Bold Tile, Sunlight Filled Kitchen
There are two versions of this reveal; this is the better one but it's loaded with pictures. Here's a link to the photoshop version, if that's easier for you:
http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/kitchbath/msg0307394514459.html?26
Many of you have seen progress pictures along the way and given us so much valuable feedback and advice. With the forum's help, we have an incredibly functional kitchen in which it is great fun to cook and entertain.
Our home was built in the mid 60's and the kitchen used to be on the back side of the house, facing north west (never any sun). Our architect suggested relocating the kitchen to the front of the house, and came up with a very functional new plan, which included moving interior walls and adding a skylight dormer, mud room and pantry. We found a builder to perform the demolition and manage the construction. We built a temporary kitchen in our family room, moved the fridge in there with our camping gas burners on a card table, and started the long process of renovating. In the midst of this exciting and frustrating roller-coaster ride, my mom passed away. She was an amazing cook and would have loved watching the progress and seeing how everything turned out. This reveal is dedicated to her.
Cabinetry quotes for all the new areas (kitchen, island, desk area, bookshelves, pantry, mudroom) ranged from $35,000 to $75,000, uninstalled. Long story short: in order to economize, we went with an online Conestoga reseller (Brian Long/theCabinetJoint), who sold a ready to assemble/RTA cabinet, for around $23,000. This included many custom pieces; 18" deep uppers, custom width upper cabinets, 2 custom depth floor to ceiling bookshelves, and custom drawer widths and heights. While we've been very pleased with the quality and functionality, I wonder what the final effect would have been with different cabinets and/or a different cabinet style. DH and I assembled the cabinets ourselves and our builder's crew hung them. DH installed all the appliances (several, multiple times), built a steel bar support system for the island, and did so very much electrical, plumbing and carpentry work. He is one in a million.
As you look at these pictures, I would welcome finishing suggestions. What did we, as DIY-ers, miss or mangle? What stands out as unfinished to your eye and what could I add to a punchlist for a finish carpenter or DH and me? I won't be offended, but to be totally honest, I am not posting any of the bad pictures :)
When it came time to pick a backsplash, I found I had too much white and disliked how the upper run of cabinets looked. With a ton of help from the forum, I picked a bold tile which draws the eye away from the cabinets. (Special thanks to Hollysprings for reminding me that I liked a lot of contrast in my inspiration pictures and to onedogedie, for introducing me to kj patterson).
Before
The kitchen was small and my countertops were always crowded. Still, I feel the need to acknowledge how many wonderful meals came out of that space.
We bumped out the front of the house 5 feet, replacing the foot print of the old covered porch.
We learned we could replace a structural post which would have been out in the middle, with an LBL beam. (Huge thanks to jeff_from_oakville, live_wire_oak, remodelfla, sjmitch, karen_belle and bmorepanic).
Assembling and installing cabinets. There was no magical truck pulling up outside and crews bringing in beautiful, assembled cabinets....
After
Desk area to the right, fireplace to eventually be replaced with gas:
Bookshelves flanking the desk - houseful, you gave me the idea of using 2 of these, to balance the desk area, and I love how this works. Nothing warms a room like books! We also keep the phone and answering machine here.
Birds'-eye view, skylight dormer:
We love our recycling center and the inset composter:
Custom wood hood built by DH. Upper cabinets are 18" deep.
Recycling center on island and shallow cutting board cabinet:
Tiled fire extinguisher niche. This is located behind the ovens; countertops are 30" and ovens were pulled forward by 6".
Upper cabinet knobs:
Baking Area with 30" countertops: (we keep things out on them and still have room to roll out a pie crust or make biscuits).
Top drawer: (note my new XMAS presents, my pink thermapen and my yellow lemon juice squeezer, thanks to zelmar and Breezygirl!)
Middle drawer:
Bottom drawer:
Next drawer stack over to the left, fun storage:
Bottom drawer:
I like the Rev-A-Shelf pull-outs (DH HATED installing these with a passion) but they are flimsy (wobbly) in comparison to my Blum Blu-Motion drawer glides.
In the upper cabinets, DH has built custom spice racks for us:
We were able to find a caulk which matched our grout. We dealt with a local metal working shop to create our stainless steel surround and custom hood liner:
Pantry:
Linen closet at left, eventually washer and dryer at far end. The base cabinet at the end has a single large pullout; this will be for clothes sorting bins.
Filing cabinets and beverage fridge:
Cabinets: Conestoga RTA Cabinets and Doors, Crystal White, Door CRP-10875, Cordovan stain on island.
Counters: Cambria Torquay
Bar stools: Carrington CourtDirect Mitchell 26" bar stools, with COM and custom stain.
Wall paint: BM Aura Vancouver Day
Tile: kj patterson, Fireclay Debris
Cabinet hardware
Upper Hafele Knob Clear/Polished Chrome - HAF-135-75-420
Lower: RH Bistro Pull
Lights:
Varaluz, Nevada (table)
LBL lighting monorail, Lava II
Undercabinet: Philips powercore profile LED strips
Appliances/Fixtures:
Kohler Karbon faucet
KWC Sin Faucet
48" Capital Culinarian
Solon Inset Composter
Sharp 24" MW Drawer
Hood: Prestige insert with remote blower
Franke Peak SS Sink
Silestone Silgranit Sink, Biscuit
TapMaster
Hafele Food Pedals
Miele Futura Dimension
This post was edited by oldbat2be on Wed, Apr 3, 13 at 13:38
Comments (85)
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Thanks dretutz, GenerosiTea, sas95, ilene-84, hobokenkitchen, gsciencechick, dee850, olivesmom
Springroz - we started planning mid 2010, started demo around Mother's Day 2011 and were finally ready for countertops in early December 2011. So... lived out of a temporary kitchen for almost 6 months.
