Beautiful! I love how the backsplash turned out. Good decision.

Is it me, or is Mr Mpagmom looking quite fit and handsome today? --He sure seems to have a great sense of humor.

So clean, so neat, so bright. Just what the mission statement ordered. Enjoy! (And thanks again for letting me know your pics were up.)

Mpagmom, can we see a pic of your 12" trash pullout in action, please ?

You're too funny rhome410. And you're right - Mr. Mpagmom is looking especially dashing, and he does have quite the sense of humor.

angela12345, here is the 12" trash pullout in action. It has a shelf above and room behind it for a few supplies.

Lovely! Enjoy!

Mpagmom, I've seen the pics of your kitchen before and loved them, but had nothing innovative to say ... then I read your husbands words: wow! As much as I like your kitchen -- and I do, very much -- it's your dh's words that elevate it to serenity. It's so lovely I'll bet it even helps him feel more tolerant of the mess his kids made.

Imagine that -- kitchen as marital inspiration. I am so impressed.

I keep coming back to this lovely space. One more Q. Can you please tell me about your floors, brand color, etc? Love them too. Thanks.

I just love your kitchen. It is so well thought out and lovely !! I don't know how I missed the pic before, but I especially love your counter cabinet.

So in the 12" trash pullout, that is an 8 gal trash can ? So smart of you to put one next to each sink !! Would you mind also sharing your 18" trash recycling cabinet in action ? Sorry to be so trashy. : )

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, I hope you won't mind being sincerely flattered as I proceed with my kitchen renovation. While I pore over the photos of your kitchen, I'm learning tons about what I want for my kitchen (although, sadly, nothing about what I don't want). Wall of windows? Check. White Amish cabinets? Check. Saltillo Sunflower Ming backsplash? Check. Kodiak Brown Leathered counters? Check. Feeling of peace and serenity? Double check. What a beautifully balanced and inviting space.

aliris, I never thought of "kitchen as marital inspiration" before, but if it gets me a nice kitchen, I'm all for it!

island, the floor is everyday 2-1/4" white oak stained Minwax Provincial with a satin polyurethane. It was funny when I stopped by to talk to the floor finishers about the stain. I told them I wanted a medium brown with no red in it and they put down a little bit of the Provincial stain to show me how it would look. My 11-year-old was there and told me that was good, so I said we'd go with that because I wasn't very picky. My builder's son was there, and I think he about died when I said I wasn't very picky - I guess his experience was that I was extremely particular. The flooring guys wanted to hire my daughter to choose stain on all their jobs. By the way, we originally wanted wider planks, but the flooring guys told us the 2-1/4" would be less likely yo buckle. Also, getting the site-finished floor cost about exactly the same for us as moderately-priced pre-finished floor. Was that the longest answer ever??

Thanks angela, and I just love to talk trash. The trash can in the 12" pullout is about 9"Wx14"Dx17.5"H. Just for you I did math and the measurements come out to about 9 gallons. It's the same size as the cans in the 18" trash/recycling pullout:

I'm glad you like the counter cabinet - it's my favorite.

justmakeit - thanks for the compliment, and imitate away! Any white shaker style cabinets and any textured black granite would look pretty much the same as mine. If I were choosing granite to go specifically with the backsplash I might have chosen brushed atlantic black instead of kodiak brown. As it is, I chose the granite first and I thought the kodiak brown would work well with the oil-rubbed bronze light fixtures I have throughout the house. I highly recommend a wall of windows if you can spare the cabinet space. Windows are a lot less expensive than cabinets and you can't beat the natural light!

Thanks for the pics !! I love how the cutouts are exactly perfect for the cans to sit in them.

looks amazing, special touches are that amazing backspash which looks great with the counters. Love the Hicks pendants over the table.love the touches of blue/green- the Ballard rug would look great! Tks, Michelle

thanks for posting the up-close pic of the granite - it's so beautiful! I've been reading multiple posts regarding leathered and antiqued granite - can you say that your granite does NOT show fingerprints?

mpagmom - Thanks for also posting the 6" tray cabinet - that is extremely helpful. I had to switch my 12" tray 9" and without seeing the cabinet differences in person, you start to wonder what you'll miss when you take out the 3"... so it's good to see you can store a lot in that 6" tray!

Your medium brown floors (with no red!) are beautiful. it sounds like the desscription I have told our builder. Can you point out which of your previous pictures show the brown in its true shade?

thank you!

You're welcome angela!

