Laxsupermom, Congrats on being able to call it done! I've been following your posts through it all. I love your pegs in the cabinets, the soapstone is beautiful and you have some clever storage ideas. Nice job and you have a really nice kitchen you should be proud of. A lot of hard work, huh!

Great job! Looks really nice. Any chance for a chose up of your backsplash? It looks cool.

I love the magazine-bookrack. The entire kitchen looks wonderful with just enough personality elements to be fun.

2008, huh. I think I have about 18 months left for 4 years. Well - that gives me some hope of being within the range of normal :).

Thanks, ladies! I have a closeup of the tile by the window in the blog post, but here's one at my main prep area.

How cool is all that! Wow, what a creative use of your space and layout! Love it!

Congratulations! FINISHED. Wow, that's a big word and a bigger accomplishment... and one of my goals, but I'm doubting it'll happen in 2012.

Love the cabinets and decorative and storage details, especially the inlaid walnut and the book rack,... the stretch of wood counter, the stone counter, and your floor. Isn't that about everything? :-)

I don't remember if you shared here how you redid a cabinet to fit your microwave drawer... It's worth a picture or two, or at least a link to the blog post.

Looks fab! Love the backsplash and the soapstone!!! The warm wood colors with the soapstone, black and grey, are a great combo! And the floors are really neat! Enjoy!!!

Wonderful kitchen and I especially like the floors!

I love the magazine, cookbook rack. If I had this I might actually use my cookbooks.

Nice!

Beautiful transformation. Love the floor and the soapstone combo and the magazine rack is so cool. I wonder how I can fit that into a finished kitchen. mmmmm.

Thanks for the backsplash photo. I went to your blog and read the story behind it. How it evolved makes it so special.

Way Cool! Great job and you even have a backsplash!

So original. Floors are lovely and the book rack is my favorite. What a great space.

You all are so sweet! I hesitated to show off our kitchen because it's cherry partial overlay and definitely not on trend, but you guys are the absolute best!

I'm pretty sure I shared the MW drawer retrofit here, but I never shared the cookbook rack. The hubs will be so excited to know that you like his handiwork. I designed it, but he built it to my exact specifications. Here's a link to the cookbook shelves tutorial post.

Woo-hoo! Cool!!!

I love your bold sense of design. I bet you will have lots of fun in your new space!

Trends, schmends. The kitchen is YOU, right? That's all that matters. That book rack is Genius with a capital G! I like all your personal touches. Makes your kitchen very interesting, which then makes it so cool to look at.

And you made me feel better tonight sitting here with a 6-mo old kit sans bs, hutch knobs, pantry doorknob, light fixtures,...... :-). I'm not the slowest poke in the group.

Beautifully done! The mag/cookbook storage is such a clever use of space... and very well executed!

Thanks for sharing!

Former upstater, busy lax weekend, gotta run.
tmy

PS - Couldn't help but scroll down to the pics of your baking treats.. Mmmmmmmm.

Wow! Looks amazing. I love the little turtle!

I don't think I've seen a more inviting kitchen than this.
Lovely!

Is that a mag rack on the side of your fridge ?

What is keeping the magazines upright and not falling over?

A dowel of some kind?

How does it connect?

WOW. I just love your kitchen. Nice job!

Oh I just love this. Haven't had much time to hang on GW lately but just flipped through quickly this am and had to post because I can't believe you did this yourself. Great, great, great job!

I love the wood color, it is so warm and just sings an invitation to spend time in the kitchen. The tile is fab, and all the details are lovely. Can you post a closer pic of the glass uppers on either side of the range? Are they frosted and do they open up to the top? So pretty!

I too would like more details on the cookbook cabinet. The "boulangerie" sign is fabulous by the way!

LOVE the idea of cookbooks as decor -- its not just great storage, its a great design touch.

wow! great kitchen with so many neat ideas! i love your cork floors too.

Love the booze hutch on your blog!

Wow! I love all the customization you've done! Those are some awesomely clever things! And, I love the peg detail on the cupboards. I wish I had seen some of these things when I was planning my kitchen, the knife pull-out is such a great idea, as is the bungee cord wrap storage.
Enjoy your beautiful kitchen!

Hope everyone is having a terrific Mother's Day! My boys got me some new Williams Sonoma microplanes for my kitchen. And the hubs got me what I ask for every year - several hours of "me time." Every year I ask for him to take the boys and leave the house.

Checking in on this thread is such a huge boost. Thank you all for your sweet comments! It means so much to hear the applause on a project that is so personal.

