I really like your kitchen, especially the symmetry of the cooktop wall, and can imagine the muddy-pawed culprit sleeping blissfully behind the island next to the radiator. But I'm really jealous of the forsythia blooms!

cheers

What a beautiful job!! Please share details, like what type of wood cabs you used. Thanks!

What a lovely space. I am sure you are enjoying your kitchen. We also chose our floors with our paw child in mind.

So much to soak in. Beautiful job. Love that you kept your windows and floated the sink wall -- maybe a nice, cozy area for your dogs?!

Gorgeous! Congratulations on finishing your kitchen. I'm a big lover of the 1850's furniture and I think you did a great job.

Your kitchen looks very relaxing and peaceful. What a great place to nourish your body, mind, spirit... and of course, your dogs!

I also love the hardware! ENJOY!

honestly, this is one of the nicest kitchens i've seen on GW. i love everything about it! congratulations and enjoy it.

Very nice. You are a woman after my own heart to have chosen flooring to match a muddy footprint! :-D

You have a lovely, lovely room. Contemporary features in the period flavor. An attractive and comfy space. Well done!

Perfection!

Beautiful job! Those windows are fantastic, and the island between sets them off so nicely! Great job!

Perfection!

Multiple doorways, huge windows, radiators...you worked around all of them beautifully.

I love the green, the black, the medium woodtone, the drawers, the floor tile, the schoolhouse lights, huge restaurant-sized fridge, counters. Actually there isn't anything I DON"T love.

The floating counter will be referred to again and again as a possible solution for others--brilliant!

Enjoy your new kitchen!!

Beautiful! A new GW 'classic' that will, I'm sure,
be referenced time and again on this forum.

I love everything about your kitchen -- colors, layout, cabinets, lighting, granite....
Others have pointed out all the lovely details already so I won't run on and on.

I'll just second the comment that your new kitchen
seems to flow organically from your space
and really 'belongs' to your house,
even though many of the individual elements are in fact
the best that the 21st century has to offer.

Thanks everyone for the kudos!

Here are some details:
Paint: Trim is BM Huntington Beige (HC-21). Not actually my choice as it was the existing trim color of all the old section of the house when we moved in and the kitchen shares a little entrance area with the next room, so changing it would have meant major painting. It was a bit frusterating to work with as the only wall colors it seems to work with are white and red, but sometimes having limitations turns out to be a good thing.
Walls: Behr Cottage White

Tile: Subways are 4x8 white from Lowes
Floors are Dolce Italia brand in Bruno di Peitra. Come in 18x18, cut them to 9x18 as they seemed to big for the space. Might have been fine...

Cabinets: Brookhaven frameless. Main cabinets are cherry with a glaze (I think it was the black glaze, but can't remember for sure). Cabinet color was essentially decided by my very orange pumpkin pine floors in the rest of the house--they hated the yellow in all the maples which I was trying to economize with. Floating counter is black heirloom, and cabinets over the fridge are painted to match the window trim. I used inset cabinets there to try to match those in an adjacent room and to keep the amount of contrast along that wall to a minimum. I think I'm happy with it, but that was a decision I fretted about.

Lights: 2 center pendants are Baldwin from Rejuvenation. After some help here, decided to get the 12" rather than standard 14" ones. There is another Rejuvenation Fernhill pendant with a vase shape shade over the table. Turns out I could easily (and wish I had) skipped the recessed lights. The halogen lights in the hood provide a ton of light and with undercabs and pendants would have been plenty.

Spice drawer: Standard spice inserts weren't going to give me enough storage for my crazy collection so I waited until I got the drawers, measured, and ordered bottles to fit from specialty bottle to fit. They are square and fit a standard drawer perfectly, but the lids don't stay on as well as I'd like.

Baking drawer: I ordered a file drawer so as to get the heavy duty drawer slides and had one cabinet rail left out so as to provide extra head room for the canisters. Really wanted to find square canisters, but couldn't find anything I liked that wasn't crazy expensive, so Ikea worked out. It is super convenient to leave the jars in place, lift lids and scoop. My back complains about a lot of bending, so I did a lot of designing to avoid this.