Thanks, Michelle. I can't wait to see your Circa lighting and backsplash!

niblickchick, the granite doesn't show fingerprints. Water rings will show if you look at them at the right angle (from any distance you don't see them), but they wipe away easily with a damp cloth. If you had oily or greasy hands I guess you could make a print show. I tried it with a wet finger and it disappeared in about a minute.

My 6" tray cabinet is 4.5" wide inside (because the cabinet sides are each .75" thick) and it can hold 4 cutting boards, 3 cookie sheets and 3 cooling racks. I keep any other cookie sheets, etc. that I have above the refrigerator, but that's more than enough for everyday use. Mine has more space because I went with frameless cabinets. If you have framed cabinets you'll have a more narrow opening, but the same space inside.

Most of the pictures make the floor look darker than it is. If you look at the 3rd picture, the area to the left of the island is pretty close. Perhaps the closest are the two pictures I posted of my trash pullouts (the last two I posted).

mpagmom - thanks for the extra information and plans. It's perfect - and I've been busy "replicating" it in our design :). I have one issue I am still playing with due to the clearance needed to open the refrigerator door.

So far - your kitchen and dekeoboe's bathroom (based a summerfield's design) are incorporated into the house design - if I keep reading these forums the whole house may end up a compilation of GW's designs.

Thanks again ...!

ABsolutely gorgeous kitchen! You did an amazing job designing it - it's clearly so well-thought out. Congrats!

I 2nd the rec on Smith and Noble emails - LOVE this source, I get almost everything from them, WITH the 30 or 40% discounts. I find the trick is being 100% ready with selections and measurements so that I can order when the email offer arrives.

Enjoy your gorgeous space! And your hubby :-)

Really gorgeous, enjoy every minute in there.

Absolutely lovely, and that is one of the prettiest backsplashes I have ever seen!

AHHHHH....I love it!!!!!!!!

Really gorgeous!! It looks very serene!

Really gorgeous!! It looks very serene!

I am so glad you love it! It is gorgeous ! I especially LOVE the backsplash.
You must get incredible light. Great job!

Wow.

By any chance, do you have a twin brother who is single?

Even a... fraternal twin brother?

Thank you so much for sharing your beautiful kitchen! I'm just planning mine now, but it's remarkably similar to yours! Even down to the wall cabinets on the range wall and not the sink wall. I'm still debating the prepsink, so I'm wondering how you like it so far??
And your backsplash is just gorgeous!!
I, too, have those antiqued brownish light fixtures thoughout my house, so I wsn't sure how to handle it in my newly-open kitchen. Yours reinforces my belief that I can mix metals. The pendants can match my other lights,but my pulls/knobs/handles don't have to--so thanks!!
Enjoy your bright and beautiful new home!

miruca, I posted my kitchen to help others, and I'm really glad it has helped you! I hope you're able to solve the refrigerator door problem. Perhaps you could put a small broom cabinet or something like that on the other side.

Thank you phylhl, mabeldingeldine, taggie, heidia, houseful, and LRy511 for the kind words.

MareLuce, I assume you're asking if my husband has a twin brother. Sadly, no.

Home4all6, I am thoroughly enjoying the prep sink, but when I saw how much my builder was charging me for it I had second thoughts! I just looked it up and it was $500 for the plumbing and garbage disposal, $700 for the sink and faucet, and $150 for the electrical to the garbage disposal. It does make the kitchen function so much better though. If I didn't have it I would probably tend to do a lot of my prep work to the right of the main sink, and that's not a huge space and a bit far from the refrigerator. So for this layout, I'd say it's close to a must-have. I probably use it twice as often as the clean up sink.

I went back and forth about the light fixtures and metals. The door knobs and such throughout the house are satin nickel, but I have oil-rubbed bronze for my lamps and drapery rods so I chose bronze for my light fixtures. If the kitchen wasn't completely open to the great room and dining area I might have gone with nickel pendants because I like them better. Then again, I like the dark pendants with the dark granite. See? I'm still going back and forth!

thanks, mpagmom! I'm going back and forth on the prep sink myself--one day, I'm convinced I'll need to have it, then the next I'm sure I don't want it at all. I think you convinced me again! We are family of 6, with 4 little kids, so I can't imagine NOT loving it! And I asked my contractor about the cost--he said about $1000-1200 all in, so I think I'm goign to plan on it now, andgo with a smaller clean-up sink.

I'm also goign back and forth on the fixtures and finishes, but I'm not going to stress about that ust yet...all in good time :) Is your email available from here, and if so , would you mind if I emailed you a question or 2 as we get moving? Becasue your layout really is a nealay identical mirror-image of ours.
Thanks!