MareLuce, the rack consists of 1x2 sides and shelves, and 1/4" flat stock rails on the front. You can buy the flat stock in the craft wood section at Lowe's. The whole thing is pieced together with dowels at each joint. The shelves are also just ever so slightly angled, to keep the books pitched back. You can see closeups in the tutorial here.

taggie, the boulangerie sign was a TJ Maxx find years ago for just a couple of dollars. As a gf household, I do a lot of baking, though not as much bread baking as the sign might indicate. It was the only thing I kept from the old kitchen.
Here's a closeup of the glass in the upper cabs. It's Clear Coral from Bendheim cabinet glass.

and I used Clear Soft Wave in our liquor hutch on the other side of the room, also from Bendheim. I can't say good enough things about Bendheim. They had so many options, and shipped the glass quickly and packed really well.

abfabamy, I saw a version of the knife pull-out in another gwers finished kitchen. Unfortunately I don't remember who it belonged to. Their finished kitchen was posted just as we were doing demo. It was a white kitchen and the pullout was by the sink. Ours is a 3" filler piece for the front, then a drawer box made of plywood turned on it's side with 3 overtravel drawer slides. 2 probably would have been plenty, but I wanted to make sure of a really nice , smooth motion.

tmy jax, hopefully your lax weekend is less eventful than mine. DS1 took a hard check to the chest, and I spent a couple hours at the hospital yesterday. No cracked ribs, just some deep chest wall bruising. He can't breathe deep and everytime he sneezes(pollen is high right now) he just about doubles over in pain. He's still hoping to play Monday against Corning. Laxers are nuts.

Great to see the cork floor--we need more images of cork!

It's clear that you thought and rethought before you bought. Lots of good personalized adaptations here--your kitchen is a go-to for people who think you have to settle for ordinary.

I wish I'd known that DH would become gluten-intolerant BEFORE we made our plans. Great to see how you handle the multi-flour storage conundrum.

Hope DS1 heals quickly. I played for Corning *many, many* years ago... yes, laxers are nuts :)

Best of luck

Photography is not my thing and I'm not sure that I myself would be able to accomplish what I am going to ask you to do, so forgive me, but I think your kitchen deserves a second photoshoot. Without the flash, which is obscuring the details. Fashion yourself a tripod and experiment.

Wow!

This kitchen is stunning - love the quirky "me" things : ). I am in awe of what you and your CG have done.

Love your blog and all the info - just one mundane question, what size are your trash pullouts? I saw you have two, just trying to decde for myself what I will need. I don't want what I have now - nobody but me knows where the recycling box is. Everybody must think the recyclng walks there from the countertop when they aren't looking.

I feel for you at the hospital with your DS. My DD2 used to play rugby - I've spent my time at the hospital with her, shudder. I'm trying to get my rough and tumble DD4 to enjoy sewing!

laxmom, thanks for the pics and details on your Bendheim glass. Great to know for future planning! Thanks again.

onedogedie, I'd love to get some better photos. My main problem is fighting the grey skies. It's raining, again. Binghamton is actually the 4th cloudiest city in the US. Good natural light is hard to come by.

momo7, the trash pullouts are both 18" - the recycling double bin has a drawer on top, and the trash & deposit cans one is full height.

I finally found my paperwork and here is the cost breakdown. I found it tremendously helpful when others posted their renos with $ figures. All taxes and shipping are included in these numbers.

Kraftmaid Cherry Lynchburg Mission cabinets - $14169.54 but we received $2500 back in Lowe's rebate gift cards that were used for anything that doesn't have a dollar figure.
Whirlpool Gold french door frig - $892 clearanced at Lowe's
KB6524PS Sharp Microwave Drawer - $597 ebay
900cfm range hood - $190 ebay
Ticor stainless steel undermount sink - $145
Price Pfister Hanover pullout faucet - $70 ebay
Glass pendant light(over sink) - $47.08 clearanced at Bellacor.com
Pendant over peninsula - $49 clearanced at Pier 1
Durodesign cork floors - $1586
Black Venata Soapstone counters - $2688.80 M. Texeira
Cherry Butcherblock counters - $356.39 Lumber liquidators
Insinkerator Garbage Disposal - $118.05 ebay
13 Glass Barcode tiles - $1027
The rest of the tile - $60
drywall, saw blades, drill bits, recessed lights, uc led lights, garden window, french doors, caulk, paint, wood for additional custom projects etc. all out of the Lowe's rebates.
For a grand total of approximately $21695.56. Not quite an under $20k kitchen, but pretty darn close.

Great kitchen, Lax. I actually studied all the photos the other day but then my computer got taken over by the invasion of the teenagers with homework and I couldn't post in....

I really like your floor; it's so fun! How does it feel to walk on it? How does it clean up? I actually have thought about cork when we finally get rid of some of our bedroom carpeting.

I also love the customization of storage throughout your room. Having a spot to put your stepstool is the sort of TKO touch that a lot of people don't think of. They do a full remodel and then they buy a stool they have to store in the basement or the garage.

colorfast, I love our cork floors! It feels great to walk on, and I can spend literally all day in the kitchen with marathon baking sessions and not have any back pain. I can't say the same for my brother's kitchen where a couple hours has me knuckling my back(ceramic tile.) It cleans up easily. I use a steam mop on it once or twice a week, and just sweep it clean the rest of the time.

Your kitchen reno is amazing~what stands out to me is how your finishes all work to create a space with so much personality! The angled pennisula looks like it is inviting you into the space, and the soapstone counter really pops. With so many interesting elements, one design element doesn't dominate, instead they all work together to make a coherent design statement: individuality is welcome here. Your DYI skills are beyond impressive! Great job! Enjoy!