Trailrunner, you're the best, thanks. Knowing you, anything that makes you smile, probably makes you cook, too :) (Keep posting those pictures and recipes, I love them).
Thanks ck_squared. Good luck with your remodel.
tea4all - I too love the pantry tile. Actually, love everything I've seen from Fireclay! I've added a few more pictures in the main thread too (lovely to be able to edit).
legallin, thanks!! We'll be watching for your posts :)
localeater - if you're ever in the area, definitely stop in, it's rarely dull here! Too funny about obi-wan (would that be OBWK?). Here's another shot of the star and cross tile; this is an 18" space. Fireclay, malt, debris series. I will probably either decoupage these outlets or redo them (plugmold at top since these outlets are rarely used). Another lesson learned too late...
annsch - I am planning on redoing the sink window trim (fairly easy) and am still searching for the right integrated refrigerator. I love the warmth in this one but actually really like the darkness (contrast) of the black I currently have. Maybe one day....
[
[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/red-aga-traditional-kitchen-boston-phvw-vp~458887)
[Traditional Kitchen design[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/traditional-kitchen-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_709~s_2107) by Boston Kitchen And Bath K.Marshall Design Inc.
Hi deedles, we're very happy how the cutting board nook turned out. I'd been concerned it might clash with the quartz but it's fine.
cawaps - the old house did have a lot of charm but the new one is so much more functional.
a2gemini - thanks for remembering the lights (and for your help in finding them). They're Troy Old Town, love love love them. We put 3 up flanking the garage doors and an add'l two on a 10' fence post (didn't like the gooseneck option they offered for a lamp post).
Hi NATEBEAR, uppers are 18" deep. Great for storing big platters. (I haven't added vertical dividers yet, eventually).
More later - must feed little ones and then off to hockey.
This post was edited by oldbat2be on Sun, Dec 30, 12 at 12:33
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onedogedie - Regarding the SS surround, we just wanted a really large space around the cooktop which didn't need to be babied. I really like the SS as a countertop material.
motherof3sons - I loved the story of your mother playing bridge until 3 hours before your birth. We have a 100 acre woods behind us; it tickles me that I can still get lost.
taggie - haven't posted in the 'does your kitchen match your dog' thread, that might be fun to resurrect! (I don't think I had a backsplash when that came out). Thanks for your kind words.
secondhalf - doing the bump-out did transform the house. Neat to hear you did it too. At this point, no-one is particularly respectful, but things are holding up well (just lots of dings on the toe boards). The counter tops take lots of abuse without any staining or etching. Our dog is a long haired shepherd.
Autumn4, divastyle, GWlolo, wags848, fouramblues - thanks!!
olivertwist - I use the compost bin all the time, love the convenience. The trash can is 16" deep and is lower than the bottom of the bin. I originally had 3 tilt outs over these bins but after some thought we retrofitted a 12" drawer on the left most one. DH used 2 part epoxy to secure to right side of sink. He also built a shelf at the back of the cabinet to hold the detergent for the neverMT.
Here's from the side, looking towards the front of the cabinet:
linelle - too funny, I had a lot of fun sending that card out:)
sixtyohno - I too very much worried about the backsplash. In person, I am very pleased with the color. It's hard to photograph and I'm not so crazy about how it looks with my LED lighting (too yellowish). That, fortunately, we can eventually try to correct.
enduring - You can use the USB port to charge an ipod, ipad or other device. Handy at times but I don't encourage the family to use this as their regular charging station(s).
labbie - glad you like the bookshelves. I used to have shelves with bookends which were always falling over. I measured my deepest cookbooks to figure out the right depth.
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JFay, LisaSE, you are right on track,the sink/fridge wall irks me. Definitely a future thread!
MizLizzie, the composter is one of my favorite things in the kitchen. It's an inset composter:
Deb52899, thanks! The pink thermapen is a great new gadget, linked below. Works beautifully! (search for pricing, this is just default amazon)
Here is a link that might be useful: Amazon thermapen
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Belatedly, thanks marti8a, MizLizzie. I had a request for an update so here goes....
We have moved away from the sink wall redesign for the time being and are working on the pantry (dry goods storage portion).
We're slowly making progress on vertical storage. We bought two sets of the Omega Tra-Sta organizers but DH says that he could have easily made these himself. Here's the upper oven cabinets (love this space now):
And in the pantry corner cabinet, which is fairly deep, we maximized space by measuring what we wanted to store and mounting the vertical slats to the required measurements.
I'm not sure what we'll do with the upper portion of this cabinet, perhaps keep for tall vases (um, when I get around to buying any...). I'm currently trying to figure out the best place to keep heavy serving bowls.
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Hi localeater - shoot me an email next time you are planning to be in the area, would love to have you stop in for a look and a bite.
rikerk - Yes, the SS surround runs behind the rangetop, and we also have another surround around the hood sump/capture area.
Rough dimensions are 34" from front to back, 10" on both sides, and 9.5" in the back.
This shows a little of the inside of the hood.
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