Since then, we have decided upon flooring, cabinetry and all the incidentals. It has been especially tricky to maintain a proper balance between desires and budget considerations. There are plenty of things I want, but we can't afford them all.
We have decided upon shaker style cherry cabinets for both the main kitchen area and the butler's pantry. We have found a business that will recreate the cabinets in our present house. Several years back, when we remodeled our kitchen, I designed my cabinetry and my father-in-law built them. It was a wonderful partnership that resulted in fabulous cabinets and I always loved them. Below are a couple of pictures of my existing cabinets.
In terms of flooring, we are pretty set on Jatoba (aka Brazilian cherry) hardwood from Mirage. It's a very hard wood (so it can stand up to Hartley's nails) that has gorgeous variations of colours throughout the boards (see photo, scammed from the Mirage site, below). As you can probably tell, we are big fans of reddish woods.
Countertops were a bit of a agonizing decision. We want to use quartz or soapstone, but it is just not in the budget at this time. So, we will likely install laminate for now and replace it in the next couple of years. I love a dark countertop, so we will be going with Wilsonart laminate in a colour called Graphite Nebula.
My sinks will be Kindred stainless steel, single bowl, drop-in sinks - a large one on the biggest island, a small sink on the smaller island and another bar sink in the butler's pantry. The large sink will be equipped with an American Standard semi-professional pull-down faucet and an instant hot water dispenser.
The house will have a central vacuum system, with a dust pan in the kitchen area - I can't wait to sweep all my dirt into the cute little opening!
I still need to decide whether I will do tile or a stainless steel panel behind my range and I also have to find stools for seating at my large island. So many decisions...
Any tips or advice from the crowd?
25 comments:
I'm a fan of red woods also. Love the cherry cabinets and shaker style.
Go with stainless behind the stove. I currently have white subway tile with med gray grout on the entire backsplash. Even though the grout is sealed it still has spots that appear darker in the grout due to splatters/splashes. Maybe nobody else notices, but I do!
Having worked in restaurants I can say that stainless is considerably easier to keep clean. Smooth stainless takes a bit more effort to reduce streaking when you clean it but something with a bit of texture just takes a quick swipe and it's clean.
Central vacuums can be a royal pain, especially with pet hair. When the hose gets plugged, it's a nightmare to get at the plug to undo it. Having lived with one, I'd advise against it.
I love it! I have had shaker style cherry cabinets, a cherry floor and soapstone countertop since we remodeled 30 years ago and I still love my kitchen. Your choices are perfect. Definitely go for the central vac. I have long haired dogs and have never had a problem, except when I accidentally vacuumed up a pencil which got caught.
I love your choices. I have similar shaker style cherry cabinets from a Canadian company called Cabico. NAYY I have something like this but without the black island--from Cabico's website: http://www.cabico.com/imports/_uploaded/3.jpg
So beautiful... I really can't wait to see the finished kitchen! And the most important room, the SEWING ROOM. :D
Sweet! We recently renovated our house. We have a dark charcoal porcelain tile counter top, with a small pebble backsplash and fir trim. You can see all three these elements in this photo I took of my mother's point presser.
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/K5cFaNfGUmJ1bQEYMUgIJpwJObAEUoDVt1Cf9aRkZN8?feat=directlink
I'm pretty impressed with our laminate. I grew up in a house with Corian and that's what I really wanted but we definitely couldn't swing it. One day we found laminate counters half off at home depot so we just went for it (I was so sick of the 40 year old decaying tile in the kitchen). The laminate is durable, cleans well, and looks pretty nice. I'll still probably go with some kind of rock counter in our next house (if I can afford it) but now I know laminate is an option I can live with.
No tips here. Just to say that this looks like a dream kitchen in the making with great quality materials, fittings and features. Your existing cabinetry is fantastic on its own as well. Happy creating a kitchen!
We've just done a new kitchen (actually a total renovation). I grew up working in my parent's Dairy Queen and learned the secret to polishing stainless steel as a child. I did a stainless steel and silky oak kitchen in my previous house, and then I remembered why I hated polishing stainless steel.... This time I used glass splashbacks. Love love love!!!
Glad you went with wood flooring. We chose terra cotta tile which is very hard wearing...but is absolutely hell on the feet, knees and back if you spend a lot of time standing at the counter to cook. So, we have rubber mats, which sort of ruins the effect.
