A Week In Weston - Kitchen Reveal

Sometimes, all a kitchen that's been beat down and broken needs is some good old fashioned love and affection. Thanks to some of said affection, our client Sam - a lawyer/culinary school attendee - now cooks in this kitchen. But let's see how far this kitchen has come.

 

I know. It's a sea of oak cabinets with my favorite design pet peeve - fake plants! The good news? The cabinets are solid wood and were in excellent condition. Since a gut job was not in the budget, this was great news. It meant that all we needed to do was paint the cabinets and add some hardware. The appliances were all stainless steel and relatively new so again, great news.

Fresh white paint on the cabinets, would make for a great contrast against the new dark hardwood floors. We added a small overhang to the island so Emerson and Noa could sit close-by to help Sam as he whips up a favorite meal. 

We replaced the old countertops with granite, and added subway tiles as the new backsplash. We wanted some fancier cabinet handles, but they were insanely pricey and in the end these simple and classic ones proved equally fab at a fraction of the cost.

We reused the faucet but updated the sink.

And added roman shades to the windows in this sunny yellow fabric.

One of the must-haves for the kitchen was a banquette area. Sam and Athalia fell in love with this one we built for the fab Ms. Jina B., and so of course Shaggy went to work customizing one to best fit the space.   

 The entire family now chills here on a regular basis. This banquette needed lots of storage for Sam's massive collection of cookbooks - over a 100 books are stored between here and the adjacent family room. 

The open shelving also boasts family mementos and photos. Athalia also wanted a mix of fun throw pillows so we grounded that with a black cushion. 

Fun wire-legged chairs are a great seating option for kids since they handle spills and crayon marks really well i.e. easily wiped off. Like the dining table, we are planning to add glass to the top of this table to protect for wear and tear i.e. spills and crayons!

Two of these hinged pendants added just the modern lighting we needed in to vanquish the memory of the past fixture. Whew. A LOT has changed in this kitchen, and nary a jack hammer in sight. Have you painted kitchen cabinets are you on team gut everything and start over? Do tell. 

PS. Happy anniversary to my amazing hubby. Three years later and he still makes me laugh out loud, all the time. Thanks for being my rock, my comedian and the best baby-daddy a girl could ask for.  

                                            Source Guide

Pendants Lights - Lumens.com

Marble Tulip Table - Modshop1

Wire Base Chairs - Overstock

Metal Stools - Overstock

Granite - Panda Kitchen and Bath

Subway Tile Backsplash -  Home Depot

Roman Shades fabric - Designer discount fabric
Banquette -  Custom design by Circle Ten Maintenance for Nicole White Designs.

Kitchen - DIY Banquette

It's all about our client Jina B. this week, so as promised, let's dish about that banquette area that we previewed earlier this week here. This is how the kitchen looked when she first purchased the home.

If you recall, we then did a very budget-friendly update with a few cans of paint, new appliances and some accessories. You can see the complete transformation here.

Jina now wished for a banquette, which can be costly since you typically need to have them custom made. But her banquette area was very close in width to the size of an unfinished pantry from Home Depot - flipped on its sides of course. Once on its side, the pantry also had the perfect seating height - 18". For added safety and support, we added plywood atop the pantry/seating and affixed the entire piece to the wall. We then added hinges for easy access to the banquette doors so she could use it to store some party items.

 

There would be some room between the seating and the existing kitchen cabinets so adding a base cabinet made sense. But since we had no plan to install additional granite for the new cabinet to be flush with the existing counter top, we decided to turn it into something she'd certainly appreciate - a wine rack. Yes, Jina loves her some wine so this would be a bit of a surprise since ya know, she kinda lets me do my thing. To build the wine rack we simply removed the doors, purchased ready made wine inserts (called wine lattice), painted and a wine rack was born. The area then became a little drink station of sorts for all the parties she has already had this year, and will continue to have. Without further ado, here is her kitchenette with a customized banquette, super cool Tulip table/chairs et al. 

 

 

A huge shout out to Shiggaion, aka Shaggy of Circle Ten Maintenance, who executed this DIY and puts up with my crazy ideas - which usually start off something like, "Hey Shag, what ya doin? I have an idea." He never says no. As you can see, he's also our resident photographer.

Source Guide

Tulip Table/Chairs - Lexington Modern

Banquette seating/wine rack - Home Depot

Wine Lattice/Hinges - Unity General

 Curtains/Pillows - Titan Decor

Pendant Light - Lightology

Artwork - Home Goods

Accessories - Home Goods, Target, Z-Gallerie