Kitchen Renovation Reveal!

It's been a long time coming but the time has FINALLY come to reveal our new kitchen! I haven't blogged about the kitchen renovation details, but if you follow me on social media you have probably seen some photos of the before, the process, and a few glimpses of the final result. It's safe to say I am absolutely thrilled with the new kitchen and can't wait to show you. So, let's get started!

First, here's a before/early demo photo of the space. This is basically half of the main floor in our house, and in this area there used to be a couple of walls that separated it into three areas. One room was the kitchen, one was the dining room (in the back corner), and then there was a large living room. Functionally, it didn't work great for our family. We rarely used the dining room or the front living room, as we have a family room where we were spending the majority of our time as a family.

The plan was to take down all of the walls, as you can see, move the kitchen to the corner, where the dining room was, which is back in the corner, create a large kitchen island, and have a smaller, open space for a dining room table. We also kept the front area as a living room, however now it is just open to the kitchen.

And now, here's an after photo of the space!

Crazy, right?! Even though I had a pretty solid vision of how I wanted things to turn out, nothing compared to actually seeing that vision come to life. It is so much better than I could have expected! The change in space has been fantastic for our family, and I can't stress enough how much I love having a huge kitchen island where the boys can sit and color while I make lunch or eat their breakfast while I do dishes right next to them. It's so great.

Now onto the finishes that we chose. While the big picture of the kitchen remained the same throughout, I changed my mind on a lot of the details quite a few times. It was so hard making those decisions and I can be an indecisive person sometimes!

Cabinets

One of the things I'm really glad that we decided on was to go with custom cabinetry. Our construction team, Construction 2 Style, highly recommended the local company that we went with, JKath Design Build & Reinvent, and we knew we would be happiest with this route in the long run.

We decided on the shaker style cabinet doors, for a classic and clean look. The cabinets are painted in Sherwin Williams Snowbound, and the island is Sherwin Williams Modern Gray. I love the slight contrast in the kitchen island, but nothing that I'm afraid will be too trendy. As you can tell, we really wanted it to be a timeless kitchen!

Lighting

The lights above the kitchen island are these, and above the kitchen sink are these, both from Pottery Barn. I went back and forth on these and ultimately love what we ended up with!

Over the dining table, we have this light from Bellacor Lighting. I love how it's pretty classic looking and also the fact that there is no glass on it which means no glass to clean!

Flooring

Since we were taking down walls and rearranging the floor plan, it made the most sense to do new flooring. It was also a wash when it came to pricing (fixing the old vs. new), and I really wanted the wider planks of wood, so it worked out well.

We went with this engineered hardwood, which is described as a European oak. I love the warmth that it adds to the area and also how it ties in with the hood and railings.

Faucet and Sink

For the faucet, I fell in love with this gold Delta Pull Down Kitchen Faucet with On/Off Touch Activation. It's so pretty, ties in with our refrigerator and range, and it's touch activated! I wasn't sure how much I would use the touch activation and if it'd actually be helpful but I use it ALL. THE. TIME. and it's so handy!

For the sink, we went with a white quartz Elkay sink. I love that it's white, as opposed to stainless steel like our last one, and it is scratch resistant and cleans up super easily.

Appliances

Now let's move onto what I believe to be the most essential pieces of the kitchen remodel - the appliances! Obviously, as someone who is cooking in the kitchen ALL. THE. TIME. I need reliable kitchen appliances that will hold up for years and withstand to lots of use. The last thing I want is to design my kitchen to fit specific home appliances only to have the appliances last less than two years. 

For the refrigerator and range, we went with GE's Cafe Appliances in white with bronze hardware. I absolutely love the look of them and they've been amazing to use so far.

One thing I have known that I wanted to incorporate into my kitchen remodel from the start was a Sharp Microwave Drawer Oven™ that I could build into the kitchen island. My dad has one of these microwave ovens built into his new house, and I simply fell in love with the look and feel of the appliance.

What is great about incorporating a drawer into the kitchen is that it takes the microwave off the counter and out of eyesight, and introduces it into a new and it in a functional place. I know that this type of installation can be achieved with a microwave oven and built-in trim kit, but many microwaves aren’t actually certified for this use case and are not recommended to be built into the island.

We decided on the SHARP 24" Stainless Steel Microwave Drawer Oven and I could not be happier with my decision! The product features a sleek and premium design, and is so simple to use. A bonus really is that the control panel is concealed so I don’t have to stare at the buttons on the microwave. In fact, I am such a big fan of this product (if you couldn’t tell already) so much that I'm going to be writing an entire blog post about how I use it on a daily basis AND a simple, but tasty, microwave recipe. Be on the lookout for that later next week!

We had to replace our dishwasher last year because our old one died, so we kept that stainless steel. I think it ties in nicely with the microwave!

Backsplash

For the backsplash, I wanted something traditional but not just regular subway tile. We ended up with a more narrow subway tile in the herringbone pattern. I am in LOVE! It really completes our kitchen and I love how it is noticeable and fun, yet not too crazy. Again, I wanted to keep things fairly neutral!

Okay, that's it! If you have any other questions about the kitchen renovation, just comment below or shoot me an email at greensnchocolate (at) gmail (dot) com!

Disclaimer: I was provided a Sharp Microwave Drawer Oven, however all opinions are my own!