My husband and I bought a small fixer-upper, recently moved in and have finished the renovation (in that order). We added about 450 square feet to the existing house, the max allowed by our town's floor area ratio calculation. The new square footage was mostly in an office downstairs and master bedroom upstairs, plus a little bit in the kitchen.

The original kitchen had a small laundry and half bath attached, and a door to the back yard. The kitchen was bumped out 3 feet towards the back of the house and a hallway added from the garage to the downstairs office. The hallway now separates the kitchen from the laundry and a tiny full bathroom, with a small niche for table linens and display. The door to the back yard is now through the laundry room. The new kitchen is approx 14x14.

From start to finish the process took 7 months, with 2 months of planning and permit back-and-forth, and 5 months of demolition/construction. We remodeled the existing full bath, added a master bedroom & bath, added an office, took the kitchen down to studs and enlarged it, put in all new electrical, plumbing and HVAC, new roof and gutters, etc, etc. For the kitchen, we built all the cabinet boxes and my contractor installed them. I purchased all appliances and fixtures.

Design considerations: we wanted a bright contemporary look that was inviting and uncluttered. We wanted mostly light surfaces because we were concerned the room might be dark. The kitchen faces north and the one window has an overhang from the master above. We also needed to be budget-aware which we mostly followed with the exception of one big splurge (details below). We loved the look of grain-matched walnut and after a visit to SemiHandMade in Southern California, we decided to go with their custom drawer fronts. I'm the cook and wanted a good expanse of work surfaces. My husband is the clean up guy so he researched and chose the sink and dishwasher.

The island is 60" x 30". In order to have an overhang for seating, we needed to have drawers that were 18" deep. Ikea doesn't sell 18" deep drawers, so we ordered these from Sherr's in the custom size we needed. The walnut end and back side of the island were made by a finish carpenter we hired who wrapped it with a mix of walnut veneer and solid walnut to our specification.

Things we love:

- the marble island (aka The Big Splurge)

- the grain-matched walnut doors. We were glad we got the end panels for the upper cabinets as well.

- lots of drawer space

- the trash pullout

- the tall pantry cabinet

- the butcher block counter

- dimmable LED lights

- Sherr's drawer boxes

- Ikea's 20% off sale and exchange policy

Things that aren't done yet:

- glass shelves for niche

- need to find lower bar stools

- some tweaking of door alignment and repair of edge banding

Gardenweb ideas used:

- lots of drawers

- offset drain in the sink to allow for a trash pullout underneath

- air switch for garbage disposal

- induction stove

- Ikea boxes and hardware

- under cabinet LED lights and outlets

- over-the-counter microwave

- recessed fridge

- did I mention lots of drawers?

Things we had to compromise on:

- no room for a double oven and separate cook top

- clearance behind the island is slightly less than ideal

- more filler by the upper cabinets next to the sink than we'd prefer, needed for symmetry

Things that didn't work out the way we thought

- the window was supposed to come down to the counter

- the finished sink wall was 2" narrower than planned, which meant we had to cut down the drawer fronts of a 24" cabinet to 18" and leave a little gap at the end of the corner cabinet (not visible)

- the corner cabinet needed a lot more door clearance than we thought, so the stove wall had to be adjusted

- the beautiful Mockett finger pulls needed to be recessed into the tops of some of the drawers just a little so that they would close properly. My contractor used a chisel and hacked the edge band badly on some of them. My husband and I are working on repairing all of them as we don't want the contractor to touch them at this point.

- the Abstrakt doors and deco strips show every nail and ding, and so were difficult to use at the top of the cabinets where they needed to be mitred.

Cabinets

Perimeter cabinets: Ikea

Door fronts on Ikea cabinets - white are Ikea Abstrakt, grain-matched walnut are from SemiHandMade

http://semihandmadedoors.com/

Island and niche cabinets & doors: Sherr's

Toe kicks are from Ikea in a glossy dark gray that looks like stainless.

Counters

Perimeter: Caesarstone in Arctic White. Purchased during the Ikea sale, fabricated by United Marble and Granite (Ikea's fabricator)

Island - Calacatta Oro, honed. Purchased at Da Vinci Marble in San Carlos, CA, fabricated by Marblus Granite in San Jose

Walnut butcherblock counter from Hardwood Lumber Company

Appliances

Electrolux 30" Slide-In Induction Range Model EW30IS65JS (Sears Outlet)

Sharp 1.5 cu. ft. Over-the-Counter Microwave (Home Depot)

Waste King 1HP Eco-Green Garbage Disposer with air switch (Costco)

Hansgrohe Metro HighArc Kitchen Faucet with 2-Function Pull-Out Sprayhead (Costco)

Ancona Tornado II 30" Range Hood (Costco)

Bosch-SHX68R55UC 800 Series 24 In. Stainless Steel Bar Handle Dishwasher

Elkay Gourmet Elumina Stainless Steel 30-1/2" x 18-1/4" Single Basin Kitchen Sink 10" Depth

Kenmore Elite fridge (existing)

Mockett Door pulls 3" Tab Drawer Pull - Satin Chrome (26D)

Omnia Pulls for niche cabinet

Floor - strand-woven bamboo from Teragren in Chestnut

Lights - LED undercabinet and can lights.

Pendants - Bruck Rainbow I (dichroic)

Wall color - BM Decorator's White

Kitchen before with dining room beyond

From Kitchen

Kitchen during with island mock-up. The original subfloor is on the diagonal. New exterior door/laundry room in background.

From Kitchen

6 inch recess for fridge

From Kitchen

Looking from hallway; entrance to dining room was enlarged

From Kitchen

From the dining room, niche and hallway at right rear

From Kitchen

From Kitchen

Fridge wall

From Kitchen

From Kitchen

From dishwasher to plate drawer

From Kitchen

Trash pullout

From Kitchen

Pullout left of stove

From Kitchen

Tall cabinet

From Kitchen

Mockett pulls and damage to edge banding (since repaired)

From Kitchen

Niche cabinet before mirror was installed

From Kitchen

Marble close-up

From Kitchen

Here is a link that might be useful: Post with in-progress pictures