Congratulations, it looks really wonderful! Enjoy!!

WOW! So hard to believe I'm looking at the same space!! I LOVE your cabinets, your pendants and the walnut island top! Great job buffetgirl:) Here's a toast to you:)

Great job - I love the wood counter!!

Looks terrific!!! Modern yet traditional. Warm and inviting. Definitely a place I'd like to hang out....with some rum, of course!!! Congratulations.

Congratulations!! Another Crazy Christmas Person gets the job done--woooohooooooo!!! It looks absolutely awesome, and I just know you're enjoying it. At least you're enjoying some "boat drinks"! :)

What a difference! Nice job!

Looks wonderful! I especially like your island...the walnut top & the legs. Enjoy!

What a transformation! Beautiful space. Enjoy the fruits of your labor...

It looks great, I also love love love that walnut top island. Im glad to see pics of the "lived in" look, that's what the kitchens for right! Im thrilled for you that your're enjoying it! cheers/\

Congratulations - you've created a lovely kitchen! With the way you reconfigured the space, your "Before" and "After" look like pictures from different houses. I really like your island's wood top and your choice of pendants. Enjoy!

WOWSA...you did great! I love everything. c

Beautiful!

Yep, you sure had a vision there. That is some kinda terrific transformation. I enjoyed your journey (you had me cracking up many a time.)

Love everything in there. The lights and wood countertop are what jumps out at me right away. LOVE the paint color! (Makes me want to go paint a room.) It is so fun to see dark hardware on the white cabinets. Love it!

It is amazing what moving that door did for the layout. I am sure that it was worth the expense. You did great, buffettgirl.

Congrats!

Great job. Can't get enough of those white kitchens. Any chance you can post a closeup photo of the cabinet doors?? I would love to see the glaze on that door style.

So beutiful. I'm drooling over your walnut island counter top. Love your pendants. You must be so happy.

I meant beautiful. Really I did.

What a lovely kitchen! Love the walnut island top and the pendants are great. I ask this question not because you need to but because I need to - Are you planning a backsplash? My DH wants to leave our backsplash painted but I am worried we will not be able to keep it clean and looking nice.

Well done! Thanks for posting.

Thanks everyone! I'm just so excited to be in there working. The kitchen was just basically half of what we did -
here's the before layout:

and the after:

Bascially we went from a very old outdated floorplan that was totally non functional (driveway on the side of the house where the new side door is now, consider I had to walk from that side all the way around the house to get in before). I hope we made good layout choices and wise decisions based on how we live.

As for the backsplash, we're still undecided, but I will tell you that today I'm making spaghetti and splashing sauce everywhere and the paint is cleaning up fine.

I love your kitchen- awesome job! Can you tell me the dimensions of your island, and how much room you between the island and the cabinetry along the outer walls?

congrats! Hope you are enjoying your labor of love. What an amazing transformation!

Buffet girl
It's been fun following your reno - Congrats - What a lovely use of your space - must feel so very good to have that behind you - It is truly enjoyable working in such a nice space. Puts things in a whole new perspective -

Enjoy!

At first glance anyone can tell you put a lot of time into planning this special space. The simple black knobs really work with the granite, good choice. I know that was a hard one. I will have to repeat the other posters. Love your island top, lights and wall color. Enjoy for many years..

judiace - the island is just over 6x3 and the aisles are all 36". I find 36" MORE than enough. I would feel lost if they were bigger. I like just turning to lay things down on the island.

Beautiful! I love the paint color as well, and the island top. Did it come prefinished or did you do it yourself. If you don't mind answering, how much was the walnut. I have been wanting walnut for years, but not sure it is in the budget...How do you like your range? I am looking at that one too. Also love the lighting.

Do you have three stools? Your main aisle is only 36"! Wow, it doesn't look it.

Great job!

