Hey all! So it is summer for us and we are all home together for the next two months! I love this time of year, because let’s face it- no alarm clock setting! I’ve been soaking up lots of lazy days and outside time with our little one trying to keep from obsessing over the progress of our new build. Today I’ve gathered up all things New Kitchen and I am excited to share. I won’t bore you with tons of details; I’ll try not to anyway. I didn’t spare the details.. #sorrynotsorry
Cabinets
Seriously, the easiest part of this entire process. Our cabinet guy, Gary, has been super helpful and is an awesome communicator. He always does his best to keep in touch even when not much is going on! He has been very patient with me and has made sure to meet all my requests.
We had to pay for some upgrades, as our original bid for cabinets was pretty basic with all 30″ wood cabinets and soft close drawers and doors. We were fortunate that our color options were all included in the original bid. We went with Arctic White for the cabinets.
We did upgrade from flat panel doors to shaker doors with full overlay in the kitchen. We chose the new Winslow style from Welborn Forest’s Capital Series. We also upgraded from 30″ cabinets to 36″ and 42″. I love the look of the bump ups and bump outs for some dimension. I also added a bank of wide drawers to the left of the cooktop and underneath. I am SO excited for drawer storage.
My husband prefers the look of bar pulls, and while beautiful, I really think the farmhouse trend is becoming too common so I wanted to shy away from cup pulls. We are going with these pulls on both the cabinets and drawers.
You’ll see that because I wanted the set of drawers to the left, we lost a corner cabinet. We added an access from the back of the bar on the breakfast nook side so we didn’t waste any storage space!
Here is the sketch of what it will look like. It doesn’t show the bar tops, but we will have two of them. One will meet with the breakfast nook, and the other will meet with the great room.
Counters
Our bid called for Level 1 granite throughout. I’ll be honest, when we started this process, we only wanted the bones of the house and the property. We were fine with the most basic of everything. I feel terrible because with all of the changes we are asking for, I know we are driving our builder crazy-even though he hasn’t given us any indication that it is true. {{Read more about our stressful decisions here}}We decided if we are getting it done, we should just go ahead and do it right this first time.
In all honesty, it was really hard to find a level 1 granite we liked. I reeeally don’t care for the look of the speckled granite. I can appreciate its consistency, but that’s about it. When we decided on our plumbing fixtures, we fell in love with a counter in the showroom. The lady called it Ocean Beige and I have had the hardest time finding anything that compares. It is the perfect combination of cool and warm tones, and a gorgeous mix of white, bluish-gray, brown, and cream.
Plumbing Fixtures
We chose all stainless steel and brushed nickel fixtures for the kitchen. We had a pot filler added above our cooktop and while the kitchen isn’t super large, and it probably wouldn’t be inconvenient to walk over to the sink for water, I figured why not!? How gorgeous is this Kingston Brass Restoration pot filler? All the heart eyes for this one. I found it on Wayfair at an unbeatable price! I was pleasantly surprised by the weight and quality of the fixture when I received it!
Our kitchen faucet is the Brantford model by MOEN. I was so caught up in loving the pot filler and a little overwhelmed with choices at the time, so I went with the faucet our super awesome plumber suggested. It really is pretty and it compliments the pot filler well.
We also went with an undermount apron sink. I definitely wanted one with a grate to try to avoid any future scratching. The prices on some sinks are insane, but this Suffolk model from American Standard was the right dimensions and a good deal. It also achieves the look I’m going for.
Tile Floor and Backsplash
Flooring was a bit difficult to decide on for the kitchen. We originally settled on a tile that we didn’t love, but I am so happy we came across this tile. It is called Sovereign Stone Pearl. It has the variation of warm and cool tones, just like our countertops. It also has such distinct variations from tile to tile. It will really give our kitchen life!
We haven’t exactly settled on backsplash yet. We plan to add it later after we move in, but we know we will more than likely go with a subway tile in a color that comes from the countertop. I’d prefer to stay away from white. It’ll more than likely be a shade of gray.
Light Fixtures
We have 6 recessed lights around the perimeter of the kitchen. With the amount of natural light from our many windows, I was able to forego a fixture in the center of the kitchen. We did decide to add pendant lighting over one of our bars. I am loving these mini pendants. They go perfectly with the rest of our lighting options. You can see our light fixture choices for the living areas of the house here!
I was hoping to keep this post short, but the kitchen details are beautiful and deserve to be shared. I hope you found this either entertaining or helpful! Please feel free to contact me for anything!
Have a happy day!
