BEFORE

 AFTER

We added some color to the windows, the fabric and pattern as well

as the color gives so much more interest and warmth to the kitchen.

I moved the magazine organizers to the office and brought it a few family photos

 and some of my favorite decorating books.  

The tin pails hold business cards that I reference often and a few small office supplies.  

The clutter is gone and I can now easily access what I need. 

When we bought our house, we knew we wanted a big open kitchen.  We originally had our architect draw some plans up with the kitchen in a different spot in the house. This plan called for a large formal dining room in the front of the house (now the casual living room).  We had a change of heart and decided we wanted the kitchen to be right smack dab in the middle of the house, the heart of the home, and we decided to do away with the large formal dining room.  Our architect went back to the drawing board and came back with a new floor plan that we fell in love with.

The kitchen is approximately 14' x 28' and the dining area is 10' x 10'.  Since the rooms are completely open to each other, the entire space is just shy of 500 square feet.


The island is 39"x113" and comfortably seats six and seven would not be out of the question.  The granite is called Delicatus White.  We were fortunate to find a slab that was big enough for the island.


The cabinets are inset and were custom made by Steve Cline of Woodwork Design.  We got quite a few bids on stock cabinetry when we were planning our kitchen and surprisingly, custom cabinetry was not too far out of line with our other bids.  If your budget will allow for custom cabinets, I say go for it.  You have so much more flexibility with custom cabinetry.  I would show Steve a picture of a cabinet detail  I liked, and he would replicate it.  I loved being able to be involved in the cabinet design process.

Here are a few of the details that help make the kitchen unique.









Here are some tips to help keep your cost down when doing a complete kitchen renovation.

1)  E-bay: I purchased our Shaw apron front sink, our Rohl bridge faucet and our Restoration Hardware dining room lights from e-bay. I actually purchased almost all of the lighting in our house from e-bay.

2)  Appliances: The Jenn-air double oven, the Asko dishwasher and the Sub-Zero refrigerator were all floor models from a big appliance warehouse.  Way back in the back of most appliance stores are the scratch and dents and the floor models that are deeply discounted.  Always check there first.  This saved us a lot of money!

3)  Internet: Always check prices on-line.  The Jenn-air professional style six burner gas stove was ordered on-line from www.us-appliance.com.  It was $300 cheaper than anywhere else and it was delivered to our front door with no shipping cost.

4)  Overstock warehouses:  We happen to have a Home Emporium in Cincinnati.  It is full of buyouts and overstocked home improvement and home decor items.  I happened to be walking through there one day during our renovation and I came upon two Pella single exterior french doors (For $139 each!).  I quickly purchased them both, took them home and told my contractor we would have to find a way to make them work.  Fortunately, we were able to use one in the kitchen and one in the family room.  I did have to buy the door hardware since they didn't come with any, but it still came to a total of only $280/door.  We had Pella come out and give us a bid for the same door for our mudroom and it was going to be $1,400.  Needless to say, we went with something else.

I hope this was helpful.  Be sure to check back tomorrow.  I am going to be doing a blog swap with Erin from Richmond Thrifter.  You will love her.