kitchen elements

If you remember our first post regarding all things plans from the money pit series, you remember the main living area. Due to my propensity for ridiculous names, I’ve now decided that it shall henceforth be known as  ‘The Great Room’. It’s a lot more suitable/easier than main living area/living room/kitchen space.

Don’t worry – the fact that I like to name things sounds totally self important isn’t lost on me, but I’m labeling it now because I can’t help myself there’s a lot going on. Kind of like determining your kiddos names before they’re born. {She shall not be called Emmy by anyone but us. She shall be called Emerson.} And she has been. So far. She likes Emerson. I feel oh so triumphant in this aspect. It probably won’t stick, but I’m trying anyway.

Here’s a few shots of the before when the house had walls {and a ceiling}:

As you can see, the kitchen hadn’t seen a makeover since about oh… 1985. Probably.

It’s funny how when you take on a project like this, you obsess over all things that-specific-design. You study it endlessly. In this case, it’s the kitchen. And so today we wanted to share a little of what we’ve pieced together, as far as the main elements are concerned.

And here it is now… that the dust has settled.

We removed the walls, and raised the ceiling with a false vault for support all the way down… tada! No additional support needed. And here we are with a blank slate. Ready to go.

We’ve slowed to a creep with all things construction, and I hope to bring you a fresh update later this week. Since this photo was taken, subfloors have been reinforced, and all the wiring has been installed. We’re still waiting on {you guessed it!} septic. Or technically a land survey so that they can get to the septic. Which affects our plumbing and drywall. Which I’ll cover later. Just know we’ve been waiting for five weeks and I’ve officially broken out into hives.

I hate septic systems.

Things have changed a bit in lieu of layout plans since the last post we shared regarding all things main living area / the great room. Don’t you just love how things seem to evolve over time? We learned a lot more about the flow of the space, once those walls came down. For instance, even though we measured, this room is nearly a perfect square. I was planning rectangularly, and we have a bit more wiggle room than I initially thought.

The initial layout a-la a quick mockup via me:

And the new look we hope to end up with – it’s changed a little since our last post about this level:

But in the meantime, I’m thrilled to bring a few of the basic design elements to light today for the kitchen/eat in area… to share a few of the pieces we’ll be filling in. Please bear with us while we go completely out of order…

 

We’ve been spending all our time and energy on doing it right from the studs up. Basically, the really important stuff that you can’t really see. So it’s exciting to start to bring all our ideas into the space for the look of the kitchen area. Since you can see it front and center in the great room, it kind of sets the tone for the entire home. If you’re used to our color, don’t worry… you’ll see plenty of it. I’m not sure that this board gives what we’re going to do, justice. But it’s a good start on the basic idea, just the same. So without further ado, {as usual, going out of order…} the elements we’re bringing into our kitchen space.

10. + 11. Building Materials + Paint color 

This one should probably come first since it pretty much sets the tone for the entire space.

As mentioned earlier, we plan to have hardwoods throughout the main and upper levels of the house. With the exception of the basement addition, of course. These have a beautiful grey undertone and we’ll be sharing more on why we chose pre-finished [still solid wood] floors soon. We won’t be covering the fireplace today – more on that and the living area of the great room, soon to come.

The paint colors will be HGTV HOME with Sherwin – Williams PURE WHITE {HGSW4006}: trim + ceiling with a subtle addition of NEBULOUS WHITE {HGSW4057} for the walls {it reads as a nice grey white and makes our trim and ceiling pop. We have so much going on in the space, we want to keep wall colors muted and bring in color with accents that can change out easily over time.

