Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Kitchen Renovation Reveal - Red or White?

Here we are at last with our latest kitchen reveal and it's a sizzling one. 
Remember these white cabinets, monster hood and that way too small island that we dished about here?


Well, of course we ripped things apart and made some unorthodox changes such as shrinking a window, removing the island and suggesting red counter tops, which you remember caused some debate among the family!
Well the votes have come in and, here's how it looks today. 
 
So as you can see, they went along with the red counter tops and man, what a burst of color for this fun family! To balance the red, we selected a classic Carrara marble tile for the floors and an arctic glass mosaic for the back splash. 


A rather large sink to wash the many dishes of this large family, is flanked by our clients faves, orchids which she grows out back in her amazing greenhouse.



Angular brushed nickel handles mimicked the shaker style shape of the chocolate cabinets. As you can see, going with the darker cabinets after all did not make the room feel any smaller. Even with a smaller window,  there's still plenty of light and we have loads of ventilation with a more streamlined and size appropriate hood!

When designing a kitchen, consider if you can, reusing appliances that are in good shape. Sure we could have gone bananas with some fancier items, but everything was still relatively new and we were able to save a lot by making that decision.

This cook top was originally in that tiny, misplaced island.

We maximized every inch of space here! Squeezed in these drawers which now house some exquisite bags of tea, and all sorts of other goodies, and we took the cabinets all the way to the ceiling and did a mix of horizontal cabinets with a frosted glass to house her fun dining items. Happy to report that pots and pans that were once stuck in a back room are all now housed inside a kitchen cabinet. As usual, we loaded up on those lights. Cannot stress enough how important a well lit space is.




Behind the Scenes

Like most major projects, we made plenty of compromises and there were moments of insanity.
  • For starters, in our original design, we thought we could add some extra inches to the kitchen by removing the angled edges of the wall framing the pockets doors at the kitchen's entry point. Those walls turned out to be solid and were simply not worth the money/time to remove and refinish. It meant we were stuck with one pantry instead of the two we initially wanted as seen in the above design. 
  • I'd suggested chrome finishes for the handles and faucet but my client had a new faucet sitting around in her garage in brushed nickel so we decided to save money and use what we had and to go with brushed nickel on the handles. Then guess what happened? After drilling all our holes, we realized the faucet was stationary, not a big deal, if you have a single sink! We had a double and needed a faucet that could move from side to side. Sigh. Double sigh. We had to find a budget friendly substitute which we did at Home Depot
  • In shrinking that window, we also shrunk our window treatment options! We definitely needed something for privacy but we had to again, select a shade that would not fight with all the elements and that would filter in the sun at all times so we selected white pleated shades by Hunter Douglas supplied and installed by the amazing team at Titan Decor.
  • And that's that. A new kitchen for one of my favorite clients whose been cooking up a storm every hour of the day. She also sent me the most heart-warming text the day after the installation, thanking our team for finally giving her the kitchen of her dreams. We'll tackle her master bathroom after the holidays. 
 I'll let you know that I often analyze projects to death longgggg after they're done and think about things I would have done differently, items I would have fought for etc...Do you guys do the same when you renovate your home or for a client? 
So what are your thoughts? Could you live with red counter tops? 
For a complete photo album visit our Facebook Page.

Source List


Floors: Carrara Marble 12 x 12 - $4.99 per sq. ft.


Glass Range Hood by Whirlpool
Cabinets: Single Shaker Chocolate
Counter top: Red Vital Silestone 

Backsplash: Arctic Ice Mosaic glass - $8.99 per sheet






11 comments :

  1. Love the red countertop! You guys are fabulous and thanks for all the sources too!! What a beautiful kitchen and an amazing update!!! You are so talented ladies!!

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  2. It looks SOOOOO good! Omg'd you guys did a fabulous job! So modern. So chic. I love the dark wood and red countertops. LOVE IT!
    http://www.averysweetblog.com/

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  3. i really, really like the red countertops. that's a wonderful touch!

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  4. Wow, awesome transformation! A little red goes a long way.

    As much as everybody loves an island, I think getting rid of it made such a dramatic difference in the feel of the room, for the better.

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  5. OH WOW!! What a transformation!! So mod!! Love the dark cabinets with the red accents.

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  6. I love the red counter top. That was a huge kitchen renovation. I know how stressing it can be since I did a total kitchen renovation in my first house and then again in my current home. Here is a link to how my kitchen looks now. http://www.collarcitybrownstone.com/2012/04/my-shabby-chic-kitchen.html

    Unfortunately, I don't have any before pictures but there was nothing to show. My house was empty and boarded up for two years before I bought it at an auction.

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  7. Those cabinets are delicious and I love the hardware. Great job.

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  8. Nice post, It is looking very nice after remodeling. Counter tops with red color is also looking very attractive.Thanks for sharing this post.

    Birmingham, AL Kitchen Remodeling

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  9. I guess I have different tastes, I love the original better than the redo as far as color scheme :)
    One reason could be because I hate red, always have since I was a kid.

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