Floating counter/Island: The granite measures 79x27. Can't remember what the cabinet dimensions are but a few inches less. It's 48" from the rangetop, which is a super comfortable working distance. It's 20" from the back wall, just enough space to clean or for the pups to curl up by the radiator (need to find a rectangular dog bed still for back there according to my Vizsla).

I'm so glad I didn't follow all the advice from kitchen designers/contractors to make it a standard island with 34" pathways either side. Would have been horribly cramped.

I didn't find the plate rack. My contractor offered to have his cabinet builder make one but felt he would need to put a back and legs on it for it to be secure. That would look too heavy to me. The wall is plaster and it is 'insulated' with unmortared brick, so not an easy surface to hang anything on. There is one beam between the windows, but it's off center. So I'm still debating exactly what will go here. Tall flowers/plants look nice. I may try to find artwork eventually. So far, we've had forsythia either in bloom or ready to force for weeks, so that has been an easy solution!

Here is a link that might be useful: square glass spice jars

I have always been a white kitchen person, but oh my I could definitely spend lots of time cooking and hanging out in this kitchen. Just beautiful!!

I love it all!

I love how you mixed the cabinets! It gives it that evolved look you mentioned. Thanks for the details, especially the organizational ideas. It really helps to hear how others organize in the kitchen!

I love it! Restful and calm- its a beautiful space:)

What is your granite? If you shared that info, I missed it and I would like to know. Thanks for providing all the other details.

More questions- Where did you get the metal racks used over the cooktop and that lovely clock! Love it!

Anne- I recognized those windows, too! The kitchen is beautiful and you turned all those challenges into a wonderful success :)

I'm saving some of your pictures to my file (hope you don't mind) but you have great examples of making the best of an unusual layout...and the colors work beautifully together. Congrats on a lovely, functional and very inviting kitchen!

Anne, it's just wonderful. You definitely succeeded in achieving your vision, which should continue to look right for a very long time to come.

I smiled at the part about managing to withstand your contractors' earnest advice. Mine were also concerned about keeping me from making all these mistakes--bless their hearts. :)

Thanks for posting. I've been curious to know how it all came out.

Thanks Anne for the details!

Cool Jars, I'm ordering for my spices. When I saw your link to "square jars", I was thinking they were round, scrolled back up, and sure enough, they looked round, I went to the site, and sure enough, they are square!! Love it!

Thanks!

I'm with nanj, Rhome and all the rest- please show us who made the "color sample!!"

BuddyBlue1: I love white kitchens too, but my husband knows me too well (I'm a dog trainer and avid gardener, mud follows me everywhere) and that was his only input--no white, nothing that shows dirt. Smart man! Given that I can see drips on the black cabinets but nothing on the cherry, I'm very glad I listened.

Lisa-a: Granite is Bianco Gita. I don't think it's widely available as I tried googling it when I was making a choice and only the local granite place came up. I'll put a link below. It's got a lot of rather random pattern. White with strong black lines, beige specs, and a few garnite specs. Love it! Although I find it rather funny that I have to touch the counters to figure out what needs wiping since everything really disappears into the pattern.

CKMG: Rack is from IKEA. I really like them. They also have simpler ones just for hanging utensils. I thought I was going to put one to the left of the stove, but seemed like once the undercab lights and rails were added the space was tight. Clock is from Walmart --I drilled a hole in the back and attached a chain. Given where it is living, I wanted something disposable as it may have a short lifespan.

Rosie, Pampliset, LavenderLass and everyone else from the origanl layout group last fall: Thank-you all once again for your layout help. I'm so glad you all talked me out of the fake chimney (would have really overwhelmed the space) and for suggesting and giving me the courage to go with floating the counter.

