Excellent. Simple, calming, Zen. Great walll color. I like the understated backsplash and wood counters. Enjoy.

What a beautifully done kitchen! I love the mixed counters and how everything is laid out for specific tasks. We are also putting in inset cabs with slab front drawers and shaker drawers, so it is wonderful to see how great it looks! Congratulations and enjoy!

Oops, I meant to say shaker doors, but whatever, kitchen is fabulous! :)

I'm going to have to come back later and look at the pictures better, but I want to tell you how much I LOVE your kitchen! The teak and soapstone are great together. It's so open and spacious with so many fabulous details. I love the view to the dining area, too. Your house just looks great!

Quick question, if you don't mind - How wide is your pantry cabinet and how is it working out for you? I had an 18"W pantry cabinet in my plan and it was pooh-poohed quite a bit. It's funny because I also had a little bookcase at the end of my cabinet run and nobody was a fan of that. I love yours! I also like your open shelf and the way you only tiled only so far up on the backsplash. It all came out so nice!

Enjoy the holidays in your fantastic new kitchen!

Very cool! It seems like you were able to incorporate all your desires into a really functional kitchen. enjoy!

Teak, soapstone sink and counters and white inset cabs...what's not to like ? :)

I love the chopping block area on your teak. It all really opened up and the light is now so pretty. Love all the storage. Wall color is so pretty and that transom window over the CC is a great feature. Nicely done . c

Beautiful! It looks very well-done, as if it has been in the house all along, just updated.

The corner trash cab is brilliant!

Thanks everyone for the supportive comments! mpagmom, the larger pullout is only 12" on the door, plus a couple of inches on either side for the frame. Honestly I don't think I'd have wanted it much wider. Nothing is getting too lost at the back (or side, depending on how you look at it), and being all wood it's pretty heavy so 50% bigger, as in 18", might have gotten too hard to roll out. My cabinetmaker hadn't done anything like this before - so I showed him some pix from garden web :) He wanted to give me roll-out shelves instead, but I like this better.

I adore your kitchen. The vale mist brings out the soapstone
and the teak to it's true glow.
I especially like that you kept to the style of the rest
of the space. I am not sure what the rest of your home has
but you describe you home as 1920s urban brick foursquare
house. This kitchen blends beautifully. You have a natural
talent for pulling colors and textures together to create
a relaxing, confortable, functional and elegant space.

I love what you did. I would love to see the art up close.
I imagine it is perfect in the space.
~boxerpups

Good job! The room really looks efficient and well-planned. The aesthetics are simply a bonus, but a big one. Have a ball!

What a serene environment you have created! Love your mineral oil/beeswax finished teak, the beautiful soapstone and the inset cabinets..so appropriate for your home. The Chantilly lace and the Vale Mist are wonderful together and I agree with Boxer- the Vale mist complements the soapstone beautifully. Favorite detail:- my favorite is your end-grain prep area...such a clever idea! Congratulations!

Oh, I love teak! Those counters are works of art, especially the inlaid end-grain bits (great idea!). The warmth of the teak goes so beautifully with the green wall color.

(And I'm so glad you were able to get the tile installation issues fixed without a single glitch - looks fabulous.)

Enjoy a very happy kitchen!

Beautiful and very functional kit. Enjoy it you sure made wonderful choices.

Oh, how beautiful.
I love painted INSET cabinets, I've always wanted soapstone, and I love the wood.

I don't get the "white" thing, so I will only say that yours looks so clean, airy, calm and FUNCTIONAL! I just love it.

Just gorgeous. I wish you many, many years of wonderful meals, close conversations, happy hugs, and lots of love.

Christine

Those teak counters are GORGEOUS! Lovely job!

Simple, clean and beautiful! I especially love the combo of white, wood and the soapstone sink. Also like the way your wall color picks up the color of the soapstone. I'm glad to hear that you got your dream kitchen and are enjoying it so much.

I love how peaceful your space is! It's so calming.

