Hello,
It's almost going to be a year that our kitchen has been completed.
There are a few little things to finish.
We had two walls knocked out, beams buried in the ceiling, and floors ripped up.
We kept our kitchen the same size.
By removing walls from the dining room and the family room, it made the whole area open and bigger.
Most of my inspirations came from
Cottage Living Magazine,
I wish this magazine was still around.
Country Living,
Country Home,
I do miss them too.
Most inspired movie was
Something's Gotta Give
I would freeze the movie so that I could look at all the details of that whole house.
I know it's mostly everyone's favorite house movie
but I must have watched it hundreds of times.
I am a little crazy like that.
I adore looking at how people live.
I enjoy looking at old and new movies with great houses.
I also love Hooked on Houses blog.
You need to check it out! Lots of fun.
First Love and requirements to our kitchen
White,
Glass cabinets,
Farmers sink,
Kitchen island with beadboard
Six burner stove
When we decided to renovate our kitchen the easy part was to say yes to the designer.
He designed the lay out.
I couldn't wait to add touches to make it our own.
I had all my ideas and we were on our way.
The hardest part was to live in one one room for half a year. It's where we ate, played, and hung out.
They say it's best to do the kitchen renovation during the summer so that you can cook outside and be outside most of the time.
But I thought it would be easier to do it while the kids were in school for the most part so that we wouldn't make ourselves crazy being together 24/7.
Making breakfast, lunch, and dinner was hard.
We ended up eating out and lots of food delivery.
Six months they said but it extended to two more months.
Then there was a week that we had to stay in a hotel.
The kids were excited because they had the pool to hang out in after school.
I didn't mind much except for the fact that I still needed to make lunch for school (thank goodness for the small refridgerator), homework to assist without all of our gear, and to top it all off work with my son on his Science Fair project.
It was fun working with the designer and watching all the improvements every week.
We are happy how it all came out and it feels like it's been here forever.
I hope you like it!
Here is what our kitchen looked like before. It served it's purpose.
It was dark and outdated.
I don't have many before pictures.
I guess we never hung out in the kitchen as much as we do now.
Here is when everything was gutted. Viewing it from the dining room.
There use to be a wall between the kitchen and dining room.
Here is another picture looking from the family room.
The dining room is on the right.
Another view from the kitchen to the dining room.
Having the wall come down was great! It definitely opened up the space and
brought more light in.
Here is a view from the kitchen looking into the living room.
Because the corridor is narrow we decided to open up the entry way to the living room.
There is a step down to the living room (70's style)
That's a story for another time.
Another view.
We also put speakers throught out the first floor for music.
It's a fun feature.
We put a speaker in the bathroom too. It's a nice conversation piece.
Here is our new kitchen.
We chose absolute black honed granite for the kitchen island.
It's fun to entertain, bake, and craft with the kids.
We chose White Supreme granite for the countertops. I love carrera marble (baker's look).
I was told it would stain and with three kids it just wouldn't work for us.
It took me awhile to find something similar but I think this does the job.
Another view. Some areas have more gray veins.
I do love it!
My favorite part of the kitchen is the sink area.
I always wanted a farmer's sink and this was going to be the focal point of the kitchen.
We went with a smaller size.
We wanted more counter space on either side of the sink
in case the island was occupied.
We could still cut and cook.
I also changed the paneling on the cabinet below the sink.
We added tin pierced panels.
Harvest Wheat
You can find them here. 
Here is another view.
Some of the entrances to our house we installed pebble stone tile mats to be incorporated with the pine floors.
It's looks nice when you walk into the house. I wanted to do this as well in front of the sink.
We were talked out of it.
They weren't sure it would fit.
I should have insisted and I think it would have been fine. I was determined to have that look so I found this pebble mat.You can find it here. 
This is the wet bar.
This space use to be a double closet. Lots of empty space.
It works better as a wet bar and it has a cabinet for pantry items above and
a wine refridgerator below.
This is my husband's favorite part of the kitchen.
We use to have a closet/pantry for all the
grocery goods.
There was shelving but lots of empty space.
The pantry door faced towards the hallway of the bathroom.
Here is our pantry now.
When they are open.
A picture of our island. Drawers slide out with trays that pull out.
The drawers close on their own.
Love that!!
This is a view of our stove.
Love the six burners.
We love to cook so it's been fun to simmer various things at the same time.
Here are where the ingredients get to hang out together.
Need to fill these babies up.
There is one on either side of the stove.
I am more of a fresh herb type of girl.
Backsplash.
Sorry it's tilted. I'm still working on taking closeups.
Four small Celtic Tiles put together in the middle.
Another picture of the Celtic Tile . They were white washed. I might have to do
another coat. Also the border has a Celtic band going all around.
It's prettier in person.
Another view of the backsplash.
Matted subway tiles everywhere else.
I picked out pulls to match the Celtic tiles.
Glass knobs for all of the cabinets.
Another view.
Towel bar at the end of the kitchen island.
Convenient and right near the sink.
Finally we went with wide pine plank floors.
Love them!!
They do scratch and ding easily but that's the look we are going for.
Here are my final pictures of the kitchen and how it's lived in.
Thank you for being patient and I hope you enjoy.
Take care and have a good weekend!
Claudia
Country Living 
Country Living 
Country Home 
Country Home 
Country Home
Claudia Coming Home picture
Claudia Coming Home picture
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