Kitchen Cabinetry

There are two options for kitchen cabinets, purchase pre-manufactured cabinets and have them installed, or have them built on site. The problem with going the pre-manufactured route is that they are made in specific sizes that may not work for your kitchen. You would then need to purchase filler panels to cover gaps they leave behind. Another issue with using pre-manufactured is whether they use mdf (particle board) or plywood and not necessarily being able to make the decision on which to use. If mdf gets any water damage, it bloats and begins to fall apart. Something you definitely do not want anywhere near your kitchen sink.

With this in mind, we decided to have the cabinets built on site. Through word of mouth, we selected Aaron Bell of Fine Edge. With our plans as guidelines, he has built all of the cabinetry.

Our trim carpenter, Aaron, also built a pantry which is functionally used to store a microwave, blender, and standing mixer but secretly conceals the ductwork we had to relocate.

The doors were ordered by a cabinet door maker who comes on site and measures the openings. The doors are then fabricated to match the style we selected. We wanted to have something fairly simple with clean lines. Being tired of seeing so many shaker doors, we selected something just as clean but with a little more detail. Below are all of the doors prior to being installed and an upclose of the detail.

Aaron was also able to add a little detail in the cabinets to match the doors. You can see the trim piece inset in the panel.

The Open Kitchen / Breakfast Room

The kitchen has been a work in progress over the past 2 months. With the completion approaching, I am ready to sit down and tell you all about it.

Prior to even looking at kitchen cabinets and other finishes, we needed to get the area prepared for cabinet installation. The majority of the demo process and prep work we did ourselves.

We did have a beam installed where the wall once stood. Even thought the wall we removed was not load bearing per se, the continuous rafters supporting the floor above were not sized to span the entire kitchen and breakfast area. The lumber in the ceiling is 2x10 and should be at least 2x12 for the span which is what we found in the basement. Better safe than have a floor cave in.

We also had to relocate some of the ductwork we found in the wall. This did alter our kitchen plans slightly as we would still need to conceal the duct work and the space couldn't be entirely open. We decided to design a pantry to conceal the ductwork.

In addition, we had some electrical prep work done before we closed up the walls. This consisted of bringing power for undercabinet lighting, a garbage disposal, and a vent hood. The photos below are what the kitchen looked like before the cabinets would be installed.

Here are the drawings for the kitchen. The bottom right shows the large pantry we designed to conceal the relocated ductwork.

Kitchen Countertop

Shopping for a kitchen countertop was one our favorite shopping experiences for the house. I contacted a tile rep that my office uses quite frequently as they are also a stone fabricator, Elegance in Stone. While they had a several slabs in stock, they suggested we also look at a few warehouses that bring in stone from all over the world. These are essentially giant warehouses with hundreds of 5'x9' stone slabs. While there are several granite slabs that look verysimilar, there are these amazing quartzite slabs. One can't help but be amazed that the earth can produce such beauty below the surface!

After spending several hours at a 2 of these warehouses, we narrowed are selection down and then discussed pricing with our fabricator. Below you can see our selections: Black Soapstone, Sea Pearl, Madre Perola, and Straito Olympico.

Another really interesting part of the process is working with the fabricator once the slab is selected. As there is variations in the stone, we were able to select which part of the slab we wanted to use. Below is a photo of our template laid on the slab before it is cut.

In the end we selected the Sea Pearl, a quartzite from Brazil. It turned out absolutely beautiful and we are extremely happy with the results!

Kitchen Floors Part 2

I am really drawn to painted wood floors and have looked at countless images for inspiration. When it came down to it, we decided to go with our gut after looking at a few stains on the floor. Below is an image of a soft gray, espresso, and black.

While I really liked the color of the soft grey, we were not as happy will the orange of the pine showing through. If the wood floor did not have so much orange/red we may have selected this stain. What we didn't like about the espresso was how muddy it ended up looking. The grain in the wood didn't pop as much as it did with the black. Hence, we selected the black.

Below is a picture of the staining process and the final result. As the stain was not as translucent as we had desired, I used the brush to wipe off some on the stain allowing the grain to show through.

After the stain came the varnish.

The only thing left is the painted border which will follow after the cabinets are installed and painted.

Kitchen Floors Part 1

We have been going back and forth for some time as to what will become of the kitchen floors.

We first were looking at a very contemporary ceramic tile that emulated natural stone. When we had a structural engineer come and look at the house since deciding to take down the wall he advised against it. We would need to add a column in the basement as the weight of the stone and the removal of the wall may cause the floor to deflect too much.

Next we thought of adding a floating cork floor over the existing pine floors. The reason being that the backer paper and glue for the original laminate was going to be a pain to remove and therefore no way to stain or even paint the original pine boards.

However, to our surprise, our flooring guy decided to sand all of that away. Which was probably since he felt bad that it was taking the remainder of our floors so long to complete. (6 weeks instead of 2) Below is a picture of the before and after of pine floors were sanded.

After this little surprise, we finally decided on staining the majority of the floors and then painting a boarder once the cabinetry was installed. But first as you can see from above, we need to fill the missing boards. This was a little tricky as we would need to find wood that was the same species, size, and thickness. We ended up using a pine board that is typically used for building furniture. Our flooring guy may scoff at this if he ever reads this post but the end product looks pretty good.

Hardwood Floors

As I am sitting down to catch up on my blog posts, I forgot to tell everyone that the hardwood floors are finished and they look beautiful! There was a lot of board replacement as there were pet stains throughout the house. With that and some scheduling issues it took six weeks to complete instead of the two which we were told. (I have since learned to add time to any estimate you get) Below are pictures of our new floors. The color we chose was English Chestnut which is probably slightly darker than the original floors.

God is in the Details

...and here comes the Mies quote! Something Cory and I heard quite often at our alma mater, IIT.

As we have been painting like crazy, I can't help but look at the minute details of the house. Which is of no surprise when you're hand painting all these window mullions! The original hardware was driving me a little crazy as some were rusting or the finish was wearing off. As new hardware can get really pricey, I decided to spray them. Before and after pics of a little over half of the window hardware in the house are below. Yup, I even painted the screw heads. Only slightly OC :)