OMG I got a compliment from boxerpups!!! (my 6 yo DD has Justin Bieber, I have my own idols...)

Smashing! Love the teak counters surrounding that gorgeous
soapstone sink.

Don't think I saw it listed...what is your soapstone?

Scrolled back to the top, and read a little more closely. Saw
the soapstone specs.

I love the teak counters. The soft color on the walls combines beautifully with the warm woods, SS, soapstone and white. You have created a lovely, serene, functional space that looks appropriate for your house style.

Your kitchen is beautiful -- understated and elegant! May I ask how you finished the teak around your sink? Are the cut edges around the sink also just finished in oil/beeswax, or did you do something else there? Does the fact that you used teak (as opposed to some other species) help allay concerns about water damage? I am not trying to give you a hard time, just wondering if I too can undermount a sink in an oiled wood top!

I love how it all fits together and how you added the natural light. I think the short bs is really pretty and like how it relates to the wall shelf and cabs. You have a lovely color on the walls, but if you ever want change, paint would give a whole new look without tearing out everything that was chosen so well.
My biggest impression is it looks so neat and warm at the same time. The counters give you the best of 2 worlds and the openness on the upper walls keeps a spacious feel.

Very, very nice! Especially love the teak. The only problem that I see is that the wine fridge is EMPTY -- or is that a result of getting you through the renovation?!? ;-)

Such a beautiful space. I do like the calm comfortable-ness of the colours. A great kitchen to work in. Add to it the white (love) and soapstone (love) and teak (love), then all the little details and you've really done a great job. I particularly like your lazy suzan trash/recycling centre. Seems to me a great use of a corner! Might have had to try this if my corner cab had been closer to my prep area ...

Congrats on a beautiful kitchen. Enjoy it for the holidays!

Beautiful-- simple and elegant, it will not date until we are all eating food out of Jetsons-type machines whenever that day comes. It's just lovely. I especially love your teak.

Love the clean lines of the open shelving and how you can now get the light from the DR into the kitchen.

Tell us more about your beautiful teak counter. What was your source? I've been looking for a teak counter for a project on the back burner and haven't been able to stomach the cost of most I've found.

Your kitchen is so beautiful - the teak counter looks gorgeous and everything ties together.

Like a bride, I think all the kitchens I have seen on this forum is stunning - each with their own stlye

OK, looks like some teak questions. That one was a much-researched and pondered choice. I absolutely loved the look of wood but my contractor had (legitimate) concerns about doing an undermount sink with wood - the rim of the sink obviously is the end-grain side, which is more prone to taking up water. There are quite a few undermount/wood-counter sinks on the FKB, but looking more closely the pictures were either taken very shortly after the remodel, so no way to tell how they would hold up long-term, or they'd been sealed with something like waterlox. I wanted a completly non-toxic, renewable finish because I really wanted to do away with cutting boards!

So teak, which has been used on ships, was an obvious choice. My cabinetmaker did these counters and it was his idea to do the end-grain inlay bit. Would you believe teak is SO hard that it has been reported to dull knife blades?? We thought end-grain would be kinder to the blades and so far I think that's correct. I do a ton of slicing and dicing, and have not noticed a problem.

Now, as to the finish. Another GW epiphany: There's a great old thread on here, someone who has a giant walnut island top and went into great detail on how it was finished and how well it was holding up. Other threads confirmed that beeswax and mineral oil, melted together on the stove are a great way to protect wood. It was not at all hard to do, and the water just beads up on the counter. Even on the undermount rim. I re-wax the prep area and sink once per month (you can tell when it's time, the water beads start to get a little shaggy-edged) and the bar and breakfast area about every 8 weeks.

Source of the teak, no idea but I could ask the cabinet guy. I think it's from Latin America - would that be right? Please don't tell me I've done somthing environmentally heinous, I don't think I could take the guilt!

