Speckled Hens: Kitchen {Remodel}

So since last September, we've been renovating the new {old} house...starting with the kitchen. It's been a long road, with lots of ups and downs, but its been worth it. We found several things out once we opened up the walls and ended up replacing or moving more than originally planned, but now at least we know it's been done right.

Kitchen {Before}

I know, I know...You're thinking that looked pretty nice! We thought so too when we saw these MLS pictures...but you didn't get the same feeling when you saw it in person! They had taken a galley shaped kitchen and remodeled it sometime in the 80's/90's. We think there had been a kitchen fire because we discovered singed rafters. The window as actually too large for the space, and not centered on anything. The refrigerator and oven was hanging out in the middle of nowhere, the appliances and most of the cabinets had seen better days. They had done a quick paint job on everything to stage the house to sell.

We took the wall out that separated the kitchen from the formal dining room. You can see the transition by the change in flooring...that's where the wall was. But woo-hoo! The beginning of the open floor plan!

Yep, up to the rafters...not gonna lie...I was starting to panic right about here! Most of our friends thought we were crazy at this point. And this is what it looked like through Christmas. Needless to say, we didn't have a tree. But we DID have a Christmas mouse...or a few. We never had a mouse problem where we lived before. It was dairy country so everyone had cats...up here, no cats because of coyotes, which apparently don't eat mice. So on Christmas morning on my way to the temporarily-placed-refrigerator to get milk for my coffee (which was now stationed on a plank of wood, in what was supposed to be the family room...{blow off the dust before pouring}...) was a poor little mouse stuck to the trap...bye-bye little mouse...Merry Christmas...yuck!

The cabinets were removed, along with the large windows and most of the drywall. We had to trench the slab to move the plumbing for the sink to go in the island.

If I didn't mention the dust factor before...let me mention it now! Everything...and I mean EVERYTHING was covered in either cement dust or drywall dust and the attic had that paper pulp blown in insulation so there were pieces of that EVERYWHERE. This is why I didn't unpack anything, but it didn't really matter...even my shoes all the way down the hall were coated in drywall dust. In hindsight, I'm not sure if I'd ever live in a house while doing this large a reno again...but if you decide to...God be with you. We ate out for months!

Finally I was able to start to see things come together. New casement windows, drywall and the start of the custom cabinetry. The pressure was on to find counter tops and backsplash.

We chose a light granite this time and I love it. Marble or quartz just wasn't in the budget for the amount of counter tops we needed, so this was the next best thing.

The back splash tile took forever to come in because of the dock strike. We went with a tumbled marble subway tile in crema marfil and then a combination of honed and polished stack for the inset. (My palm branch from Palm Sunday...I was having decorating withdrawals!) And yes, we were approaching Easter by now...but there were lots of other things going on at the same time, so it normally wouldn't have taken this long just for a kitchen. Since the family room, formal dining, living room, hallway, laundry & powder room all kind of connect to the kitchen now, there was renovation going on in those spaces, as well.

We opted to paint the cabinetry...for cost reasons and because I just like painted cabinets better! I absolutely love the color. It's not really tan and not really grey.

We had the island painted a pretty french blue and although there was much dilemma as to the color choice, I love it.,,so much in fact that we painted the pantry door and laundry door the same color.

The finished product. {swoon} I love all the drawers and counter space. I made the little pinch pleat valances out of a pretty fabric from the French General. I was hesitant on the crank out casement windows because it meant that the screens would be on the inside, but I love them. You don't even notice the screens because they're such a fine weave.

The side cabinetry with plate rack and double oven (guess I have to cook now!). The glass front cabinets have bubble glass in them to match the bubble glass in the island lights.

The pocket door to the laundry room. We used an obscure glass with a ribbed texture.

Love it!

I've never had a big pantry. This one is glorious! It has lots of storage - perfect for all my Virgo-organizing-tendencies. It's hard to tell from the picture, but it's finished in ship lap that wraps around to the formal dining room wall. And let's not forget the barn door!