Ceiling beams We’re thrilled to wrap our supportive LVL beam with some beautiful accent beams that will run both the length and sides {in a set of three with cross beams} in the room. It should add some major character to the space. The ceiling will be shiplap. {Remember Upstairs, we have blue wainscoting/bead board planned for the bedrooms}

3. Cabinets

I realized, in researching everything that I wanted, that this was my first chance to do a real live forever big girl kitchen. I had a big girl kitchen before, don’t get me wrong. But I didn’t pick anything, and just altered it from there. This is truly from the studs up. We’re finding the sources, and piecing them together. And I realized, that in that process, I had repeatedly found and saved the very same style of cabinets. Completely unintentional, I just knew what I wanted. They’re what I’m drawn to. Simple and uniform: Inset. Shaker style. That simple, old, clean / great craftsmanship feel.

Just a little cabinets 101 for ya – Three types of cabinet faces are best illustrated here:

Full overlay, is best described as a face on the front of the cabinets, where the doors cover the front, completely. There are no spaces showing in between doors and drawers. We scooped up a little photo for you below: {similar to what we had in our former kitchen}

via

Partial Overlay is a very traditional look you’ll see in a lot of homes. The doors only partially meet where mounted, and edges of the cabinet face show.

via

And inset, is what I’ve fallen hopelessly in love with. A great example of them can be found here:

via caitlin creer interiors via ivory lane

It’s all about preference with your kitchen. The cabinets by far, will be the biggest investment in our home. But they’ll make a huge difference in the way the space feels. We’re thrilled to have this type and really appreciate our wonderful contractor {and cabinet company} working with us on this one.

We initially wanted bookcases on the end of the island and then realized because of the size, that would make for dummy fronts of doors and drawers on the island. Nope. We need all the space we can get. So we’re adding a nice detail, instead that looks a little like this – I couldn’t find a photo of exactly what we’re doing… with feet, too.

Hardware – Of course, what’s inset without those old school turn latches? Duh. We’re smitten and we’ve found a wonderful set from our favorite company D.Lawless with matching pulls here

7. + 9.  The ovens + Cooktop + Hood {+ Fridge}

• Side note – we couldn’t be more thrilled about our fridge. We’ve opted for a pretty practicality this time around, where the kids can do a little more self-serve. Our old fridge is great, but just wasn’t working for us on the every day needs level with kiddos. It has super heavy doors and they couldn’t reach the ice tray. Something we didn’t consider before. So it will be placed in our basement / kids space downstairs for easy-to-access beverages there, in the future. This also makes it pretty great for the pool when we don’t need guests tracking through our hardwoods. Yes, we have thought through all the things with this house.

• My brain hurts.

We knew we wanted double ovens, but because of the simple layout, needed space for a pantry + fridge on each side of the kitchen. They couldn’t be stacked. We’re thrilled to be using Frigidaire for a simple, uniform, gloriously wonderful set. {Cooktop here} Space was a little bit of a challenge. We also didn’t want to lose out on the counter space with two ranges if we put in two free-standing side by side stoves in the center. We love to cook, but just thought that counter space was more valuable to us in this space. So, we decided we’re doing two built ins on the bottom part with a wider, separate range on top. Think something like this: {Which we love the look and feel of}

Colors – We talked about it a little here but we’ll be using HGTV HOME by Sherwin-Williams colors in PURE WHITE {HGSW4006} for our main cabinets against the wall, and  SAND DOLLAR {HGSW3117} on our kitchen island.

We were also inspired by this gorgeously beautiful french hood in a kitchen here, it was kind of screaming our name for something a little different. So we plan to install something similar over the cooktop. {Not including the brass but think similar aesthetic, we’re sticking with mixing oil rubbed bronze and polished chrome}

1. Countertops

We covered materials in the home last week with all things Marble. We know its a hot topic, but we ordered samples and threw pizza sauce and mustard on them and visited marble yards and read all that we could. We fell in love with this look from Polycor. We plan to use Marble on our main wall, and Soapstone {I’ve wanted soapstone for all of my adult life now} on our island.

12. Kitchen + Faucet 

I wanted to try a single bowl fireclay farmhouse sink this time, to make room for all those big pots and pans. {Stronger than porcelain so it doesn’t scratch as easily} along with a pretty little faucet. We’re going for simple and classic.