Here is a link that might be useful: Bianca Gita Granite

I just wanted to reiterate that just because a counter is detached, it doesn't automatically mean that you need full aisles on all four sides. There is no need to walk in front of this island, so it doesn't need a full aisle. I have also done detached counters that one would Rarely walk around the far end of so its not a full aisle, but it does work in a pinch --its as wide as a narrow doorway. It keeps the kitchen from being a complete dead-end.

This is the problem with just following the rules verbatim and not understanding when the don't or shouldn't be followed. A minimal but full aisle in the front would have giving you a Horrible work aisle. The space in the front the counter simply untethers it from the house perimeter--

Thanks, Anne! Your granite is very lovely.

AnneNJ, i love your kitchen! It is so warm and lovely! And also seems highly functional! I especially love the idea of putting a clock above your range. it really adds to the charm!

Beautiful kitchen! Congratulations on finishing! I love the granite, the cabinet colour, and your handy above range shelf and backsplash knife storage. Sounds like the layout is a huge improvement for you too (I'm not a layout guru so often don't get into too many of those threads)! Well done.

And thanks for the link to your spice jars, I've been looking for exactly this! Do you mind elaborating a bit on what bugs you about the fit of the lids? If it is something you can describe. Are they hard to get on? Or don't seal well? Or don't thread well? Would it have been a deal breaker for you if you had known about it sooner? Just so I know what I'm getting into ... THANKS!

mmhmm

I love your kitchen so much I keep coming back for more.

It's soooo beautiful! Congrats! I'm sure you are LOVING it!

mmhmmgood: The spice jar lids are easy to get on and thread properly, but they only turn maybe an eigth of a turn to tighten, so with a little jarring they come loose. I have to be a little careful picking them up by the lids. They are a perfect fit, so I think it's worth living with, but it would depend a bit on the situation. I wouldn't want to store them on their sides, for example.

I tried some spice jars from IKEA in a similar shape (square with round lid and designed to lie on their sides) but they made me crazy as they were impossible to thread--would take two or three tries.

Who knew finding good jar lids would be such a challenge?

Your cabinets are gorgeous! As is the rest of the kitchen. But the cabinets are just perfect.

I love your kitchen! I love the cabinet style and cherry wood. I love the counters so much. I love your floor pattern and color of the tile. You are blessed with the two big windows. I love your appliances. You really did a wonderful job designing that beautiful kitchen. Thanks for sharing.

Wow. Simply beautiful. My initial thoughts included, "wait, why is that island placed that way? You can't walk in front of it!" until I realized that was precisely the point! And after reading about the layout hurdles in the beginning... All I can say is "wow". What a beautiful kitchen you have created! It is elegant and crazy updated, yet keeps the 1850s feel of the house. Those windows are amazing and I am so happy you kept them!

As an old house lover I am SMITTEN! You did a gorgeous job. I also love your windows. Hey - does your house have any original transoms that open (or did once upon a time)? I just got mine re-opened for the first time in decades I'm assuming, and re-painted and new hardware is about to be put on (from House of Antique Hardware). If you have any transoms I'd love to see pics! I'd love to see pics of other rooms in your house too! ;) But this room is amazing. Drool drool drool!

oh, yours is the house with the really loooong windows! Good problem solving!

Love it! Just gorgeous! I think it really fulfilled your vision. It feels new, yet like it's grown with the house. Very warm and charming. Congratulations and enjoy!

Your kitchen is perfection - & complimentary to your old house & those magnificent windows as well. Congratulaltions, as this is no small feat!

Stunning, fantastic and unique kitchen! As another owner of a mid-19th c building with "problematic" windows in my kitchen-to-be I hugely admire your solution. And I admire your gumption for standing up to conventional kitchen layout "wisdom" to honor your house. Your reward is the complete rightness of your design. If I am even a fraction as successful as you have been, I will be over the moon.

Your kitch will stand out forever in my mind's eye as one of the best.

L.

antiquesilver: your kitchen was a real inspiration to me. Glad you like how this one turned out.

teresse: no transoms. I do have working pocket doors, though!

For all you old house lovers, here are a couple more pictures:

Game room with inset cabinets I was trying to duplicate over the fridge. This is through the door by the fridge/freezer and is in the older original section of the house.

