Friday, June 24, 2011

The Kitchen Chronicles: Lay it out for me



Rip out has begun, the mess is only going to get worse before it gets better. But I am keeping my eyes on the prize, and that would be our fabulous new cabinets. As we've mentioned before, we settled on Martha Stewart cabinets from Home Depot. They combine everything we want: character, quality, and affordability. Really, we've heard nothing but rave reviews both online and in person so we are pretty happy with the decision so far. She has some great style and color options that perfectly capture that coastal vibe we adore, but in the end we played it fairly safe.

We eventually settled on the Ox Hill door style in Picket Fence. I was a little torn on color because some of her grays are lovely in person, but decided to think long term and go with white. Our doors will be a mix of single and triple panelled (both below) as well as mixing in some the other decorative elements like baseboards and special kickplates and a few corbels.



Originally I listed an island like the one below in my 'must have' list. I love that it isn't too heavy visually and still keeps the room feeling open. However we needed the storage, and our layout was still awkward trying to make that work.



About 1 am in the morning it hit me that our solution would be a peninsula. And once the designer set it out for us visually we both fell in love with the idea of it. It also affords us space to have an overhanging countertop for seating and nearly doubles the cabinet storage space we would've had with an island.









We want the kitchen to feel bright and airy so we have opted out of having upper cabinets anywhere. There will be some open shelving over the lower cabinet on the bottom right in the picture above for some extra interest.


You can see from this angle that we have some interesting challenges like furnace ventilation and second floor plumbing on the wall with the refridgerator but our designer did a fabulous job hiding that. It will appear to be a full wall of floor to ceiling pantry doors on either side of the fridge, but in reality some cabinets will be only 14 inches deep.


I wish I only had to wait patiently for the cabinets to arrive, but the reality is that the work is just beginning and the cabinets will be one of the final touches aside from the counters.


Things to still be decided upon?

- hanging pendants for the pensisula

- backsplash

- counter top material (we're leaning towards Quartz now)

30 comments:

Lynda @ Happenstance Home said...

Love your plans and the cabinetry looks beautiful!

claudia b said...

it's going to be awesome - i love the plan you have, can't wait to see how it turns out :D

Anonymous said...

Very much looking forward to seeing the final product. I absolutely love white or ivory subway tile backsplashes. They are so crisp, clean, classic, timeless, I could go on but I'll stop :)

needle and nest said...

I like that you opted out of upper cabinets. Sometimes they just make the room look smaller. I can't wait to see the finished kitchen!

Katie said...

I can't wait to hear your review of the MS cabinets. We're currently planning a kitchen remodel ourselves and are trying to decide between Kraftmaid (used them on our last remodel), Martha and Ikea. Ugh. Too many decisions!

catie said...

Definitely do a quartz or a solid surface! Even though granite is a little cheaper up front, you have to continue to get it sealed every 3-5 years. Quartz is bonded together, so you don't have to deal with that. The advantage of the quartz over the solid surface (like Corian) is the solid surface can scratch a little and it can melt/crack when you set a pot directly onto the surface. I do commercial design and I hate to put granite anywhere!

Emily said...

It's going to be beautiful!

P.S. I LOVE my quartz counter top. I highly recommend!

Rosa @ Flutter Flutter said...

Great idea! If you scroll through my blog posts you can see our kitchen reno. We kept our peninsula, LOVE IT, and extended it for seating too.

The enchanted home said...

EXCITING STUFF!!!!!!! Love your cabinet door and color...its going to be sensational! This is the fun part!! Cannot wait to hear and see more.

Sixty-Fifth Avenue said...

The plans look great! My parents have a peninsula and we sit there all the time. Great idea. And the cabinet doors are fabulous.

The White City Project said...

Ooooh, I think the penninsula is a great solution! And down the road a great place for homework and crafts :) I love the new layout, can't wait to see more progress.

Laura said...

We just had our quartz counters installed and LOVE them!!!

Your kitchen is going to look so gorgeous - love the layout and the cabinetry!

laxsupermom said...

Love the door you chose, and the paint color is just lovely! I'm a little concerned about the layout, though. While I love peninsulas(and have one in the kitchen we just reno-ed,) are you sure there's enough space to stand at the sink, and load the dw? With the door open you'll have to slide into the cook or turn and fall over the open door. This plan looks like a one butt kitchen, whereas an island plan could be a 2 butt kitchen with prep/cook zone separate from cleanup zone. Now it could be that you like to be solo in the kitchen, and none of these concerns are valid, but I just thought it was worth airing. Sorry to be a Debbie Downer, because I really do love the aesthetic choices.

Jo said...

I love the colour and design of your cabinets! You're going to have a lovely kitchen. Have you thought of concrete counter tops? My friend remodeled her house and did concrete in her kitchen. They are gorgeous...the perfect blend of modern and farmhouse. (she lives in Sherwood Park, so if you're interested, I could get the number of the company for you).

Robyn said...

Wisdom for you this morning if you hang plastic over the door openings to the other parts of your home also hang an old damp sheet it acts as a magnet for the dust! Helps immensely! Plans are looking great! Since moving from our home with the kitchen that we renovated the thing I miss the most....my warming drawer!

Martine said...

I am working on my kitchen as well, so I am watching yours carefully to get ideas! I can't wait to see it done.

Unknown said...

Post some of those terrible rip out photos! It's always so amazing to see the stuff coming out!

m said...

wow holly...looks fantastic! such a huge change from the before photos. looking forward to hearing all about your progress.

Fiona, Lilyfield Life said...

hi - i have a peninsula bench and i love it. check it out. i also have cesaerstone bench tops and love them.
http://lilyfieldlife.blogspot.com/2011/02/our-kitchen-renovations.html
cheers Fiona

Veronica said...

So exciting we are literally emptying our kitchen right now as well for a tear out on Tuesday.

Can't wait!

Haley {A Dash of Kennedy} said...

Love the layout! Can't wait to see it come together!

KellyMellyBoBellyBananaFanna said...

i think martha stewart has excellent choices in cabinetry for the money. we'll probably go with them next time...

Anna said...

Could you post any links you have into the research you did for your martha stewart kitchen.

Thanks

Erin Southwell said...

Hey Holly!

Everything is going to come together beautifully! I'm not surprised you went with the MS cabs, I have been admiring them for awhile and my mom is doing "fortune cookie" (her yellow cream) in her kitchen redo. The tri-panel doors are my favorite of hers-love that sharkey grey too. We are closing on a beach cottage tomorrow and I chose all of our interior paint colors from the MS Home Depot line. Just finished painting an old 9 drawer trunk "Mimosa" to use as a coffee table. It's a sunshine yellow-bright!-the most daring I have been with color in a very long time.

Hope you are having fun with it!

Carrie said...

Love those Martha colors! I've been trying to decide between Picket Fence and Sharkey Grey for a piece of her craft room furniture from the Home Decorators catalog. Can't wait to see more!

Lovely Little Nest said...

Can't wait to see the kitchen progress! You've left us all with bated breath! :)

katrina said...

oh oh oh i am so jealous. it sounds incredible. i love that you are keeping it open and not having upper cabinets. i cant wait to see it all done!

fernanda said...

where have you been!!!!?!?!? are you ok?? i hope so...i miss your post

Erica said...

I love the plan you have, can't wait to see how it turns out!

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Joseph P. said...

I have a butcher block island right now but want to increase the size. I'll be anxiously waiting to see how your project turns out as I've been looking at the ikea butcher block too. Thanks for the great tutorial.


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