The Kitchen

I think we've finally nailed down our kitchen design.

We both liked the kitchen in the existing house.  It was by no means "gourmet" or special really in any way.  It was pretty standard, medium sized with an average level of finish, but we both liked the amount of cabinet and counter space and the overall u shaped design layout, the staggered 36 and 42 inch upper cabinets and I in particular loved the look the light floor tile, cherry cabinets and black granite and thought that they played off of each other really well.

 One of the things that was initially changed when the architect re-imagined the plans was the layout of the kitchen.  The architect initially suggested that we spin the island 90 degrees so that the counter overhang was facing the family room instead of the refrigerator.  I was completely on board with that change, because it addressed my one complaint with the existing house's kitchen.  The architect also suggested that we move the sink to the corner and add in a 2nd window.   We both loved the idea of having a 2nd window, however we weren't in love with the corner sink idea.  We didn't like the fact that it remove some of our upper cabinet space and overall we thought that it would look a little janky, so we vetoed that change and decided to keep the layout essentially the same.

Our builder uses a local custom cabinet shop instead of providing off the rack stock cabinets (yay) so, armed with a good idea of the basic layout, Theresa took a visit to our cabinet shop to investigate any additional options  we might want.   We decided to go with a few upgraded options, like deeper corner cabinets, soft closing drawers, deeper cabinets above the refrigerator space and a mircowave shelf, a few frosted glass doors.  It all added up to a few hundred $$, but we feel it's worth it.

 We were still unsure about our appliance choices however.  We knew we were doing a stainless steel look, and we definitely want a range hood instead of an over the range microwave, but we weren't sure if we wanted to do a built in oven + cooktop, or go with a traditional standalone range.   We loved the integrated look of built ins, but our kitchen layout didn't really lend itself to them.  We kicked around a few ideas, but in the end we decided to do a36 inch free standing range.  36 inch is a rare range size and generally comes with a higher price tag.  We a have a few options well within our budget, but Theresa also has a friend who can possibly get us a good deal on a little higher end model, so we'll see how that shakes out.

Finding the door style was easy.  We knew we wanted to do a contemporary kitchen with sleek clean lines and our  cabinet shop seems to do mostly more traditional stuff, so they only really had 2 or 3 door styles that could be considered "modern" and we agreed on a basic framed flat panel door right away.

That left us with overall color scheme... as I mentioned, I really loved the color scheme in the existing house and initially I just wanted to copy the light floor, cherry cabinets and black granite scheme.  However, Theresa eventually convinced me that doing continuous wood flooring instead breaking up the flow of the house by transitioning into tile for the kitchen and casual dining area would be a better option so all of that tile we loved so much was suddenly out (we later found a home for some of it in the laundry room and mud room) We're going with a stain a little on the darker side for our flooring, so after we decided to with with wood, the black granite was simply too much "dark" and had to go (very sad for me, very happy for Theresa... she did not share my granite enthusiasm) We still considered the cherry cabinets, but we didn't feel they looked quite right our color of wood floor either, so after examining 100's of pictures of "contemporary" or "modern" kitchen's online, and another trip to the cabinet shop we decided on an "expresso" finish.  In all honesty, it's a very weird stain.  It's very dark, most of the time it looks almost black, but depending on what angle you're looking at, how close you are or how the light is hitting it, it can appear to be a deep brown, or even have a strong hint of red in it.  I'm honestly not sure I'm in love with it, but Theresa ***really*** likes it which is surprising because it's pretty masculine.  But I definitely don't have a better idea, and it is definitely "modern", so I'm willing to roll with it.

With dark(ish) floors and dark cabinets, we're going to need a lighter counter top.  Granite is included so no worries there, but with granite being a natural product, we really won't know what's available to us until we get ready to actually install it.  But we're trying to decide as much of this stuff in advance as we can so we're not deciding under pressure later, so we wanted to get at least a general idea of what were looking for.  I *really* wanted the black granite, and despite how many pieces giving it up breaks my fragile little heart into, I'm forced to admit that with all of the other "dark" materials we're using, dark granite just doesn't work.  So, when the time comes, we're hoping to find a light grey slab that has some darker flecks in it, we think that will look pretty great.

One quick note about the sink.  From my experience renovating in a kitchen in a previous house, I fell in love with granite or quartz composite sinks.  I'm convinced they are the greatest thing since pants with pockets.  They're durable, easy to clean, *never* look dirty and are absolutely gorgeous.  We were able to get a credit for the stainless steel sink that the builder was going to provide written into the contract on the condition that we purchase and provide the sink ourselves, so that knocked $200 off the purchase price.  We did some quick online research and found a quartz composite sink that looks like it will be perfect, and Theresa has another friend who can get us a pretty decent discount on that, so it's only costing us $250 making our total "sink upgrade" price a mere $50, a bargain at twice (or maybe even 5 times) the price!   (I'm very excited about this sink...)

That leaves our backsplash.   Unfortunately, the builder does not provide an allowance for any type of backsplash beyond what is built into the granite counters, we we'll tackle that after we close.  No hurry, we don't even know what we'd want to do there.   I will probably come back and add under cabinet lighting at some point as well, although I may have the electrician do some pre-wiring for me while we have the studs exposed.

Overall we're pretty much hoping to end up with something very close to this in terms of color scheme and overall aesthetic, even the paint color should be similar!