Wait - the infamous "Sophie" was a man??!!???!!? Sophie was banned before I became a member on Houzz - however, I read many posts when I first signed up while doing some research re: primary bathroom renovation planning. Hmmmmm . . .

IKR?!i got sidetracked earlier and forgot to comment. Who discovered and how?

Livewireoak slipped and called him Doug. Is LWO still around?

That's a beautiful table.

It really is, Sas. It’s a lovely rich color and combines the look of a double pedestal with a trestle shape. Its an inch longer and four inches wider than my current table but the rounded corners reduce its visual impact as well as make it easier to get around. And fit littl kids at the corners 😁 When I saw it at her home last November I fell in love with it! She will be inheriting my mother’s dining table someday (I already have a big one) and I told her I had dibs on this one when that time came. When she visited a few weeks ago she asked if I still wanted it and of course I jumped! Her husband is going to bring it to us, probably not for six months or so but I am beyond excited. It’s a really gorgeous table that will elevate our daily meals and the great room it’s going in.

K, I think it looks great. Based on the rendering, I would try a different, more plain, backsplash behind the sink ledge. In the long view, my eye goes to the backsplash instead of your pretty living area.

I agree that the photo def does that Dee, but the rendering reduced the brick size to teeny tiny ones to get a brick pattern there so it looks very busy. In reality there will be just one 3 x 6” brick laid horizontally along the soace between the counter and higher bar. And it will run seamlessly into a 90 degree corner to a wall with upper cabinets and the same brick will continue in that backsplash area. I could not make Chatty understand the concept of a single brick. It’s really not as smart as I thought it would be. (And that makes me even more worried about people using it for really important things like designing skyscrapers that will then checked by people who themselves no longer understand the principles but are just verifying numbers.)

I like it. It gives me cozy inn vibes.

One of my favorite former regulars (Tibbrix) redid her kitchen with a brick backsplash. She put in a wood/butcher block counter (treated with multiple coats of waterproofing tung oil if I remember correctly). It was stunning.

Tangent - very curious about the art in the DR table photo??

Does the new table work with your sideboard? I may be confused about where it is going.

ChatGPT is particularly bad about creating images. That is partly because it tends to create a new one each time, rather than modifying the recent version. Try this in your prompt: “Use the attached image as the editing base. Make only this change, and preserve everything else exactly.”

K, the one brick run behind the sink will definitely make a big dfference. And if you help the person laying the tile to pick out bricks that don't have a lot of variation, like a particularily dark splotch, issue resolved!

Following along, admiring the table and the idea of the calm, quiet kitchen of "indeterminate age". This after picking my jaw off the floor about Sophie. Are y'all sure???

I've had luck with pictures when I go from one AI version to another. It seems like when you give it a long run of requests, it tends to get confused. If I take a photo that's close and try it on another platform, I usually get what I ask for.

is this the "bring back Sophie" Sophie?

PS another good reason to attend a GTG! Unmask your pals!

I was just wondering about Zalco the other day, hope she is well.

Mtn, it was discussed up thread.

The Zalco situation is confounding.

Cyn, I thought of her kitchen, too, seeing these renderings. It was so beautiful.

Ks, sorry I have no input, just following along and looking forward to seeing what you do! Loving your choices so far.

[Deleted gossip I shared.]

[Deleted gossip I shared.]

Wait, what, no fair?

PS sorry for hijack KSWL!

When we remodeled, we took out the raised bar and made the counter one level. We never sat at the bar because our dining room is adjacent. On the backside of the peninsula, we added 12" deep cabintery--open shelves for display/cookbooks and end cabinets for closed storage. It also gave me a 40" deep counter work space near the sink.

My quartz contertops are the color of your second photo and I still love them fourteen years later.

thx, Jilly. I knew "she" was sort of GW celebrity but I don't think I ever interacted much with her, and did not really know them.

There’s a reason I say that the off off topic discussions are the most interesting 😎 I don’t think I was around for the Sophie brouhaha… more’s the pity!

Mtn that artwork on the dining room walls belongs to my BIL, who was an integral part of the civil rights movement in Atlanta. John Lewis was the best man at their wedding.

The table is not going in my dining room; I have a big, old mahogany double pedestal table with two large leaves that’s staying right where it is. As much as I love this new table it is not big enough nor the right style for my formal dining room. The new table is going in the main living area that is open to the kitchen.

This shows the table position in the main living area, to the left in front of the English dresser. The breakfast bar overlooks this area.

Here it is closer and

Here it is with the brown craft paper I keep on it for the kids to color.

They look like Shepard Fairey!

Oh ok, now i get it!

I've always loved your Girl with a Pearl Earring banner :)

'one that is of indeterminate age ' Painted cabinets have gone through their decades but they absolutely age the kitchen. These days with so many affording discretionary spending that includes kitchen make overs every few years, there isn't much that doesn't define a decade. Go with what you like. It's your money and your enjoyment is the only return on investment you'll get if you do age faster than you plan.

Painted cabinets have gone through their decades but they absolutely age the kitchen. I don't follow.

Mtn they are Shepard Fairey, a signed commemorative limited edition. BIL received them as a gift with others who participated in an event some years ago.

