It's My Kitchen and I'll Cry If I Want To

I'm pretty sure at some point I promised some backstory on the evolution of the kitchen. Let's start with the cabinets. Funny story.

Well....now it's funny.

I originally wanted white beadboard cabinets with a subway tile backsplash...



via



...clean, yet cottage-y. After many weekend brunches at Home Depot, and a whole lot of back and forth between cabinet styles, colors, configurations, etc., I finally placed an order for Thomasville Ashton in Maple Pearl (white) and waited anxiously for them to arrive. Four weeks later, I excitedly tore open a box and saw........



$%&@!?



Thomasville Cottage. As in, NOT beadboard.



My binder of house things was at my office (it was a Saturday), so I made Husband drive me across town to pick it up so I could confirm that HD screwed up.

Until I opened the binder and realized I signed off on (you guessed it)...Cottage.

Cue meltdown of epic proportions.

Two hours of ugly crying later, we discussed our options. Even though I CLEARLY remembered telling my designer that I had decided on the Ashton, somehow Cottage ended up in the actual order (as I said, there was a lot of back and forth - I'm terribly indecisive). So we decided we could either pay restocking and shipping fees to send back the Cottage and get the Ashton (which Husband was graciously willing to do - I think my meltdown scared him a little), OR I could put on my big girl panties and deal with it.

We chose the latter.

So our new kitchen inspiration became this:

Keep the shaker-style cabinets, lose the subway tile and switch to beadboard backsplash
via

And also this:


Love the combination of open shelving with glass-front doors
via

The mistake ended up being a blessing (kinda). The beadboard backsplash was easier to install than individual subway tiles (not to mention easier on our budget), and we could still achieve the same look. Plus, I learned the importance of READING EVERYTHING A BILLION TIMES BEFORE SIGNING OFF ON IT.

So as a reminder, here is what we started with:

And here is the in-between:

Are we having fun yet???
*Note: Husband got sheets of unfinished beadboard paneling and trim from Lowe's,
then sanded and painted it to match the cabinets. 

Please excuse the quality of the photos. Seems I took 98% of our "progress" shots with my iPhone. In poor lighting.

Good news, though. We recently got what I like to call a "big-girl" camera (YAY!), so I'm going to refrain from posting cruddy pics for a few days while I learn how to use it, and then I'll share some fabulous almost-finished kitchen shots. :)

Happy Monday!

Kitchen Update: The Perfect Grey {Paint}

While designing the kitchen has been fun, it hasn't been without it's hiccups. There have been days when you couldn't pay me enough money step foot in Home Depot and the seemingly innocent question of "Hey, when are you going to pick a paint color for the kitchen?" was enough to send me into a downward spiral.

Deciding that I want a grey kitchen should have been be easy enough, right? WRONG. There are only hundreds (thousands?) of shades to choose from, and don't think for one second that what ends up on the wall is going to match what's on the paint chip. In short, paint stresses me out.

Over the course of a month, I purchased 12 different samples of grey paint and put them on the wall....convinced each time that THIS was the one.

I hated all of them.

One looked purple, one looked blue, one was too light, one was too dark, is that one even grey at all??? And on it went...



Does that stress out anyone else?

 I was convinced that the colors looked "off" because they were being painted on an yellowish-ivory wall, as opposed to a crisp white (although both Husband and a gentleman at Benjamin Moore assured me that was not the case).

Finally, Husband very sweetly said, "If you don't pick a paint color TODAY, I am picking it for you."

Well, when you say it like that.... :)

So off we went to Sherwin-Williams, picked two more colors and hoped for the best.

I'm actually quite surprised that Husband didn't immediately break out the champagne when I sent him this text:

Here's the swatch...

Sherwin Williams - Mineral Deposit

And here's what it looked like going on the wall (please excuse cruddy iPhone pic, it was all I had!)...

I LOVE it. In certain lighting, there are hints of blue - which is pretty much perfect, because our granite slab (unexpectedly) has some blues and greys running through it.

At the end of the day, it was definitely worth the stress (and countless quarts of paint) to find the "perfect" grey.

But I hope I never have to pick paint colors again. :)

Homemade Spice Jars

Can't wait to make these....




Adorable spice jars from Burgon and Ball

 
...to put here...



Yay for built-in spice racks!



Our Weekend...

....looked like this:



Fun with hammers

Making me nervous



What a difference!



Ok, to be fair - this isn't actually what MY weekend looked like. It's what Husband's weekend looked like. Our amazing dads were both in town to help knock out the porch (the previous owners had walled it in to make a sunroom, and we wanted to return it to its original state). I stayed at the condo with my mom, who helped me pack while we drank wine and watched Harry Potter weekend on ABC Family (packing is way less awful more fun with wine and Harry).

