Hello, Gorgeous!
Tuesday, September 13, 2011 at 4:19PM Oh, what? You thought you'd never hear from me again? Well, it turns out the kitchen remodel took a little longer than expected (three months), and if you can't cook on a food blog, what's the point. Does that mean I'll blog with regularity again? No promises there, but I've definitely had requests to post pictures of our 99.5% complete kitchen, so here it goes.
First off, i would definitely recommend you check out this post before reading any further. You definitely need a reminder of how gross our kitchen started compared to how it looks today.
Okay, did you check? Because really, you need the reminder. Here's that link again.
Alright, now I trust you remember the crappy laminate covered by crappy ikea flooring. and the ugly cabinets. and the sink to the left of the window. Are you dying of anticipation? Good! Behold, heavenly kitchen:
Not too shabby, right? I'm really happy with the way everything turned out. I of course have a few wishes, and we ran into a few issues along the way but damn, that looks magazine worthy... well maybe if we didn't cook so we didn't have so much stuff on our countertops.
Things that had to chang/things that will change/things I wish were different:
- The floors. It was sad sad day when we realized the white stained floors weren't going to cut it. The beautiful greyish color and all the character went to hell when the poly cured and turned yellow. Now don't get me wrong, I like yellow. But not on floors that are meant to be white/grey. And not the color yellow that immediately makes you think about urine. Yeah. Sorry guys. So the floors have been painted white and hot damn, white they are. Guess what! That means everything shows up on them. This also means I clean the floors 3 times a week, so that can't be a bad thing, right? I tried to find a good solution to the cleaning, starting first with a Shark steamer (you can read my review of that piece of shit here) and now with the Bona system recommended by my mom. Is it perfect? No. Does it work better than anything aside from scrubbing the floors on your hands and knees? So far, yes. And if you think I'm EVER going to clean this floors on hands and knees you are SORELY mistaken my friend. Maybe if we'd found a more natural/water based poly for the stained wood they would been okay, but as far as I'm concerned, that route is not for me. And hopefully, since the floors ARE made of hard (well soft) wood (pine) they'll shift and give me a little more of that rustic look we were going for. They'll definitely get grooves in them as they wear, and I'm totally okay with that. Groves = character as far as i'm concerned.
- The shelves. I love the open shelving we went with. I think it keeps the space nice and open, and we do have lots of pretty things to go on the shelves. But also, some not so pretty things, or things that don't match. Now on my list of things to buy are water glasses, about 500 new pieces of pyrex, fiesta and le cruset (okay, not quite that many, but more... that match). I also envisioned them being darker (reclaimed?) but cost was starting to become an issue so we went with raw bitch (real birch, not ikea birch). I think that with time they'll darken a bit, but i might also like to stain them one day. We'll see!
- The Laundry station. Totally temporary... and by temporary I mean i will probably stay that way for 10 years. I'd like to replace that 110 year old drafty window with one at the same height as the sink window, so we can put the washer and dryer side by side and enclose them. Imperative? Definitely not. Right now the clothes on the station are what's holding up that vintage table cloth (which is hiding our recycling). We obviously need a more permanent solution for that in the meantime.
- The counter height stools. West elm has our stools on backorder until Mid october (jerks!) but they're pretty. (The ones with backs. As far as kyle is concerned, a stool is not a seat unless it has a back. He clearly doesn't have the perfect posture I do from 13 years of Violin playing)
Oh, look. The design of those kitchens are QUITE! reminiscent of ours. Obviously I should be an interior designer. I'm sure they're lots of room for that in a down economy, right? The stools we have in place now are from ikeas "as is" section (30% off, already assembled!) and I figure they'll be helpful when we have people over and are all hanging out in the kitchen.
- The light fixture. It's exactly what I wanted but because of weird wiring (thank you 115+ year old house) we can't JUST turn the light fixture above the sink on. Which means all the recessed lights are on when it is, and the pretty edison light bulb isn't a focal point. Whatevs.
