Creating Our Own Dream Kitchen

We have renovated many kitchens over the years - everything from minor updates (new hardware & appliances) to major gut jobs.  And we've always done them with an eye for resale, trying to balance our needs and desires with what a later buyer might want.  But for this house, we decided to focus on us.  We probably won't live in this house forever - but we wanted to design it with just our needs in mind.

So, I wanted to do a custom kitchen with custom cabinets.  For years, I've lusted over inset cabinet doors - but could never justify the cost.   So instead, we had always gone with semi-custom cabinetry in our own remodels. But this wasn't a giant kitchen and this seemed like a great approach for our new house.

But first a quick lesson on cabinet door styles.  The least expensive cabinets (and a traditional style found in many older homes) is a standard overlay.  It has a door or drawer that partially covers the cabinet.  That means that the cabinet has a frame on it, which shows around the edges of the door and drawer.












Full overlay (sometimes called European) is put on a frameless cabinet and the door covers the entire cabinet.  This is much more popular and gives you the maximum amount of access to the cabinet space behind it - because there is no frame to get in the way and the hinges are mounted at the very edge of the cabinet.  It also provides a more seamless, cohesive look.



Inset cabinets are custom made and fit inside the cabinet frame.  There is no room for error, they need to be perfectly square and fit exactly.  Because of this, they are also more expensive.  And in my mind, they have a more traditional style, particularly suited to a New England home.

If you're going with inset cabinets, you need a very good cabinet maker.  I wanted ours to be made by Cook & Cook Cabinetry.  They are a small, family owned business in Scarborough Maine.  We made an appointment with them and fell in love with their approach and process, as we toured their cabinet making shop.  We were ready to sign on the dotted line, when we discovered they were so booked with other jobs, we would have to wait several months for our cabinets - putting our whole construction schedule in serious jeopardy.

So, while I was extremely disappointed, there was also a bright spot.  They had introduced us to Robin Amorello, owner of Atmoscaper Design.  Robin is a top notch kitchen designer and has become a good friend.  The first time we met Robin, I brought along my dog eared folder of magazine clippings. I pulled out my favorite kitchen - and discovered it was a kitchen she had designed!!  How cool is that???  She had a client that wanted a kitchen that looked like the one in the movie 'Something's Gotta Give'.  And the photo below was what she came up with.  Isn't it a gorgeous kitchen?  We used it as the inspiration for our kitchen - but on a much smaller scale! (want to see what the 'Something's Gotta Give' house looked like in the movie?  Hooked on Houses did a great post about it with lots of photos!)

Photo:  Atmoscaper Design

We made an appointment, sat down with Robin and our blueprints, and got to work.  We wanted a big island, with plenty of room for working, as well as seating to chat with the chef (that would be Richard - he's a much better cook than I am).  We wanted a 'hutch' to provide attractive storage as well as have a furniture look, reminiscent of old style kitchens and similar to the one in the photo above.  And we have a lot of cookbooks, so some bookshelves would be great.  We have a big stove (seriously, when you have a husband that loves to cook, he can have any kind of stove he wants), so I wanted a display area above it, to try and hide the giant exhaust fan.  And finally, I hate the look of microwaves, so we needed to try and find a place to hide it.

We sketched out a couple of ideas and then Robin came back with two options.  The house was just getting started at that point (only a few exterior walls were up), but we laid out two by fours and did a mock up of the island with sawhorses - much to the neighbor's entertainment!!!  And we finally settled on this design.  

The back wall has the hutch (including glass cabinet doors) and a big farmers sink under the windows.  The dishwasher will be hidden behind a wood panel, to the left of the sink. The hutch will feature glass doors, shelves and a bead board interior.

  

The side wall has the range, the refrigerator and the door to the pantry. We are also going to include small awning windows between the counter and the upper cabinets.  This is something we had done on a house when we lived in Phoenix and loved how it brought daylight onto the countertops (and they provide some nice ventilation as well).  We included big drawers - we love them for pots and pans!  And we'll disguise the vent hood with a mantle style wooden hood, that gives me lots of room for decorative pieces.  Finally, we had room for a small pantry to the right of the refrigerator.