We are thrilled with how the porch looks so far. It was really important to us that, while renovating and updating, we kept the original structure and character of the house in tact. So we decided not to do anything crazy on the inside (like knocking out walls or building new ones), but we definitely wanted to showcase this great space. We are looking forward to many dinners out here! When it cools down, of course.

New view of the front

In other news, our granite is being installed in the kitchen tomorrow (insert happy dance here!!). I have been looking forward to this for months...ever since I exhausted the poor folks at ASA Granite in Trussville when I went to pick out my slab and made them rearrange my template a million times until I was happy with the exact layout of parts to be cut.

Yes, I am crazy. It's ok. I embrace it.

Meanwhile, here is the faucet we picked!

From Home Depot. I know, right?

It's exactly what I was looking for...I love the vintage look of the bridge style. Plus, it was WAY less expensive than similar styles from other places. And it got great reviews on Home Depot's website. So, I feel pretty good about it.

Can't wait to see how it all looks. I'll post pics soon!

Kitchen Update: The Sink

One of the first (and ultimately, easiest) decisions that we made regarding the kitchen was the sink. Early on in the "daydreaming and designing" process, I fell in love with farmhouse/apron-front sinks. The style seemed like the pefect fit for the overall look we wanted to achieve in the kitchen- classic and traditional, with modern convenience.

My inspiration:

*photo from www.bhg.com

*photo from www.myhomeideas.com

*photo from www.bhg.com

I love both white fireclay and stainless, but stainless ended up being more budget-friendly, so you can guess what we went with.

The only other detail to decide on was a single-bowl vs. a double-bowl. Most of the farmhouse sinks I had seen were single-bowl, but I was torn. I've never used our current double-sink as it is intended to be (wash in one side, dry in the other), so I was pretty sure I wouldn't mind the single (more room to pile dishes!). But what about a future buyer - would they prefer a double-bowl? Would that affect our re-sell? Why am I fretting so much over a SINK?

Finally, my mother-in-law gave me some great advice - "get a sink big enough to wash a dog and a baby in".

Mission accomplished. I was out of town when the sink arrived, so I texted Husband to see how it looked. His response: "HUGE".

Forget the dog or baby, I could take a bath in it.

Sink Stats:

• Vigo Stainless 33" Single-bowl (http://www.overstock.com/)
• Undermount
• 16-gauge

We have yet to order a faucet, but I'm going with a brushed nickel, bridge style facuet - similar to this:

*photo from www.housebeautiful.com

I'll let you know when I find one!

The Kitchen

Yesterday was spent scraping paint off of windows with a razor blade. It's exactly as much fun as it sounds.

Let's talk about something more exciting, yes? Like the kitchen!

Oh, the kitchen....what started out as the room I was MOST excited to re-do (also requiring the most work, planning, and therefore, $$$), has turned into the most stressful. Renovating a kitchen is a lot like planning a wedding...there are SO MANY OPTIONS. It can be quite overwhelming. Not to mention, our layout is a little tricky. Let me back up a bit...

When Husband first described the space to me, he said something about a shelf above the sink with a plate rack, no upper cabinets (translation: no storage) and a wall with a "serving window" to the breakfast nook. I was thoroughly confused. When I finally saw it in person, here is what I noticed...

There are definitely some pros - the hardwood floors, the large windows (tons of natural light!), and...yup, that just about covers it. The cons? Well, they are a little more numerous.

While the windows are great, they are oddly placed. We have two on either side of the sink (I don't know why it bugs me that the sink is in front of a wall and not a window, but it totally does)...

...and the third window is off-center on the adjacent wall, leaving little room (and an awkward layout) for upper cabinets (that part makes sense now!).

The dishwasher door can't be fully opened without running into the oven. The cabinets and counter are crooked (because the floor is crooked), and we are pretty sure the fridge has to go in the pantry (more on that later).

After a lot of discussion (and indecisiveness), we decided to gut the kitchen and start from scratch. It's not that the kitchen was in terrible shape - we had a lot of great stuff to work with; it just wasn't set up to be functional. And I want my kitchen to be both beautiful AND functional. Otherwise, what's the point? 

So far, we've painted, installed a new sink and cabinets, chosen the granite slab and ordered appliances. I'll cover those details in a separate post.

In the meantime, I'll leave you with one of my very favorite kitchens (and a major source of inspiration!)...



Yup, I could live with this! ;)
*photo from www.traditionalhome.com