My New House: Kitchen Renovation Concept

Photo by Jessica Delaney.  My cabinets look white here but they are not, they are Benjamin Moore Edgecomb Grey. Trim and walls are White Dove.

As you know, I did a facelift/mini renovation on my kitchen when I moved in – painted the cabinets, replaced the counters and backsplash, hardware, lighting and faucet/sink. While it was an expensive “facelift”, the paint is not lasting and the appliances are old and going to kick it soon. I knew this, but wanted to show what you can do without new cabinetry and appliances (for the third book) – so I will photograph it like this and then do a full renovation making it basically, my dream kitchen. Since we ultimately want a larger fridge/freezer and range, and have very little food storage space for two kids (and a pass through that I hate) – we always have planned on fully renovating. And it may happen sooner than later, and may happen in conjunction with a new master suite too. More on that later – this is all still TBD.  But I needed to get drawings done to send to builders for bids, so I figured I’d share with you too as I think this through!

This was what it looked like when we moved in, and you can get a sense of the layout. There are a LOT of door openings in this kitchen, but there is MASSIVE ceiling height (almost 11 feet!)

Here is the new layout– we have a long side porch we don’t use other than to enter and exit the house so we thought a good use of space would be to push it out a little and turn it into a bigger mudroom with more storage.  Then turn what is the current mudroom into a big butlers pantry. Instead of the pass through opening into the family room, we’d open the middle of the wall and instead have cabinets and counters extend from each side wall. The current “bar” has a small sink we never use so I’d put a wine fridge in there (we don’t have one and need one).  The range would move to where the fridge is now and the fridge and freezer would move to the pantry wall. I dream of having this gorgeous sightline from the family room into the kitchen with a beautiful range, hood and marble focal point!

Here’s my vision board reusing the new elements I love like the faucet, hardware, lighting and hopefully the countertops 9in the pantry). I still love a putty colored cabinet, island might be wood.

Pulls // knobs // lights // counter stools // range // hood // tile // runner 

Since we have so much ceiling height – we’d go UP.  And that requires a library ladder and rail (YAAAAAAYYYYYYY!) The ladder would hook on (like this one) and be stored on the wall across from the wine fridge in the bar. Those high cabinets would store things we don’t use everyday.

The range wall will have a full slab backsplash and all baking and cooking supplies will go in upper cabinets, bakeware and such in cabinets below. While I love the look of the french ranges, the oven sizes are SO small I don’t think it’s truly feasible for us. We’ve been recommended Bluestar by our appliance supplier and you can do various colors with brass accents so it’s kind of like of Wolf had a baby with La Canche.

Because this space needs natural light from the window in the pantry, we did not want to change the opening and so we are splitting the fridge and freezer so we can get the size we want– and I kinda love it!

We’re torn on the width of the opening to make sure it feels open to the family room but also maximize cabinetry. Here is option 1:

Here is option 2- wider opening so less cabinets:

This section will have the coffee bar where we’ll keep the coffee machine, toaster, mugs, etc and another large cabinet for who knows what- plates? Glassware? Food? TBD. Pots and pans below. May make them drawers as I do like having drawers for those items currently.  I don’t have a drawing of the island yet- but it will have the sink, dishwasher and trash in it with a couple utensil drawers and then four counter stools on the opposite side.

Looking into the pantry I’ll have wallpaper (probably the same one I used for my mudroom) and will try to re-use the honed Jurassic Grey granite countertops from the current kitchen. Cabinetry would be a color- probably Farrow & Ball Green Smoke, same as the powder room off the kitchen.

I’m going to use some brass wire mesh doors in here- left elevation is left of the sink, right is the wall to the right of the sink- a wall oven, microwave and small dishwasher drawer are all in this space. Most food and serveware will be in here.

The mudroom I’d use the same faux brick tile I used for the current mudroom and then cabinets the color of the kitchen, wallpaper and a cushion on the window seat. Each family member gets a cubby- which I’m DYING for! Currently have hats and mittens and boots ERRRRRYWHERE.

I will keep you posted as we progress with a plan.  Given supply chain issues and builders booking out SO far, who knows when this will happen! But stay tuned as I design more of our home!