We played with different ideas for the island and settled on this approach.  We loved the curved edge for the butcher block top - and wanted to make it big enough to seat four.   And since the butcher block would be 42 inches tall,  it gave us the extra bonus of providing a taller spot to hide the microwave - with a lot less bending over to use it (see elevation B below)!  The back of the island will be covered in bead board (which can be easily painted, since it will inevitably get scuffed from people sitting there).  We also included a small prep sink, roll out trash/recycling cans and a bookcase (elevation D) for our cookbooks - even though they are becoming obsolete as we start using an iPad instead!  Robin was great to work with throughout the whole process, she helped us find another cabinetmaker and we got everything ordered.

For the backsplash, I wanted to use white subway tile - but dress it up a bit with this Walker Zanger recycled glass and marble mosaic.  Since our house is close to the beach, I wanted to use colors and textures that blended with the beach - shimmery and sandy.  I included some iridescent glass bars from Oceanside Glasstile to heighten the effect.  

For the island, our contractor planned to make a custom cherry butcher block top, including the beautiful curved edge.  And we wanted black granite for the rest of the counters - that will imitate soapstone, with much less maintenance.

Does it look like the kitchen from 'Something's Gotta Give'?  Well there are probably some similarities.   But when we get it done, it will be all ours!

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Kitchen(s) Update!

The kitchen in each unit is coming together quickly.

Remember the plan for the Tenant's kitchen?

Well the guys made great progress last week and it's looking good.  We used Martha Stewart's Maidstone cabinets in Heavy Cream.  I love the Shaker style door and the warm off-white finish.  We're complimenting them with a new paint color we haven't tried before - Netsuke, from Sherwin Williams #6134.

I especially like the stove and peninsula wall.  It's going to work really well for Kyle & Sam.  A cooking station with a couple of stools to pull up and watch the chef!

Dining Room View to Kitchen - Before

Best of all, I like how removing the walls from the dining room and hallway have linked the rooms and made it feel so much more spacious.  Now the kitchen feels like it's integrated with the rest of the living area.  

View of kitchen from Dining Room

Tenants Unit - Sink and Window Wall

The Owner's Kitchen is also moving right along.  The only challenge?  The cabinet over the refrigerator arrived damaged.  But they  will replace it and we're just waiting for it to arrive.

This kitchen has a slightly different floor plan, since we removed the wall to the dining room to give the living spaces better flow.

I always love how the guys do the crown moulding.  It adds such a beautiful touch to the room.  This cabinet will create a built in furniture look, with glass doors and a lighted interior.  Oh, and see how they were able to reuse the antique rosettes around the new door and window trim?

It gets dark early this time of year!

But of course installing the doors is a critical step - they make such a difference!

The next step is to make the template for the new quartz countertops.  It's all done with a laser, for a perfect, precision fit.  

We are using a quartz countertop for both kitchens.  I love the combination of colors and quartz elements in this pattern.  It gives it a unique 'texture', without overpowering the room.  They are made with 93% quartz - which is stronger than iron or titanium!!  They can handle temperatures up to 360 degrees and require no sealers or maintenance.  And they're made in the USA!

Quartz Countertop - Solar Canyon

It will be two weeks before the counter tops are ready.  Then it's time to install the tile, sink and open shelving.  So still lots to do, but it's looking good, don't you think?

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Kitchen Planning - Contemporary Cottage Style

We are putting the final touches on the placement of a few cabinets for the new kitchen and will be able to share the floor plan soon.  But we're getting pretty excited about the different design elements.  We want to go with cottage style, but give it a contemporary twist.  So we're throwing in some glass tile, industrial style pendants, faucet, and a chimney style hood over the stove.  Colors are dictated by the glass tile - light khaki, pale sea glass blue and a smoky gray.

What do you think?

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