd basically have to rip all the tile out, re-drywall, then re-tile....so not happening) so I'm living with it. Anyway...

The sink is this enormous farmhouse sink with an apron front: 


I love having such a nice big sink for rinsing dishes, and the bridge faucet works perfectly with it. My only regret here is I opted to have the sprayer on the left rather than the right. I thought we'd like having it closer to the drain, but actually it's a little awkward since we are both right-handed. Oh well.

For the counter stools, I went back and forth, but finally decided to get these backless ones from world market:


I decided I didn't want to break up the line of the island by having barstool tops showing and I like that these tuck nicely under the overhang. They are really comfortable too!


Lastly, the workhorse of the kitchen is this built-in pantry:


We hide all the goods behind these enormous sliding barn doors and are able to store so much in an easily accessible place that is still protected from snoopy dogs and curious toddlers. I also really like the look of the barn doors and think they bring an interesting element to an otherwise pretty glam kitchen.

There's a possibility we'll remove this unit at some point down the road in order to open up the space more, but for now I'm glad we kept it and happy to have the storage.

Whew, that was a lot of pictures! Here's one more pulled back shot where I tried to capture the whole room:



We absolutely love this room and I hope you like it too!

2 comments:

  1. Not sure whether my last comment went through, but I'd love to know what the island and butler pantry countertops are. I am redoing my kitchen and looking for a marble lookalike b/c my husband and I can't be trusted with marble!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Alicia! The island and butlers pantry are both super white macubus quartzite (not Quartz). It's like a cross between marble and granite in terms of its durability.

    ReplyDelete