- Spice racks. Right now our spices are either hidden or hanging out by the open pantry. Left of the fridge there is wall space waiting for me to hang spice racks I got from ikea. I plan to "hack" them a bit, because I don't really like the dowl
Things I couldn't be more happy about:
- Ikea cabinets. Way cheaper than pretty much any box cabinets, and they definitely have great functional abilities. We need to rearrange the interior some of them so we can put a garbage can and compost bin inside, rather than having it in the far corner of the room (very convenient).
- Bowling lane countertops. They are SO PRETTY! And easy to clean. We did decide we're not going to cut on them (!) because they're just too pretty. we have some rements in the garage that will eventually turn into nice butcherblock cutting boards for use on the concrete countertops, but for now, that bamboo one, and our many mini ones do the trick just fine.
- Concrete countertop. Also: GORGEOUS! adds a slight industrial edge to the room without being too grimy. Also, super easy to clean
- The sink. Also ikea. lovely, functional and seemly far more expensive than it was
- The faucet. am i a lame ass or what? I wanted to stick to chrome for a more 'authentic' look, but EVERYTHING is brushed nickle these days. I'm sorry, but i'm not 50 and i don't live in the suburbs. BRING ON THE CHROME! the head of the faucet pulls down and functions as the sink sprayer too. Huzzah!
- Subway tile. I love it, and that's all you need to know
- The drawerpulls, $4 a piece. I searched and searched for vintage drawer pulls, but found nothing the style i wanted, or enough of the same style.
I obviously have plenty of work to do regarding decorating, window treatments and organization, but what do you think? Is it your dream kitchen? What would you have done differently?
Reader Comments (13)
Why is the washing machine in the kitchen? But anyways, the kitchen looks so simple and tidy. The white paint just makes this kitchen really appealing and the kitchen appliances from the fridge down to the oven, it's amazing!
Can' wait to see it in person! <3
Count me as jealous - looks amazing!
@Halley - The washer and dryer are in the kitchen for a few reasons. a) We didn't realize it when purchased, but they don't fit down the basement stairs. We could have returned them and gotten standard old school washer and dryer but seeing as b) our basement is something out of your worst nightmare mixed with the scariest horror movie you've ever seen, we found the opportunity to NOT go down there just fine by us. c) Many European homes have their washer in the kitchen (and few have a dryer). And we are nothing if not embracing of the european life style ;)
kate - looooove your new kitchen! i think you should host the twist & pin party in there, perhaps??
btw, i'm all for the washing machine situation and immediately thought of our friends in France who have a similar set up (though sans dryer). besides, how often do you find yourself with something bubbling on the stove top and a load of laundry that needs to come out? might as well make life simple!
now, where did you get the light and the hardware. moving next week myself and need to know sources for good stuff! ;)
xo
@ Tracy
Thanks for all you sweet words (as always!)
The pulls came from here: http://www.knobsandhardware.com/pulls/852-heavy-zinc-cup-pull-vintage-collection_5056328.html (those are the exact pulls we bought)
And the light fixture is West Elm. I have a love hate relationship with them. Hate because they're expensive and RARELY offer free shipping (c'mon!). Love because.... well... pretty things!
Wow...you guys did an amazing job. I checked out the before pictures on your blog and must say Fantastic new look. I love the bowling alley counters and the concrete island top. Of course I'm in the counter top business so my opinion is a little biased but nonetheless...stunning. Thanks for sharing.
Love your new kitchen! You said the sink and cabinets are from IKEA, but can you supply sources for the rest (light fixture, counter tops both bowling lane & concrete, and $4 drawer pulls), please?
Love your work with Heavy Table, too. :-)
Your post says "bitch" instead of "birch" in one place :) I liked it though hehehe. Love the new kitchen....it really looks great!
That dome lighting looks wonderful, I'm sure that it gives out a wonderful glow. Thanks.
You kitchen appliance are really up to date and very modern, I love them a lot.
Hi ... Are you getting any Tannin bleed through your white floors ... I primed and painted the same pine floors you have and the tannin from knots is bleeding through :(
I'm so glad that I'm not the only one whose cat insists on being in all of my photos. What a great cat tail.