Design: The Kitchen

The potential for the kitchen in SIX TWELVE was one of the driving factors for purchasing the home. In the kitchen alone there are six windows (letting in tons of natural light); and the room is just plain sizable. Since it was in such bad, grease covered, 50's remodeled shape when we purchased the home, there was no internal qualm about gutting the room and creating something just for us.

If there's a room that drives design and inspiration around our house it's the kitchen; so I figured this would be a good place to start based on the fabric I had already found.

The kitchen design came together quickly (relatively unusual for us).

Here's where we're starting to get that mix of styles, the board makes it look modern, but with the window bench and some other key elements, we'll be scaling back the modern vibe. Remember our mixture of concerns in designing a house? All of those things add up to a pretty serious mixture of traditional/modern/industrial that will end with either really, really bad or really, really good results.

1. Quartz Counters from Cambria (in Snowden White).

I am in love with this material. We prefer lighter counters but marble is such a tremendous amount of upkeep and granite doesn't get bright enough for us. Cambria is only available through specifiers (designers & architects), specific account holding showrooms or fabricators. I like that we have something different, that not just anyone can buy at Home Depot. Not knocking the HD at all. 90% of our remodel will have to be off the shelf from those types of stores to stay within our budget. But I'm thrilled that an item as large and as impactful as the counter will be somewhat unique to us. We're hoping to do a full height apron on both sides of the island. Swoon. "Hoping to" are the operative words there.

2. Subway Tile  

We're going to use USCT bright white subway tile for our back splash. For one, we had a couple of boxes leftover from our last installation and two, we LOVED it at our last house. This time however, we are installing it floor to ceiling (maybe all four walls). If it goes on one wall, it will be in a herringbone pattern (as shown). If it makes it's debut on all four of the walls? We'll be sticking with the standard running bond (based on the fact we're doing our own tile installation and an entire room of herringbone might be the death of us). 

3. Cabinets

Oh the cabinets. The cabinets are going to be some form of green. I mean, who would have thought?! We were on the hunt for some lovely french gray cabinets when we stumbled across this style/color in a local showroom. We both immediately mentioned it, that it would work well, and that it would be kind of a fun alternative. I think it's going to be awesome. We haven't selected a vendor/manufacturer yet. We're working on getting our quotes and each of the manufacturer's blue/greens are slightly different but would all work well.

4. Artwork/Color

One day, I will have enough money to have Michelle Armas paint something just as beautiful as this piece for my kitchen.

5. the Meat & Potatoes

As for the appliances, faucet and sink, nothing has been decided on quite yet. We have quite a few options but are slowly starting to narrow things down. For example, we are 100% committed to a single basin sink. We installed one in our last kitchen and I had no idea how much I loved it until we got into the apartment with your standard 50/50 sink. I cannot wait to wash Addison's high chair tray (or Addison for that matter) and fill a pasta pot in a deep singular basin again.

We're also pretty set on going with a double oven. We love to have people over (lots of people), and we love to cook. One day soon, I hope to host Thanksgiving or Christmas for my entire family and being able to cook multiple dishes at different temps is going to be killer. We'll have a gas cooktop in the island with a hood (also all yet to be determined) a dishwasher, a tucked away microwave and a refrigerator. Am I the only one that gets giddy about new appliances? We're looking to save some money here so we'll be buying last year's models in hopes to save a couple grand. 

6. Porcelain Floor Tile

We will be using a 12" x 24" striated gray porcelain tile. It is manufactured by FlorimUSA and is called Layers in the color Sediment. That's exactly what it looks like and it is beautiful (even more so in person). You'll notice a certain love for geology running through the rest of the house. What can I say? I'm addicted.



The kitchen when we purchased the house.

During cabinet dis-assembly and removal.

Walls being removed!!



With the kitchen demolition nearly complete, it's really starting to solidify our design and our excitement/anxiousness.

The cabinet and quartz orders are coming up in the next few weeks and then it will really be getting serious!