The New Kitchen

I wanted to show before photos of the kitchen, and they are here on the blog in various posts and shots but the one shot I kept coming going back to was one of my favorite photos in all its imperfections.  The morning sun shining was on my baking center counter.  That little length of counter no longer exists.  So, I'm sharing it mostly because it is gone, and I really loved this photo.  What I have in this space now is what I call the food wall, which you will see further below.  

While the bathroom is completely finished, the kitchen is not quite there.  We've been doing this room in stages for the past five years or so and the walls will be our last step.  So, the walls you see here are the original finish to the house when we bought it.  I have ordered some paint samples to place on the walls and see how I like them.  I know what I want.  It's not gray, not green, not blue but somehow combines all three colors into one.  Will I find it?  I don't know. I might end up compromising.

I found some paint samples I'd gathered over the years past.  The grays were too mauve or too brown to suit me and I realized yet again that I really don't think I want gray.  But we'll see...I might well determine that gray is the very thing as I look and try this and that.

The basic floor plan of the room is the exact floor plan we've always had.  The stove was moved  an inch and a half to the left.  We extended one length of counter, and then we added a whole additional unit and counter on the longest wall, but the basic footprint is as it was.  No plumbing or gas lines were moved, no electrical outlets added or removed. 

You can click on any picture and open the photo in a new tab and enlarge to see it better.  I didn't want to eat up the posts with overly large images.

Looking from the living space doorway into the kitchen.  You can see that the cabinets/counter now go all the way to the large windows on that wall.  We also extended the cabinet on this entry wall by four inches, so it now reaches the doorway.  In all, between the two extensions we gained as much counterspace as we'd given up in removing the counter on the baking center wall. 

The new vent hood is smaller than the old one and makes the stove area feel so much lighter and brighter.  The only upper cabinet in the whole kitchen is there above that vent and that is solely to hide the vent pipe.  Yes, I did want a custom hood cover but that proved to be costly.  The cabinet was cheaper.  There is a tiny space that I could use if I wanted to but the venting really does take up the bulk of it.

This cabinet to the right of the stove is not only larger, but two other things made a HUGE difference, and they are things you'll never see.  For one thing, there was a bulky block of wood behind the stove that they'd mounted the old electrical outlet upon.  I don't need an electrical outlet for my current gas stove.  And if I do need on in future, there is a wall plug behind the stove as well.  They removed that block of wood and pulled that big 220V plug and that meant the stove could slide back into its proper position, so it no longer pokes out in the room and subsequently blocks usage of the cabinet door nearest it.

The dead space that must exist because of the original arrangement of cabinetry, where the microwave and toaster oven sit, has been completely closed off.  I will never again lose things in a space that no one but a very small child could get into and retrieve items.  

The tiny cupboard between the stove and dishwasher is also new.  That was just wasted space in the past, an empty area hidden behind a piece of wood.  The contractor saw this space and added in the cabinet in his plans.  It is where I have my baking sheets and cutting boards.  I had John remove two tiny shelves in the upper portion of that cabinet that I cannot imagine ever using.  They prevented my putting bigger baking sheets in the cabinet. 

Looking at the kitchen from the Kitchen Sitting.  That stretch of counter is just so beautiful to me! Currently I'm keeping Katie's mixer there as well as my own but eventually I'll turn this whole end cabinet into my baking center.  

I have five drawers to use as storage space now, too.  Two of them are extra deep and that is where I have stored my casseroles, frying pans and saucepans.  That was an unexpected bonus.  In seeing the plan, I somehow didn't grasp the full measurement of the drawers and was thinking they were smaller.  

We chose to get a second island and put the two side by side here on the wall where we formerly had the first island and freezer.  John has since had mild regret that we didn't get a built-in cabinet to go on this wall.  I'm less concerned about it.  Practically speaking, I can move these two pieces if needed and I can create one huge island if they are pushed back-to-back.  

This is the area I call my 'food wall'.  The big pantry cabinet here on the right and the one near the kitchen doorway are deep pantry cabinets.  Initially I'd thought I'd clear shelves from the smaller cabinet's bottom portion and use that for trash and brooms and such.  Once I saw the space, I suddenly imagined my entire pantry being moved from the guest bedroom closet into the kitchen.  No, it didn't quite all fit but most of it did.  That upright freezer looked gigantic on its own, but the two pantries made it look a little less tall.  The fridge moved down a few inches and the second pantry cabinet sit in a bit of space that was un-utilized.  John's gun cabinet had always been in that spot, but we've moved that.

I didn't style the kitchen in any way for these photos.  I am just showing it as it was about one week in, while I am getting settled into the new space.  I do have plans to decorate but I wanted to live with the space a little while first and let it speak to me.    

My former decor which I loved for its vintage vibe doesn't fit this space as it is now.  I've already donated most of the items I've had here.  I have a few ideas which will incorporate some of my former things updated in one way or another, but I'm really waiting to determine wall color before I go full ahead with decor.  

As a hint of the direction, I think it's going, here is the newly re-furnished kitchen sitting space.  It's a sort of an English country cottage look, I think.

The kitchen was all finished and we'd gone to bed one night when I sat up and told John I'd just 'seen' my kitchen sitting space. I told him exactly how it was going to look.  I had every piece on hand.  The table was the one I purchased about two months ago at the local estate sale.  The chairs were some that Bess's mom no longer wanted after one of her moves.  I don't know how old they are but the moment I saw them I was so pleased Bess had thought to bring them to me.  I just love their simple style and the color of the wood.  After two years of wear and tear from the children here, the seats look pretty bad. I plan to pad and recover those.  

I think this little space is just perfect.  Eventually I'll probably replace the birdcage with a lamp.  It would be nice to have a light here for those nights when we're out after dark, or for morning reading when it's cloudy outdoors.

I can tell you that we absolutely loved the new kitchen and haven't ceased saying how much we like it every time we walk into the space.  We both are still lost when it comes to finding things.  I'm still searching for a couple of items I put away and I have yet to see them anywhere in the cabinets...But the important things can generally be found easily enough.

Here's where I'd planned to put the links, but I realized as I looked through old photos that I never showed the previous kitchen as a whole thing.  There are shots of wall decor, a section of counter might appear in shots of foods I'd shared.  When we put in the new flooring and I got a new rug, I posted a shot of the floor.  If I redid a wall of decor then I showed a bit of that but not of the kitchen as a whole.  I'm sorry that you'll have nothing to compare it too but truly little changed beyond quality of items put into the place and the Food wall, which was as major a renovation as there was.  So, we'll just have to make do with the photos of the kitchen as it is now.