Feel free to email me anytime, home4all6. I wouldn't go too small on the clean-up sink. I got the Silgranit super single, and it looked big at first, but now it seems just right. It's great to pile a million dirty dishes into until you have time to get to them. Good luck as you move forward.

mpagmom ~ What a gorgeous kitchen! I especially love your sunflower mosaic backsplash and I'm planning on using it myself. My contact at Saltillo thinks it may only comes as polished, however, yours looks honed to me. Did you have a choice between honed and polished? Also, did you choose the large format? Thanks so much!

Thanks for answering my questions about the floors. It's funny, I've spent so much time looking at the "exotics" Ipe, Santos mahogany, Brizilian cherry, Sapale. Wanted the natural color rather than stained, but everything has too much red or orange or is too dark. Then I come here and all the floors I love are "everyday" white oak! Never would have thought because I hate oak cabinets, too much grain, but for floors it just seems to be the perfect option for the timeless mediuum brown go with everything floor I've been looking for. Thanks for the stain and plank width info too.
Hope you're enjoying your beautiful happy kitchen!

Thank you, Laurajane02. I can't wait to see your backsplash! Mine is the small mosaic and it is polished. I thought I wanted honed, too, but this really doesn't seem very shiny. In the first picture I posted you can see a bit of shine, and that's about the extent of it. When I have my under-cabinet lights on, it looks matte. Are you getting the large format? I would love to see it installed. I didn't really know there were two sizes until after I got mine, but I think small is best for my small space.

Island, I looked at many of those same woods trying to find something medium brown that I liked. I hated grain, but I finally came to the same conclusion you did. It's been easy care and I even repaired a large scratch that happened before we moved in with a Minwax stain crayon or marker I got from Home Depot or Lowes. And, thank you, I am very much enjoying the kitchen.

This time looking at the photos, I love the toaster in white. If looks like an offspring of the cabinets rather than an appliance.

I still marvel at your backsplash. And I still wish your husband had a twin brother :-).

Are you going to put art or family photos to the left and right of the windows?

Framed in white?

MareLuce, I like the white toaster too. It's one I've had for years and I assumed I'd replace it with stainless, but then I thought it was cute there. I marvel at the backsplash, too. I usually HATE outlets on the backsplash (I asked if they could be low and sideways but it didn't happen) but now they blend in well enough that it doesn't matter to me. We have not hung any art in our house yet, and we have a lot of it stacked in our basement. We're going to wait until the great room is fully furnished to figure out what goes where. I was able to hang a few quilts, though. Here's my favorite in our entry wall. I have no good reason to post it, but I am anyway because I love it. I chose the design and fabrics, but I paid my sister-in-law to make it for me because I was just too busy. She did a better job than I would have anyway!

Mpagmom ~ Thanks for the reply. Now that I look more closely at your pictures, I can see a bit of a shine in the first photo. However, I swore you chose a honed finish based on your last photo. The size of tile you chose looks perfect for your kitchen.

I am planning to use this tile on my master bathroom floor as well, so I think I'll tape it up in my kitchen before it's installed in the bathroom to see if I want the large format or the small. I have samples of each, but it's hard to tell on such a small scale. Now that you tell me that yours is the small format, I'm definitely going to look more closely at that size.

Thanks again!

Laurajane02, I would love to see that tile on a bathroom floor. I cheaped out and got Daltile's octagon and dot for mine. Please share pictures!

Beautiful! I love hanging tapestry. While vacationing in Bruge, Belgium, I carried a tapestry on my shoulder as a present for my Mom for about half a mile.

Do you realize that tapestry flows with your backsplash? (colors, feeling)

Mpagmom ~ Our master bath is months away from completion but I'll show you the photos that gave me the idea. Due to my very rural location, I've managed to get wholesale pricing on Saltillo tile, so I'm using it more liberally than I normally would.

I also love your tapestry btw!

mpagmom! I am in awe of your kitchen. I have fond memories of a kitchen I had years ago with those very colors. It always made me smile. :)

Curious - Do you find it hard to keep the backsplash behind the cooktop clean and free of stains?

laurajane02, thanks for posting that bathroom. What a great inspiration picture! I'm sure your bathroom will look gorgeous.

TammyTE, I have only been in my kitchen a few months, but so far I haven't had a problem with stains. I tend to use only the front burners, so that may be why. I haven't sealed the backsplash yet, and I hope I can keep it clean until I do! Thanks, too, for the kind words about my kitchen.