Oh and as regards the wine fridge I entirely agree. Haven't re-stocked since Thanksgiving. When we don't have guests it's just me drinking the grape juice (DH is a beer man) and - horrors - I've been keeping a box of Malbec in the big fridge for the inter-holiday period. (doesn't taste half bad actually) I do like wine but hate opening a bottle, then feeling like I have to finish it in 2-3 nights or it will go bad! So yes, a trip to the wine shop is definitely in order, thanks for the friendly reminder :)

The teak and soapstone together are gorgeous! Congrats on a beautiful room!

I kept noticing the paint and how well it added to the other beautiful elements, the white inset cabinets, soapstone and teak. Gorgeous wood! It looks very effortless, but we know very well planned.

Lovely kitchen -- can you tell me how you are liking the Miele speed oven; and more specifically how it's working to have it under counter. I am considering this arrangement for my kitchen and would love feedback from someone using it in real life.

What a welcoming kitchen--and such a nice-looking one, too!

PS I'd help you drink some of that malbec! LOL

Oh gardengrl66,

You have me up there with JB? Wow, Me a celebrity.
I am so honored. you made my day.
truly your kitchen is worth every compliment.
A fantastic renovation. Huge cheers.
~bp
up there with JB.

Boxer, now don't come over all modest...you're like a walking encyclopedia of kitchen pictures, and on top of it you are willing to share your perspective on things. Two specifics from my kitchen: First, when I was trying to decide whether to run my cabinets all the way up to the ceiling. I combed through the FKB, but then ran across a thread where you had posted tons and tons of stacked and full length cabinets. That sealed the deal. The second: A very eloquent post of yours on soapstone vs. honed granite (you were not the OP, you rarely are and that is the modesty thing again I'm sure, either that or you already know everything and have no need of starting threads!). You very honestly said that soapstone was not for folks who hate "patina", need an immaculate house, always wear makeup and heels etc. Well, I don't mind telling you that I lead a pretty "patina" life both by personality type and by necessity being a crazy-busy working mom of 3 wee ones. Most of our wood furniture has been in the family for generations and is full of scratches, I love old houses and old stuff in general, partly because of the imperfections that come with age, I almost never wear makeup and only rarely even blow my hair dry because that would take an extra 5 minutes out of my morning sleep!!! Anyway, all of which is to say that soapstone, and the patina that will come with it, is right up my alley and you were the one to point that out so beautifully.

You and a couple of others on this forum, along with some geniuses over on Appliances, are so generous with your time and advice. I don't know how you manage to surf these forums so consistently - I tend to go in fits and starts.

RMSAustin, love the speed oven. I simply could not find a way to put double ovens into this kitchen without giving up too much design-wise (a column would either block light or eat up too much counter space). We do use the microwave quite a lot, and this was a perfect way to sneak an oven into the kitchen -- in the already-claimed microwave space. Under the counter is perfect, as the kids can pop stuff into it (for all that the Miele gets complaints about being complicated to use, my six-year-old can heat up a bowl of oatmeal no problem), and it is only 24 inches so doesn't use too much cabinet space. The only thing would be if you had bad knees; one needs to get level with the oven to see what's going on in there.

gardnrgrl66,
Would you mind sharing that old, walnut sealing thread? I'm still debating as to how I want to finish my 16' BB countertop I'm building. Plus, I have 2 solid mahogany exterior doors that I've totally screwed up and need to somehow refinish.

I'm looking to create the look of long polished, burnished wood. Not the poly shine. Know what I'm talking 'bout?

Thanks. I appreciate the info!
I can't tell you how much I enjoy looking at your photos. Again and again!

Christine

Here you go. It's impossible to find using the GW search - Google works better. I agree absolutely about the shine thing.

Here is a link that might be useful: Walnut island top used as cutting board

Bravo! Lovely color on your walls. I think the whole kitchen is soothing. I like the white and the wood trims. I like the short back splash too. And the location next to the other rooms is nicely designed. You've done a great job and I bet your family is very happy with it.

I don't think I tried sampling Vale Mist when I settled on my green paint. I like it a lot.