Dining room: Really unique moulding in this part of the house. Good thing we didn't have these in the kitchen or never could have dropped the ceiling.

And the sources of the pawprints:

Anne,

I came back today to admire again your kitchen. It's quite as nice on second viewing as the first!

May I offer a suggestion regarding space between the windows behind the island? I like the forsythia and can picture a long succession of lovely displays (forced cherries, apple blossoms, newly unfurling maple leaves, peonies, zinnia, big mums, winter berry branches, etc.) but I think the "paws" may wish to claim that toasty and out-of-the-way spot for their own.

In Japan there is often a household display area called a tokonoma where there is always a seasonal arrangement, sometimes quite spare in itself but often with a screen or fabric panel hung behind. The panel is changed according to the seasons or display. It can be as simple as panel of shimmering silk, or slubby linen in a plain color. At any rate, if this appealed to you, you could install a fold-down shelf along the wall sufficient to hold a large vase or urn and hang a variety of panels behind it. This would give you a changing display, and it would conveniently be off of otherwise-used flat surfaces and quite scaleable. And the dogs could walk below it w/o fear of them toppling the stool with their sturdy tails and general doggishness. (I know about big dogs having once been ruled by a very large Rhodesian Ridgeback.) But when you wanted to access the space to sweep or change dog bed covers, the folding shelf could be folded out of the way, easily.

Again, my compliments on a spectacularly successful adaptation of modern kitchen needs to an old house.

Liriodendron

Absolutely stunning! I would not be at all surprised to see that genius reno featured in a shelter mag. Enjoy your lovely kitchen!

Anne,
I'm blushing if anything about my kitchen inspired your magazine worthy gem. And those other rooms - the floors, the trim, the built ins, the D/R paint color - are jaw dropping! Including thse innocent looking paw print makers; I have basset hounds who are experts at both but they're banished to the English basement.

AnneNJ - wow!!! It is just beautiful and functional.

Nice work on your kitchen. I loved your story of picking your cabinet colors - I understand totally. I kept bringing samples home and everything looked like I was trying to match the variable tones in our oak floor and failed.
I went back to the kitchen store to order cabinets and still had not decided on a color and bumped into the Brookhaven Autumn Cherry with Black Glaze and said perfect!!
They did make me drive a 1/2 hour back the wrong way to confirm my choice and it was perfect.
We just started to install the cabinets. Not sure exactly the same color as yours -but similar circumstances!!

AnneNJ, if you are still following this thread I am very interested in your feelings about the Bianco Gita. Like you, I have found it is a rarer stone and the Google images are all over the place. Your counters appear to be very similar to the slab we have purchased for our 10x6 island. Can't wait. Are you still happy with your choice? We are making the Gita island our centerpiece. The perimeter countertops will be Silestone White North. Seeing your pictures is very encouraging. Thanks in advance for any feedback/thoughts you might have.

I'm very happy with Bianca Gita. Get lots of compliments on it and the pattern is random enough that it always seems interesting. The only downside is that it hides crumbs and spills so well that it's really hard to tell where and when it needs wiping down. This was my intention, but strangely means I end up cleaning the counters before I cook since I never know what dh was prepping that he didn't clean up after.

Missed this stunning kitchen the first time around. Now one of my favorites. The backstory of how to make the most of the space with the windows makes the finish incredible. Just perfect for this house.
Well done AnneNJ well done.

I remember the original thread, but completely missed this last year. What can I add, that hasn't been said many times, most eloquently by HBK? It's beautiful--one of those kitchens that makes my heart sing.

WOW! Your kitchen is just breathtaking. I love it. Those frame-less cabinets sure do look historically authentic. Great choices. I also love all the organization in your drawers. What innovative thinking. Did the cabinet company supply the various dividers or did you add those later? I am trying to think through storage issues right now. ALSO- the dining room paint color is fabulous. I'd love to know the color. What a beautiful home.

What floors are these? Great job!