2. Tile

We love this tile – it’s a subtle, light grey/blue – and we plan to mix two patterns for our backsplash that will go all the way up the wall. Just a touch of something different.

4. Windows

One of our favorite elements. You can see where they’ve framed it out, that we’re replacing the windows throughout the house to make the home more energy efficient, with Window World. We’re excited to add a nice, clean feel that looks like this, with simple trim to accent the style of the home. Since we’re adding windows here, these will be a custom fit to go in seamlessly with the new design. We also stumbled upon some turn of the century stained glass windows {and then beat off a few circling vultures at the flea market while we discussed where we’ll use them} which will be used as transoms on this wall over the new windows. They’re placed pretty high to give a nice height and lead the eye up along with the hood, but will capture the sunlight PERFECTLY in the afternoons. These images just don’t do them justice and we’re thrilled to add a little more history with a one of a kind look for the home.

Seriously y’all. Wait for it.

5. Table + Chairs

First things first – the entryway. I haven’t shown you much in photos, but we’re pretty thrilled with the wall space we have upon entering the house. When you walk in, most everything is RIGHT there. Such is the hazard of removing the walls to make it feel so much larger. But we realized in most house plans, it’s not that different, as there’s a dining room right there, anyway. We decided to break up the space by placing the dining area closer to the door, and leave a space next to the built in desk area/kitchen open for now. {More on that below}

We have a space on the left wall {when walking in} for some killer art and perhaps a nice buffet when entering. So it’s a bit of a dual purpose space. More on that to come.

Our bench in our last home has moved on to a better place – to live outside oh so perfectly under the back porch. So we plan to build a banquette for extra storage, along with a table like this, for a custom size. I’ve wanted a round table for years and couldn’t be more thrilled to put it together – stay tuned for that one. We’re pairing it with these chairs alongside our white ones we already owned from our kitchen for plenty of seating space.

6. Barstools and Lights 

We opted for simple lines with these barstools. At first, we thought we wanted backs on the stools. But there will be so much going on visually, we just want classic lines to tuck away nicely underneath. They’re attractively functional. The other side of the bar will have storage space with cabinets underneath, which is a huge plus for us with much needed storage. The bar is a nice, generous place to tuck away 5-6 barstools. We’re thrilled to have a huge bar to provide extra seating for parties and friends and when it’s just us. Our kids are only getting older, so we know this will be a great option for tweens and teens in the {near- hold me!} future. We’re adding an addition off to the left when you’re facing the kitchen wall {so the space may look odd for a while until we get there}. But this space won’t have a dining room and is just the master/hopefully an upstairs studio for our own little wing. {And in the future because we’re not zillionaires.}

So this space will be high functioning for all the things. Between the bar, large table we have planned for the dining/kitchen space and our farmhouse table outside, we have plenty of space for all purposes/entertaining.

Along the vein of lines and all things visual : The same with these pendant lights. They’re hand blown glass, so they bring in a little of that handmade charm we love, without a lot of intrusive visual addition. Between the tile, windows, hood and ceiling, there are a lot of elements already in that line of vision. So we opted for simple and minimal while also bringing in an additional charm. As far as lighting goes, we’ve planned out all things switches and options. We’ll have a pair of these, as well as other chandeliers in the space over the living area/dining area – more details on these coming soon as we start to piece it together. We also have included lighting over the {future} bay window/window seat area, and over each window by the cabinets in terms of simple recessed lighting. It should help visually at night, and also look pretty killer through that stained glass on the outside.

Can you tell we’ve thought through everything? {They really need a hysteria-driven-house-under-construction-with-nowhere-to-live, emoji}

If you’ve noticed that blank space in our layout plan, I’m thinking a little something like this–

But we shall see. Stay tuned for sure!

________________________

So, what do you think about how we’re planning out our space? Let us know what you want more details on/would like to see more of – and wish us luck with that septic {hashtag roll the eyes and fall on the floor pitching a fit, emoji}

Have an inspired day!