Kitchen Details-- The Basics

So after being quarantined at home with a nasty cold for 4 days, Caleb's now sick.  Looks like I'm going to be housebound for a few more days!  Normally I would be going pretty crazy at the thought of being stuck at home, but in 3 days I'll be boarding a plane with the two kids-- so I'm more than willing to lay low for a few days and rest so that everybody's healthy for the plane ride.  Flying with two healthy kids can be challenging.  Flying with two sick kids?  A disaster.  Trust me, I've been there.

Enough about sickness...

As promised, I'm going to post about some of the details of our kitchen re-design over the next few weeks.  Today I'm going to give you the low down on some of the basics-- cabinetry selection, countertop choices, faucet/hardware... that kind of stuff.

First up-- cabinetry.  The last kitchen we renovated ended up with dark stained cabinetry-- in this house I've always known it was going to be white.  The house felt so dark and dated when we first moved in and there was no flow from room to room.  Since it's not a large house, I've tried to brighten it up by keeping all the colors light and airy and by keeping the color scheme consistent across the board so it would have better flow.  Sticking with white makes sense.  Over the past few months I've toyed with the idea of color-- I'm loving all the grey painted cabinetry out there-- but this house needs white!

via decorpad

All of the trim in our house painted in cloud white-- so the cabinetry will be cloud white as well.  And we'll be going for your basic shaker door-- nothing too crazy... just keeping it simple.

Now about countertops-- it's a huge decision.  I love the look of marble, but am a little concerned about staining and etching.  Quartz is pretty much the way to go these days-- and so I've looked at all the samples out there.  There are several companies that have "marble lookalikes" so far, the one that I think would work best for me is Misty Carrera by Caesarstone.  

It's got a lot more grey in it than some of the other quartz samples I've looked at, but I think that's going to work for me.  I don't want something that looks too crisp and modern-- I want a softer look.  And you know what?  I might just change my mind in the end and go with marble.  My friend reminded me the other day that I have two kids and white couches-- I could probably take care of marble.  And really, if there are little stains here and there it wouldn't be the end of the world.  We'll see.  

On to faucets--  did you know that you could go to Hawaii-- or you could buy a kitchen faucet?  Seriously-- there are some pretty darn expensive faucets out there... and the problem is, I tend to like the expensive ones :)  But that's not going to happen-- if I did have an extra $2000 I'd probably choose Hawaii.  Wouldn't you?

I wanted a faucet that was a more traditional style (but not a bridge faucet-- Doug made it pretty clear that he DOES NOT like bridge faucets), I wanted it to still be a bit more updated and modern, not too high (11.5" will be perfect with my low window) and I wanted a polished nickel finish.  I think I found the one I want-- for a pretty decent price.

faucet direct

And yes, I know that two handles are not as practical as one.  But I like the way two look-- and the reality is, when I turn on the tap, I either want really cold water or really hot water.  And yes, no pull out sprayer.  You may think that's not very practical-- but it is.  Let me ask you this-- is it practical when your kids discover that your kitchen faucet doubles as a water gun?  I think not.  And I also hate it when the pull out part doesn't go back into the faucet and stay put-- so annoying.

And finally... cabinet hardware.  I already showed you my choice for all the drawers-- the 4" Duluth from Restoration Hardware in polished nickel.  They are already sitting in the closet ready to go.

I'm putting knobs on all the doors.  Doug and I don't see eye to eye on this-- he prefers handles.  But in our last place we had bigger handles on all the drawers and doors and in a smaller kitchen I felt it was a bit busy.  So, in this kitchen we're going to keep it simple and stick with knobs on the doors.  Plus they're cheaper-- bonus.

I like the classic look of the Aubrey Knob. I like that the base of the knob isn't too big.  Instead of ordering from RH I'm going to take one of my Duluth pulls out shopping with me to see if I can find something that will match for a better price.

So those are some the things I've been thinking about for my kitchen.  I will warn you that I reserve the right to make changes to any of this at a moment's notice.  Until it's installed, anything could happen. Except for the Duluth pulls-- they're not going anywhere.