Beautiful choices all around. I too love dark counter tops. I have a granite called Dakota Mahogany. If you went with granite this color would be fabulous. I do think the laminates are very nice looking and did consider one. The people that say the tile backsplash is tough to keep looking good are correct! I do suppose the texture and color would be important though. The type of range you have loos good with the stainless backsplash. Take a look at Ina Garten's barn kitchen. It was the house Beautiful kitchen of the year a couple of years ago and has the big Viking with an interesting shelf type backsplash. I'm loving the layout of the rooms in the flooorplan too!!!
In one of my homes, I had reddish wood cabinets with a blue countertop and it looked fabulous. You'll love it. Sounds like you're having fun.
I say tile for the backsplash behind the range. Or a single piece of laminate (to be replaced with granite). I have stainless appliances and they get really cruddy really fast, and I have tried at least four different stainless steel cleaning products and not found one that keeps it clean and non-streaky. I'd go crazy if my backsplash was stainless! I have granite countertops with a granite backsplash and the backsplash always looks great.
I think you are really smart to choose your spaces wisely and wait on the extra high end elements if you need to. Space that you have to live with is difficult to change, but the other stuff is much easier and can wait.
It looks like a great kitchen. I often wonder what it is like to live with stainless steel and lots of black. Stainless shows so many streaks and fingerprints. My mom has a new black stove and the backsplash is a nightmare to keep looking clean. Of course these things are popular, but does anyone who cooks ever dish of these things? Just wondering.
This process seems like such fun. We might be moving too and have been looking through house plans and estimates to see if we can afford to build "our home" now. We've found an amazing piece of land, but with that and the cost of building I don't see it happening yet. I just never quite find the perfect house for sale in the listings (at least not in our price range.)
BTW, I think I have that exact laminate in my kitchen.
I love your plans so far. I would advise to have an excellent exhaust fan over your range esp. since your kitchen is in the middle of the house. Our kitchen is only slight open to our living room and The Husband does a lot of cooking, our fan is inadequate. It leaves cooking odors and a film everywhere making cleaning more difficult. Because the kitchen is located in the center of the house where the ceiling is pitched it will be very expensive at this time to put in a new exhaust fan, better to do it in the planning stages.
I am impressed with the thoroughness of your planning! Just wanted to say that I am a fan of the laminate. Durable, less breakage of dishes, looks great. I feel a little mystified why every kitchen just has to have granite these days.
I'll echo the comments about putting a kick-ass fan above your stove. With an open floor plan, kitchen grime permeates everything unless you have a righteous fan sucking that nasty business out!
Your cabinets are absolutely stunning, and your choice of flooring is super cool- thank you for passing on the info about Jatoba being extra hard- that's really good to know.
I want the same faucet when we redo our kitchen- and the other thing we want to do is an in/under-counter reverse osmosis water filter, because why wash your salad with water you wouldn't drink? (But maybe that's just a US pollution problem...)
Friends of mine have Silestone countertops in the Rainforest color, and not only are they gorgeous, (the countertops, that is- although my friends are awfully cute, too) but they love them. Easy care, easy clean.
As to the stainless or ceramic behind the range, tile is easy to clean, but grout is AWFUL- (my entire kitchen is vintage 1930's tile) especially where any (staining) tomato sauce or blueberry jam or whatever yummy thing you're cooking may splash on it. Stainless is no picnic either, but at least it doesn't stain. Dark grout, anyone?
And congratulations- it is going to be a fabulous house!
Wow. Your house plan looks incredible.
This is an odd question, but would you mind saying what the waistband of the Loes Hinse Hepburns looks like? I'm considering getting the pattern, but I tend to be a tucker. I've looked at their website, but was wondering what the waist looks like on someone who, like me, has a bigger waist-hip difference.
Thanks.
Hi, I have dedicated a post to your site in my vintage collection:
http://look10.blogspot.com/2011/03/vintage-collection-page-20.html
AND
http://look10.blogspot.com/2010/02/vintage-collection-database.html
Hope you like.
Greetings
It is important to have a house plan for home security. You must place the appliances properly to avoid the short circuit. Install it at safe places to avoid unexpected accidents.
I admit that kitchen is my favorite part in our house. The reason why Mom keep that area clean because foods are prepared their. Well then I'd love renovate my favorite area by using such stuff like you had on your blog.
Your current cabinets are lovely. Your father-in-law did a lovely job.
Some granite counters emit radon.
http://wjllope.rice.edu/SaxumSubluceo/Stories/UniversalSlate_News.pdf
Your kitchen is amazing!
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