Our Renovation: Kitchen Plans!

photo by Jessica Delaney

As you may know if you’ve been following along, when we bought our house I did a facelift on my kitchen as it stood (you can see before shots HERE and HERE). Perfectly good cherry cabinets from 2002 were painted Ben Moore Edgecomb Gray, counters were swapped for honed granite, new simple subway was put it and new fixtures were added. We kept the appliances and cabinets knowing that in time we would fully renovate. Well, those appliances are dying (fridge was ripped out and currently have a dinged up floor model sitting in the open hole where it was), the cabinet paint is chipping and we are now redoing the whole kitchen! I plan to reuse a lot of the items we installed in late 2020 before we moved in – the faucet, lighting and hopefully re-using the honed granite countertops in the butler’s pantry (plans to come, there). We did this facelift because we had no idea when we would be able to do the full gut, and I knew I had a book to photograph the house for so I wanted to make it look good. In hindsight, perhaps I should have just waited, but I think it’s such a great example of how big an impact you can make in an existing kitchen, without gutting it. C’est la vie!

So here is the layout as it is now:

And here is what we are doing. We’re turning the current mudroom into a butler’s pantry with a wall oven, second sink and small second dishwasher (and lots of storage), we are enclosing most of the side porch and expanding it a bit to make a bigger mudroom, and we are opening up the wall in the kitchen with the current pass through in the middle so the space really flows into the family room. We spend 90% of our time in these two spaces. I’d always pictured looking from the family room into the kitchen at the range, so we are moving it (and going induction, but with the style of a classic French range). We’re getting a 24″ column freezer and 36″ fridge to flank the opening into the butlers pantry (we desperately need more fridge and freezer space) and the sink is going in the island. Utilizing the almost 11 foot ceilings we have, we are taking the cabinets UP all the way, and therefore installing a brass rail around the kitchen with a ladder we can use to reach stuff up high (it will hang on the blank wall to the right of the range when not needed to keep out of the way).

Here are some elevations of the kitchen and island. I think this whole configuration will work for our family for the rest of our lives here – so we’re doing this once and doing it right. :)

Here is the concept of the look I’m going for – still TBD on the marble as this one might be cost prohibitive, but something dramatic and with warmth to it. I’m using real marble because I simply do not care about “patina” or staining. Nothing beats the look and feel of real marble, even though it may be more vulnerable, it’s the only way to go for me. We’ll do inset shaker and flat panel cabinetry in a warm neutral, a wood island to coordinate with the floors – some shade of lighter walnut – and a pretty brass hood. I want it to look classic and timeless and yet, a tiny bit modern.

Sources: La Cornue range // hood (similar) // sink // faucet // pendants // runner // art // stool // cabinet hardware 

Stay tuned for the plans for the butlers pantry, mudroom, laundry room and primary bedroom soon!

Other posts you may like:

Timeless Cabinetry Colors

Pics of Our House When We Bought It

Initial Renovation Details

New Primary Bathroom Plans