Of interest when I did my BM Titanium paint on my walls it matched the stone dust of my soapstone Minas exactly! I painted the walls before anything else went in. I really worked at selecting a paint to go with my elements and I couldn't believe the match when we installed the counters. I did the counters myself (with DH consultation and heavy lifting) so had LOTS of stone dust to compare. I love working with this stone.

Last, how do you like your sink? I am considering constructing a soapstone sink for a bath next to the kitchen. I've located beautiful and cheap remnants. Does your sink give you all you'd hoped for?

Enduring, thanks for the kind words. I find myself laughing every time someone compliments the backsplash; actually those tiles were a huge splurge (one of the few times I went over my contractor's allowance) but they just looked so much better than the standard subway tiles sold through our local store. I couldn't even justify the extra cost of bull nosing the top all the way around. So, we just used less and voila, the "short" backsplash was born!

I feel really lucky about the wall color going so well with the soapstone. But we picked the paint color after the counters were in - it works either way I guess. As for the sink, I have been so happy with it. First, in terms of economy, it was just made from what was left over on our slab after the counters were fabricated. So we just paid for the labor. Second I wanted a farm sink and looked a lot at fireclay, enameled iron etc. But I was so worried about dinging up the white surfaces (even though I'm an admitted patina person) and knew soapstone would not show the scratches as much. Finally the square appearance of the apron front goes better, I think, with the angles in the rest of the kitchen. It's roomy, matches the counters...it's been a dream.

Ditto all of the above, with bells on.

Plus, I love it that you planned things so that you could have open walls or open shelves where uppers might otherwise need to be. It gives the kitchen an airy spacious feeling.

Finally, how brilliant is it to have a small radiator cum dish towel dryer cum icy mitten dryer right near the back door?

Really really really nicely done.

Thanks Garden for the info. I went back to look at the backsplash and I think I like the scale of it with your white cabinets then the dark counters, then the nice gray green walls, then the thin white shelving above it all. And I don't want to leave out the pretty window casing.

Thanks, gardengrl66!
I'm off to read it.

Beautiful! Thanks for sharing!

Wonderful combination of the teak and soapstone and your counter guy did such an artistic job with the end-cuts. Youshould be proud of yourself, as well, / / / / / (virtual back pats) for a great result.

I love your floors so much! Love your counters! Love your inset cabinets and the organization that you have. You did a beautiful renovation of your kitchen. Thank you for sharing.

I think the counter is actually cumaru, Dipteryx odorata, which is sold as "Brazillian Teak" rather than actual teak. Real Forest Stewardship Certified teak,Tectona grandis is very scarce which means it is about as expensive as gold these days. They are different botanical species, and will have different care needs, so you should double check exactly what your cabinet guy did here. Real teak is a very oily wood and should only be finished with more oil. Cumaru is harder than real teak and less oily. It is one of those tropical woods that doesn't take the dry homes of North America that well and needs to be kept humidified in the winter or else it has a tendency to split.

Holly, now that is very interesting. I will ask what exactly was used and read up on the properties of D. odorata just in case. We are pretty dry here - do you think if the counter is kept well-waxed/oiled this would retard the splitting? This is certainly a very hard wood, which is great, and I love the way it looks, so I'm certainly not going to go back and break the bank over this not being "real" teak. Maybe I should check over on the Woodworking forum again (been there many times but mostly over cabinet construction issues)

Your white kitchen will hold a candle to any other kitchen here. What I love is how you made it your own with the teak counters, the shelf, the short backsplash and the window behind the vent. You have a great functional layout which you obviously gave a great deal of thought to and then, as I said, you made a white kitchen your own. Well done and gorgeous. (I have a white kitchen and would have no other).

Thank you so much blfenton for the kind words. One sees so many hints on GW about white being overdone. I have been so happy with it, even with three kids and the messiness that goes with them. Actually my white cabinets are easier to clean because I can see the dirt!

Again many thanks for the compliments. You guys are all the best.