Kitchen Finished! (pretty much)
We are just about done. Finally! We've got a few little things left to be done. Mainly the dishwasher needs to be pushed back and secured and the floors need steam cleaning, some paint touch ups etc. Got so much help from reading the forum here. I never got up the nerve to actually ask for help until near the end though!
So we started with this kitchen, which we had built in 2000 when we bought the house. It was a gut job at the time.
I don't know if white kitchens were a 'trend' back then, I never saw one, but as you can see we have had a white kitchen for a long time. Cabinets were thermofoil and counters were Corian. We had no clue about thermofoil back then and put our toaster under it so we got some slight lifting and discoloring of the thermofoil. It was okay though, I could live with it. Then we had a pipe burst behind the cabinets under the window. It probably leaked for about 2 months before finally giving way in the middle of the night last October. What a mess. We put off the reno until after the new year. Ordered the cabinets in January, they were delivered end of February and that's when the demo occurred. Been a bit of a long haul.
Here are some after pics. Please excuse the messes! If I waited for it to be perfect and staged I'd never post pictures.
In this next one you can really see the mess over in the eating area! Have to get that cleaned up, Through the arch you can see the coffee station and pantry. Those were added about 3 years after the original kitchen was built and were unchanged in this remodel. We will be replacing the backsplash in the hutch area this fall probably.
The view below shows entering the kitchen/family room through the pantry area. Unseen to the right is the laundry room.
Closer view of the backsplash. As with a lot of other people we dithered a lot over this and went back and forth with a number of options. We ended up with this Calacatta White subway with 1x1 accents. Love it. The rest of the kitchen is pretty sleek so this helped tie in the more french country look of the family room. We chose a honed finish because the counters are polished and the uppers are almost all glass. Didn't want any more shine!
About our choices:
The layout itself is nearly unchanged because it works really well for us. We chose a corner sink for two reasons:
1: we didn't want to lose the bank of storage under the window. The dishwasher is in the peninsula so if we put the sink under the window we would lose the storage there,
2: we often have 2 cooks and sometimes 3 in this little kitchen and wanted at least two long runs of clear counter space.
The OTR microwave/hood is admittedly not the most efficient hood but it's adequate and we have no where else to put the stupid thing. We don't use the microwave for much though and it's worked fine for us.
The only real goof up that happened in the project was the cabinet to the left of the cooktop was changed from what was originally a 9" cabinet to a 12" one. To make up for it the corner susan was made smaller by 3". Unfortunately the KD didn't remember to add the addition 3" to the window run of cabinets and we were either going to lose 3" (not an option in an already small kitchen) or have a weird filler gap. I ordered a 3" spice rack pullout. Crisis averted. It's in my baking area so while 3" will not hold much it will hold all my extracts and decorating sugars.
I know that overall my kitchen is not small, when you take the pantry and eating area into account but the actual cooking area of the kitchen is not large so we tried to make it as efficient for us as we could.
Cabinets - Local shop. We chose to have the insides finished in the clear maple rather than painted because we thought the wood tone would warm up the very white room. We like it. Didn't go to the ceiling because it wasn't in the budget and the storage wasn't needed anyway.
Counters: Iceberg Quartzite
Backsplash: Calacatta White with silver grout
Sink: no clue, bought it with the counters. It's 16 gauge stainless and sound muffling.
Faucet: Pfister, Wheaton
Ovens, micro and Cooktop: Fridgidaire. Only the Induction cooktop is new. Ovens and Micro were put in about 4 years ago.
Dishwasher and Fridge: Kitchen Aid. We kept the old fridge with the old panels for budget reasons and because it has performed flawlessly for 13 years. When is fails I'll get a new one.
Floor: Horrible porcelain tile, been there since the house was built in the 80's. Hate it but not in the budget to replace it.
Edit to add: Paint is BM Silver Mist
Editing one more time: I forgot to mention about the double ovens. I see a lot of recommendations here not to use wall ovens, especially double wall ovens. I suppose because you lose the counter space? These are 30" convection ovens and I use them all time time. Both ovens are in use at once several times a week. I have a big family and cook for a crowd quite often. I wouldn't give up those ovens for anything. I joke that when I go to meet my maker I'm taking them with me!
This post was edited by Christina222 on Tue, Jul 29, 14 at 14:51
Comments (43)
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LeeMiller, you asked for measurements, here is my floor plan. Just add 3" to the window run of cabinets! The counter overhang is 12" on the long side and 9" on the short side behind the sink.
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Evenshade: Thanks so much, that's nice to hear since we agonized so much over that decision!
Juddgirl: thanks, I love the counters too. They were the hardest thing and are actually the second ones to be chosen. We started with super white quartzite but one of the pieces cracked on delivery and the fabricator told us all the slabs they had had the same fissure that caused the crack, so we had to start over. Happy now as we like this one better!
Bpathome: Thanks, I'm a big fan of u-shaped kitchens. This is my third one and I find they just really work. We were astonished at how much bigger it looks with the light counters. It was one of those things I didn't anticipate.
AnnaC54: The coffee area has a teal blue 6x6 tile laid square on the walls and diagonally on the counter. You can see some of it in the photo from the hallway. It's been there quite a few years and I can't remember exactly what it was. I do remember it was pricy and only the fact that it was such a small area allowed us to use it! Here's a close up photo.
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Scrappy25 - we ordered the tile from a local tile shop and had to wait for it to come from Italy. I've seen other, similar tiles online though. This one is Ciottoli brand and was called Calacatta White. It had a lot of different size options to choose from. Sorry for the awful photo but this was the sample card.
This post was edited by Christina222 on Sun, Jun 22, 14 at 18:49
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roomy 718 - I agree the difference between slab and counters can be surprising. My slab was beautiful but I didn't anticipate at all how it would look as countertops. Here is the slab. I'm pretty sure we actually used part of a second slab as well but I haven't got a photo of the other one.
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Debbie B.