Fabulous. FABULOUS. Love it.

amberly - the island top came finished, and was about $2000 with shipping. Roughly the same as if we had done granite there.

also, yes, the main aisle between the island/sink and island stove is only 36". The aisle Behind the stools (3 of them) is 48".

it came together great -- and you finally found the perfect knobs you were looking for. so, it feels like most of our "remodeling class" (mid-january demos) has "graduated" now?? :)

I couldn't comment earlier because when I opened the thread that plaid hurt my eyes :oP

I love the layout change in the house...what a nice flow plan and I love love love the new kitchen. You made great choices, and it must be so much fun to work in now! No more buffets for you :oP

It's so pretty! I have to tell you, though, yours is one of those Before kitchens that looked pretty, as well. But, I like the new one even better! The cabs are beautiful and I am so in love with your pendants!

Love it.

igloo...yeah the green plaid looks overwhelming now that I look at it in the before! IRL, it wasn't that bright though.

Lynn, yes, it wasn't really all that horrible actually. Though it does look better in the photos. We were happily living with it like that since we moved her in 94, so it wasn't horrid. All we did was paint and put new counters on back in 95. But mostly it just didn't function well. If you look at my layout - my fridge and stove were tucked in that baack coner next to the chimney. The portable DW was in front of the chimney and the sink was clear across the room. What I did have was a LOT of unbroken counter space but it was shallow counters with very low uppers.

Niiiiiiiiiiice !

But how could you bring yourself to part with those curtains and lino ? ;-)

So what was the first thing you cooked, huh ? Looks like maybe mojitos ? (although I don't think that counts as cooking ...)

Looks great,

Anyone else left (besides me :>( ,oh yeah and Buehl) in the mid-remodel group? I'm feeling left behind!

How do you like your MW being below the counter? I just can't imagine it, (boy do I hate to bend!), but see lots of them here on GW.

How high is your BS? Looks like 3" maybe?

Congrats lady! Seems like it ran (more or less) smoothly, and you have a beautiful new space!

Is it what you envisioned? I remember you completely adn totally second-guessing yourself, and I hope you're as delighted with the results as you should be - it looks great!

flatcoat - actually that day I cooked some pork loin with a sweet and sour sauce and it has rum in the sauce. but I can't really remember what the first thing I cooked was - maybe mac and cheese LOL.

raehelen - since we're not big mw users I didn't mind putting it under the counter. I think i've probably used it once so far for steamng veggies. I think if I used my micro ALL the time it would be inconvenient, maybe. But it wasn't really an issue for us. And yes, my backsplash is 3".

Divamum - yes, despite all the second guessing, it has turned out exactly like I thought it would. That sweeby test is what saved me many times. I just kept the vision in my head and it kept me on tract and helped me through all those moments of panic.

here are some more photos with a little before and after video.

Here is a link that might be useful: Kitchen slide show

WOW! I can't believe it's the same place! It looks great! Congrats!

Buffettgirl,
I love your kitchen. I'm wanting white cabinets, black counterops and I just priced a walnut island top today from DeVos (sp?). Not sure what my husband will think about that ;-) He's recessing the refrigerator into the wall as I type though, so I can tell he wants me to be satisfied with this reno. The island top is gorgeous.
What I really wanted to ask was that I see you didn't go with Quick Style laminate as you had mentioned in an earlier post. I know that was on the flooring site and I was wondering if you had been asking about it because you were thinking of using it in your kitchen. Did you ultimately use it anywhere? I have a box sitting in my kitchen right now, but I've found some that I like so much better. However, it's 3 or 4 times as expensive. The Quick Style is so inexpensive that even though we would be using it as a temporary measure, I'm not sure it would look the way I want it to for the next couple of years. Any thoughts? Thanks so much.

NO we ended up not using any laminate basically because Quick Style is no longer carried in the US at least not carried by anyone we could find locally. I ended up using hardwoods and honestly, it only cost me around $1200 more.

Love that walnut countertop!!!!! And your not fooling anyone, anyone with the user name "BuffetGirl" is not cooking with that rum!!!!! LOL!!

Forgot...awesome job!!!