My New House: The Final Kitchen Plan

Hey everyone! I hope you had a great holiday! I feel like we all need to just grit our teeth and hold out for 4-6 more weeks before we see a light at the end of this godforsaken COVID tunnel of doom.

In the meantime, my house renovation is rocking and rolling and it is SO EXCITING! If you aren’t following along on IG, follow me there, as I post a lot of updates to stories during site visits. We are T-minus 2.5 weeks until the move and I am freaking out/SO excited.

A lot of questions have come up about my kitchen mini-renovation, so I wanted to answer those, as well as share some progress photos and the final design board plans!

tile // pendants // faucet // vintage runners // cabinet hardware // stools // utensil holder

Are you still planning a full gut renovation down the road?

Yes. I am not a fan of the layout of the kitchen and since we believe this will be our forever home, I want to have my IDEAL kitchen. I can’t afford that right now because this house was at the tippity top of our budget, so since the kitchen has nicely-made cabinets, I decided to refinish (professionally, for the best quality/wear) and change out the counters, tile, lighting and hardware. It’s a lot for something I will eventually tear out, but as a designer I needed to make the space pretty – it’s my business after all. And if I don’t get to do the BIG kitchen renovation before I write a third book (IF I write a third book), I wanted the kitchen to be nice enough to photograph.

Here’s a VERY rough sketch of what I’d ideally want to do layout-wise: put the range where the fridge is now and make it a super statement with slab backsplash, as it’ll be recessed into a nook, which is cool. Put the fridge where the stove is now and open up the center of the room instead of having a passthrough and doorway.  The island would get deeper and house the sink, dishwasher and trash. If I could I would close up the wall with the door to the mudroom, but that is the only window “in” the kitchen, so that would make it a little dark I think – also we’d have to expand the mudroom then to create a new entrance from it into the house (which I’m not opposed to, if I win the lottery). Instead we’ll probably take the mudroom down to one window from two big ones and do cubbies on top of the bench we already have built. Either way, this is a few years away.

What color are your cabinets? What is that countertop??

The cabinets are Benjamin Moore Edgecomb Grey and the walls and trim are Benjamin Moore White Dove, though I am thinking of wallpapering the walls though with a vinyl grasscloth :)  The countertops are a very affordable stone called Jurassic Grey granite (sometimes called Silver Grey, too).  When polished it’s kind of sparkly and spotty, but when honed, it looks SO much like limestone due to the white veining. I may have to seal it, which will make them a bit darker, because they do turn dark when wet and I’m a little nervous about spills. Here are some process pics! The cabinets looks white but they are NOT.

Before:

What is that backsplash? Is it zellige?

It’s an affordable version of a zellige, which means each piece has a slightly different tone, giving it more warmth and movement while staying classic. It is not handmade zellige, which is thicker and much pricier. IF you are local, you can find it at Tiles Plus More in Natick. If not and you can wait, this is one we use a lot that is VERY similar (if not the same -but when I was ordering had a long lead time).

We are reusing the old Wolf cooktop for the kitchen, as new appliances made no sense if we’re redoing it down the road. I just hope they all hold on for 3-5 years!

You can see a peek into the mudroom here– more on that space on Wednesday! I know a lot of you have questions about my “faux” brick tile! :)

I will be sharing all of the design plans for each space in the new house here on the blog over the next few weeks/months. If you have any questions about my plans, selections or process, leave them in the comments!

Ok, off for another site visit!!!