Kitchen Renovation In Marble, Wood and Metal

My Completed Kitchen Renovation

When both my double oven and cook top stopped working I was forced to renovate my kitchen.  My house was 13 years old and parts of my kitchen still looked good, like the Corian counter top.  Other parts however weren't worth keeping, like the cheap cupboards.  So without the ability to cook and cabinets that the builder should have put in the garage not the kitchen, I jumped into a renovation. Actually I tiptoed in.  There were so many decisions and I wanted to be happy with the kitchen I created.  First, I had to have a vision of what the completed space would look like and then I created and executed the plan.

My greatest tool was Houzz.  By looking at professionally designed kitchens I was able to determine what I liked and how it could be incorporated in the design.   The grout color, hardware, windows, cabinet height, toe kicks, counter width for the peninsula, counter edges, and more and more details were confirmed after looking at Houzz pictures.

My husband, Rich, acted as the general contractor to the wonderful subcontractors who worked on the project. The kitchen turned out beautiful thanks to the talent of the cabinet installers, marble fabricator, tile and grout installer, electrician, drywaller, and paint consultant.

The design began with two slabs of marble that we picked out at Stoneville in Van Nuys.

 After that we picked cabinets that we could afford.  I knew that I wanted them painted a warm white with an old house feel so I removed the existing transom and ran the cabinets up to the ceiling with a tall crown.

A Viking range was on my wish list, but since I was replacing a double oven and a cook top, the new design required moving electrical and gas lines.  Another change was raising the counter in one area and adding a peninsula for three bar stools. That meant losing the kitchen table and using the dining room which was underutilized.

With the counter higher, the windows needed to be higher as well.  One of my favorite features is the marble window sills.

With all the details worked out and the supplies ordered and delivered, the job went smoothly.  A few ski weekends for Rich may have slowed the timeline, but he deserved a break now and then.

The kitchen has an organic feel given the natural materials that make up the space.  Marble, wood and metal materials are used along with natural fiber rugs.

The single bowl fire clay farmhouse sink is practical and easy to use.  It was a great choice.

I selected a combination of pulls and knobs.  The flat front drawers needed a weighty pull so I selected cup pulls.

My advice to anyone taking on a kitchen renovation is to work out the plan and all the details before you start buying, have the project materials ordered and delivered before the job starts, and hire quality craftsmen.

Now I have my dream kitchen.