Kitchen Progress

We are making Progress.

Slowly but surely.

  

The cabinets are installed, the countertops are in place 

and the faucet was hooked up today! 

I'm not sure what is most exciting to me... 

It's all so beautiful!

It's truly my dream kitchen.

Each step brings us a little bit closer to functioning again.  

It's been six weeks and we are on schedule 

but I am so ready to be done....

The floors have been refinished and they look beautiful. 

I even got to eliminate some squeaky boards that have tormented me for years.

The electric work needs to be completed 

and the trim for the cabinets and doors should be finished this week.

Painting next week.   

Then the appliances can be installed and we'll be back in business!

And I'll have something pretty to show you.

In the meantime, here's a peek at what's been happening
and some thoughts on why I chose what I did.


Cabinets and countertops.....

Love those star mullions....
Here's where I got that idea....

I think the floor color turned out nicely.
A good match to the rest of the floors in the house.

Here's the sink and faucet.
And it works!
Running water is such a wonderful thing.

I chose a Brizo Beliza faucet and matching soap pump for the clean lines. 

A single handled, one hole faucet with a built in pull out spray.
There are some faucets that require three holes in the countertop for the same features!
Not on my gorgeous new Mystery White countertops.
Love that little soap pump. It's so unlike all the others....

I didn't want a lot of fuss on the island.  

It's very open to our family room and I wanted to keep it simple. 

 Plus the stone countertops are sooooo beautiful, I thought less would be more.

The sink is a trusty Elkay.
I had one for 25 years and it still looked like the day they put it in.
It was one of those bowl and a half numbers, which was all the rage in the eighties.
I always liked it, but I got tired of having two sinks and only one disposal.
Having to transfer the muck from the large sink to the small one just to use the disposal
never seemed efficient to me. I did like the large sink, though.

This time, I opted for one large sink, with one disposal.
One large sink is the most popular sink choice right now
and I'm so glad I'm in fashion
because I bucked the other current trend of really deep sinks to go with this one. 

It's only 7" deep, but when you add the thickness of the countertop

 to an undermount sink, it becomes over 8" deep.  

I have a much deeper sink in the laundry room 

where we have been doing dishes for the past six weeks 

and that's what convinced me to go "shallow".  

I'm not tall.  At all.  

And reaching down into the bottom of the deep laundry sink 

to pick up silver ware and other things is a big pain in the back for me.

Glad I've had the experience so I know what I really want.

I had treated myself to an air switch for the garbage disposal a few years ago,
and that little luxury made the move to the new countertop.
No more feeling around under the sink cabinet with wet hands,
looking for the disposal switch!
It's that button on top of the counter, next to the faucet-
so handy!
I wouldn't have it any other way again.

That's all for now!
I think I'll go wash some stuff.
There are plenty of dusty things to choose from....

Linking to:
Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch
Inspire Me Monday at Sand and Sisal
The Scoop at Cedar Hill Farmhouse
Inspire Me Tuesday at A Stroll Through LIfe

The New Cabinets are Here! The New Cabinets are Here!

They're heeeeere!

The new cabinets have arrived and they are gorgeous!

Click here for some background on our kitchen remodelling plan.

The last three weeks have been very busy around here, but there was nothing pretty to show you.

All of the prep work- demo, new walls, electric, plumbing, drywall and floor work is done.  

All of it nece$$ary, none of it fun.

Our contractor, Doug Funk of Spengler Homes 

has done an amazing job of coordinating the project, with precision timing that makes my head spin. 

The drywall was finished on Friday and the cabinets were delivered today.

Installation starts tomorrow!!!!!

That's when the fun really begins.

I have been perusing my favorite sources, Houzz and Homebunch and Georgiana Design 

(you might say I have been obsessed with this) for design inspiration for several years now. 

I have folders and folders of kitchens I love 

but I never had that Aha! moment until I saw this kitchen on Houzz:

What caught my eye, in addition to the layout being very similar to what I was planning

were those gorgeous star mullions in the windows!

I have seen regular mullions like in the cabinets above, and criss cross mullions like in this picture below:

But I've never seen star mullions in the cabinet mullions...

  I could get excited about those. 

I drew up this sketch and Voila! I knew I had my Kitchen Inspiration.

And presto, here they are!

Even prettier than I imagined.

And see those jumbo brackets stacked up in front of the cabinet?

Those are going to be fabulous.

I have always loved brackets in kitchens.

At least ten years ago, I hired Ed Dolan, the entertainment unit surgeon from this post

and creator of many other projects, to make me some chunky brackets to update my old oak kitchen.  

They were beautiful and they added a lot of charm.  

I thought some painted brackets would do the same in the new kitchen. 

These brackets were inspiring

 As were these

Photo from Litchfield Designs

And the kitchen above also has wood panelling for the backsplash, another idea I'm in love with.