Arcy the only ROI I anticipate is my personal satisfaction. When I said in the OP that by the time we sold the house gray would be in style again that was (clearly, I thought) said tongue in cheek. I like painted cabinets and have either painted or replaced every wood kitchen cabinet in every home we’ve ever owned. 🤷‍♀️

I really like the look you are going for. Chat did a pretty good job with the renderings.

Sorry for the tangent (my second one). I only knew of him from his most famous work (be still my heart). Then randomly came across an Exhibit when we were it Stockholm. It was excellent.

Back to Kitchen fun now ...

John Lewis was the best man at their wedding.

Well, that is so cool!

I love where you're going with the kitchen. Love the colors.

I would love to do a brick backsplash but I know myself and I would constantly be trying to clean it and it would drive me crazy. Know thyself!

I adore that table you are getting. Just gorgeous.

If you look at hone decor sites, magazines, instagram, even homes for sale, you will see that painted cabinets are very popular, as are wood cabinets. It depends on the kitchen/home.

KSWL, your kitchen is going to look great! I can’t wait to see the finished product! 😊

Read through very quickly and I can’t wait to see your new kitchen!

Just a comment from someone who's had a brick backsplash behind the cooktop in two kitchens: they're absolutely fine. And I'm a neat freak. No need to ever clean them, especially if you're neat. I cook mostly on the front burners and don't deep fry or splatter stuff. Any tiny droplets that might escape just soak into the brick and you don't see them.

Now that I think of it, I have a white tile backsplash in my vacation home, and I never see anything on it that splashed from my cooking. Very rarely do I have to wipe anything up.

Thank you for sharing your experience with a brick backsplash Diana! I lut brick floors in the basement of our last house when we renovated it and they were virtually maintenance free.

I think I may have found the countertop I like— some new material called Dekton in Rem natural.

this is Senora Gray, the cokor of the cabinets., and the brick is actually our fireplace brick, which I will match with more brick from the same mfg in Macon Ga. There is not much veining / pattern in the counter material; the background color is an off white, light putty color with gray and brown running through it. I like all the colors together. Island top and breakfast bar top will be walnut.

Love the colors. Is the brick limewashed?

When we remodeled, we took out the raised bar and made the counter one level. We never sat at the bar because our dining room is adjacent. On the backside of the peninsula, we added 12" deep cabintery--open shelves for display/cookbooks and end cabinets for closed storage. It also gave me a 40" deep counter work space near the sink.

What do you think of this idea?

I don’t love the breakfast bar but I want the separation between the kitchen and living area. Once you have the regular counter height both rooms are essentially one. I am less a fan of that seamless kitchen/family room situation than I am of the higher bar. Especially when it will be a pretty walnut. Also I think cabinets that match the kitchen on the back side of an island or bar make the adjoining space look kitcheny, for lack of a better word. There’s nothing wrong with it, I just want two more defined spaces.

adding… our dining room is on the other side of the kitchen, not open to it but accessed through cased openings. We don’t sit at the bar to eat, ever, but occasionally a visitor perches there to talk with whomever is cooking. That’s fine and they are not underfoot.

Makes sense

If you currently have an overhang counter on the breakfast bar and barstools, I would eliminate it and make a 6-8" deep pony wall capped with the walnut. Wood is warmer for perching. I'm understanding that the back of that wall will be walnut, which will show better without overhang and stools.

We have wainscoting on the wall under the bar. i’ll take a photo when i get home. The bar top itself will be walnut. I may further limit its use by adding a brass gallery rail at the edge closest to the kitchen.

Uh oh, I should have cleared the bar 🙄 So just the bar top will be walnut similar to the bar stools.

Thanks for the photo. I wasn't imagining such a large, angled bar. I thought you had an island or a straight peninsula.

The island top will also be walnut, as will the new table in the great room.

Yes, if that was counter height it would pull 400 square feet of adjoining space right into the kitchen. I have toyed with the idea of putting an actual wall there but it would cut the kitchen off from all natural light.

Research Dekton before you buy. its brittle and probe to breakage. beautiful though!

I have also read that it is prone to breakage, especially during installation, in the hands of inexperienced installers---which is why the manufacturer will only honor the 25 year comprehensive warranty if they've certified the installer. All of which adds to the cost.

^^^naturally🤨

Question for kitchenistas: I am using a minimal or very small overhang of countertop over the lower cabinets. Since I don’t cook with drawers or cabinet doors open I’m not concerned with food spilling into storage areas. I think the look is neater, older and gives more space in the traffic area between the island and perimeter cabinets.

No overhang

1 3/4“ overhang below:

Assuming one keeps to the edge thickness requirements of the counter mfg, are there any other negatives or caveats?

If the countertop doesn't exactly match the cabinetry, I think it's best to have a bit of overhang.

It will probably have a half inch overhang. They’ll have to cut back the deck (plywood underlayment) of the counter to accomodate the edge thickness requirement which is fine as I don’t want any more than that 1/2”.

Spilled liquid doesn’t just flow off the outer edge, it can also linger just under the lip, and drip. But if the drawers and doors come up very close to the underside of the countertop, it should be less of an issue. I know that even with overhang, I am sometimes cleaning the inside panel of a drawer.

In almost seven years in this kitchen I have spilled something that leaked off a counter just once. I can live with that clean up chore 😁