Just wanted to say thank you so much for sharing your kitchen. We're planning to replace our uppers but reface the lowers so I have just been assuming that we'll need to do full overlay everywhere. It never occurred to me to do full overlay on the bottom and inset on top and it certainly looks great in your kitchen.

And I'm a little horrified that ANYONE would think those amazing Hicks pendants look like military artillary. They are stunning and amazing and I want them. :)

Thank you, wi-sailorgirl, for letting me know my kitchen is helpful to you. So many here helped me. I know some are probably horrified that I mixed full overlay and inset, but it made sense and works for me. I also mixed double-hung and casement windows in my house, but please don't tell anyone. And thank you for appreciating my Hicks pendants. I loved them from the moment I saw them and they were my one real splurge in the house (and it wasn't as big a splurge as I thought it would be because my local lighting store sold them for less than I've seen on the internet).

What's this? You've found the Hicks pendants for less than the price on Circa's website? If I go that direction I will have to shop around a bit. Thanks for the tip!

And your window secret is safe with me ;)

mpagmom, your kitchen is so beautiful. i think happy is a great word to describe it! LOVE your backsplash and your dining pendants! that would make me happy too!

mpagmom, count me among those using your kitchen as a template!

I love the big window above the sink. Do you find it at all inconvenient not to have an upper cabinet right above the dishwasher? It looks amazing, just wondering about its functionality. Thanks!

mpagmom: beautiful kitchen! There are so many things to like about it! I think I read through the entire thread from top to bottom because I wanted to know every detail re: your kitchen! We are just starting a new construction home and the kitchen has been my focus for the last 6 months and now it is almost decision time!
I have been debating whether to put my trash in the island or next to the dishwasher and my KD never mentioned the idea of using 2, so i love this idea-a smaller one for prep and a larger one for recyling or vice versa.
I am also considering doing full overlay on base cabinets and inset on uppers because the inset is at least 10% more.
One question for you: are your windows double hung or casement?

michoumonster, I somehow missed your comment last month, but thank you!

CamG, thank you! I used to have my dish cabinet above my DW and hated it. I couldn't reach into it well with the DW open. I put my dishes in a drawer on the other side of the sink (about a step away) and my glasses in a 12" deep cabinet in the island just opposite the dishwasher. I sacrificed seating for one person in the island to add 2 12" deep cabinets (one on each side) to take the place of some of the wall cabinets I was losing with the window. I really wanted the light from the big window so I was willing to sacrifice the upper cabinets for it.

Laura517, I know how you feel. You spend so long planning and looking at everything but when it comes to making real decisions it's so hard. I like my 2 trash cans a lot, so I'd go for it if you have room. Everyone recommended recycling in the prep area - probably closest to the refrigerator is the right place. The windows in most of my house are double hung, but I went with casement in the kitchen because double hung would be too hard to open and close. I then decided to switch to casement in my great room and one other room. In all three cases there is a larger stationary window between two smaller casement windows so it doesn't stand out that it's different. I like casement better and would have done if everywhere, but there was a cost difference to consider.

By the way, for anyone reading this whole thread, I made a mistake. My hood is the Zephyr Gust, not the Breeze. Don't know what I was thinking...

Love the tile on the backsplash and on the floor. Old thread but new to me : ) Gorgeous kitchen!

That is my favorite new-to-me backsplash. I was trying to think of its name when someone with soapstone was looking for recommendations.

I'll just remember "search for Mpagmom's backsplash!

I love the full overlay on base cabinets and inset on uppers which saved you money and gave you more space.

I love your happy, serene, beautiful and functional kitchen! Thank you for sharing the ideas and a close-up of your gorgeous counters!

lynn2006 - good eye! I didn't even notice that.

@mpagmom (SW Ohio) beautiful kitchen! what is the size of the prep sink and your island pkease?

what can you store in the skinny cabinets left of the stove pls? Are they useful?

Thank you

The prep sink is 12” wide. The 6” wide cabinet stores all my cutting boards and a few cookie sheets vertically. There are two shelves above those for my aluminum foils, plastic wrap, and wax paper. The 12” wide cabinet is a 3-shelf pull-out pantry for my rice, chicken broth, salsa, pasta sauce, canned goods like tomato paste, some pasta. I have a pretty large pantry closet just behind the kitchen where I store the bulk of my food and a cabinet above that stores all my baking supplies and spices, but that little pull-out is very useful for items I want handy when cooking.