I love the old colonial, east coast vibe.  I am from New Jersey, after all...

I'll use stone behind the cooktop, but I'm planning on using 5' wide V groove panelling for the back splash.

I like tile for other people, and other projects, but not for this kitchen.  

It is so open to the family room that I don't think tile works.

You can see some of the V groove panelling inside this cabinet that will be installed over the refrigerator.

I'm trying out the basket thing here...

I want to use baskets and wood to warm up the white.

I love the look of the old wooden cutting boards here-

and here

Both images above from Cote De Texas Blog

For my own twist on this idea, I found this scalloppy cutting board at World Market

(Remember how much I love "scalloppy" things?)

and will lean it up against the panelled backsplash.

And woe to anyone who dares to actually use it!

Do you hear me, Mr. Grand?  It's for decorative purposes only...

I'll get you your own brand new cutting board.

And finally, lighting.

I fell in love with this picture from Houzz 

(along with that adorable little girl)

and I plan to hang three drum shaped burlap pendant lights over my island, 

staggering them in pattern and height.

I have something creative planned to cover the hanging cords...

The electricians were rolling their eyes when I described my idea.

They'll see.

Stay tuned!

It's going to get interesting!

Thanks for visiting.

Linking to:
Inspire Me Monday at My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia
Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch
Inspire Me Tuesday at A Stroll Through Life
Wow Us Wednesdays at Savvy Southern Style

Grace Kelly Bracelet Challenge

The Grace Kelly Bracelet Challenge 

I should start at the beginning.

Any "Castle" fans out there?

Our whole family is addicted to the ABC TV Show "Castle".  

If you haven't seen it, I envy you because you can start from the beginning 

and watch about 150 episodes and discover the delights 

of watching Castle and Beckett and Company 

cavorting through crime scenes in NYC together.

It's funny and  interesting and it's creative and fast paced.

We somehow only discovered it this winter 

and we have been binge watching the early seasons.

It's great.

Anyway, it was several weeks ago when Darling Daughter (DD) and I were watching 

the Castle episode based upon the Alfred Hitchcock movie "Rear Window" 

starring Jimmy Stewart and Grace Kelly. 

It occurred to us that DD had never seen the original movie 

and so, through the magic of technology and our fancy smart TV, 

we were able to push a few buttons and watch it right then and there.

DD liked the movie well enough, but we were distracted and soon became obsessed 

by Grace Kelly's wardrobe and more specifically, 

the fantastic pearl and charm bracelet she wore with that gorgeous green suit.

It is hard to find a clear picture of the bracelet 

but it looks like about six strands of pearls 

and a half a dozen large, clunky charms and lockets.

She was sooooo gorgeous in this movie.  

And she wore the whole fabulous wardrobe so perfectly. 

Sigh.

But that bracelet!  

We searched the internet to see if we could find one, but to no avail.

We did learn that we weren't the only ones who were smitten by the bracelet.  

There are scores of photos and style articles about it and lots of blog posts, too.

Add me to the list.

We talked about making our own bracelets 

and decided to go to the flea market together someday to find the parts.

Fast forward.

Kane County Flea Market, this past weekend.

Darling Daughter spies some vintage pearl bracelets 

and an old jewelry box filled with gold charms in the same antique booth. 

Her wonderfully young brain remembers- the Grace Kelly Bracelet Challenge.

It's On!

(We watch a lot of HGTV)

We comb through the jewelry and find the perfect strings of pearls 

and the perfect sized charms 

and we squeal (silently) together when the dealer tells us 

we can have them all for $12.00!

The bracelet was actually very easy to put together.

I've made a few bracelets over the years, so I knew just what to do.

You can read about some of them here and here and here....

I attached the charms to the clasp ends of the bracelet using jump rings

 - it helped to start with one really pretty bracelet and clasp-

and I attached the pearl bracelets together too.

The original bracelet in the movie has six strands of pearls 

and we thought about buying one long string of pearls and wrapping it six times, 

but DD is petite and we thought the six strands were too much for her.

The charms we chose have a coin theme going, even the sand "dollar"...

Here's our version:

The pearl clasp is perfect 

and the charms all bunch together well when it's closed.

Finding the "B" initial charm at the same booth told us it was meant to be.

The large coin is probably a reproduction of an Emperor Napoleon Franc.

I say probably, but we prefer to think it is genuine and worth a small fortune. 

That's way more fun! 

DD envisions herself wearing this bracelet 

to Formals at school and to work this summer.

I think it turned out very well.

Fit for my princess, for sure.




Linking to:
Inspire Me Monday at My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia
Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch
The Scoop at Cedar Hill Farmhouse
Knick of Time Tuesday at Knick of Time
Inspire Me Tuesday at A Stroll Through Life
Wow Us Wednesdays at Savvy Southern Style