Welcome to Shiawassee Street (Part 9)
While most of the spaces were starting to feel like a home, there was still the most important part that needed to be done... the kitchen!! By now you have all followed along with so many projects in this 100 year old Shiawassee Street home. If you haven't, you can check out Parts 1-8 here! If you remember from Part 4, I had to make some kitchen decisions pretty early during the demo phase since I was taking down 2 different walls. Here is the sketch of the original floorplan vs. after the walls came down!!
As you know from Part 4, I had a grand ol' time taking the wall between the kitchen and dining room down to make room for a peninsula with a breakfast bar in it! This tiny kitchen was in much need of an open feel and added storage + prep space. Since I had my layout down, it was time to really nail down the design. I had a general feel at the beginning of this project on how I wanted the kitchen to look, but now it was time to actually solidify my selections.
I wanted the open floorplan to make the kitchen feel much bigger, but also function better. In addition, I love to entertain so the idea of bar height countertop between the kitchen and dining room would allow for extra seating. The layout of the new kitchen would also give me a huge run of countertop space on the peninsula for a prep and serving area! Having the seating on the opposite side set at bar height, it gave me some wall space behind the countertop for outlets. I even had my electrician run extra outlets and beefed up power for them knowing I would be able to plug in all of my crockpots when I had parties :)
During demo, I found one of the original cabinet doors buried under one of the refaced doors and they were gorgeous white, shaker doors! I really wanted to keep the kitchen design true to the 100 year old roots so my plan was to recreate the shaker cabinets in my new kitchen.
Because I planned to stay in this house awhile, I wanted to make this kitchen exactly how I wanted so I splurged on inset doors. If you remember from Part 4 where I gave a breakdown of the different types of cabinets, inset doors are exactly as they sound. The doors are set inside the face frame of the cabinet. They are harder to make which is why they are typically more expensive than other types, but they really give a kitchen a high end, custom look and I absolutely love everything about inset cabinets. They are just so gorgeous!
I wanted two-tone cabinetry so I went with a dark gray lower cabinet and white uppers. On the wall with the pantry cabinet, refrigerator, and mini coffee bar, I went all white to maintain some consistency. I designed the sink wall to be the focal point of the kitchen. The sink base was a knotty alder to really pop against the other gray lowers. I also pushed the sink base forward by a few inches to further set it apart visually from the rest of the lower cabinets which also added a little extra space around the sink. This was paired with a giant single-bowl, cast iron farm sink. This sink was massive - 140 pounds to be exact - sorry UPS man! But boy was it going to look amazing with the knotty alder base!
On top of the cabinets, I went with a Carrara-look quartz for the countertops. I love the look of real Carrara marble but wanted nothing to do with the upkeep required for marble countertops. Quartz is so incredibly durable with so many design options these days. Having a marble countertop in my current home's bathroom definitely made me realize how wise of a decision this was at the time!
At the last minute when I was ordering my cabinets, I decided to up my game on the upper cabinets on either side of the sink. Because I really wanted this wall to be the focal point of the kitchen - and the whole house really - I splurged a little more. Instead of typically uppers, I got cabinets that extended from the ceiling all the way down the the countertops with a bottom drawer and glass doors. This framed the sink and window and drew your eyes immediately to this wall. I can't even begin to tell you how obsessed with these cabinets I am. They are so gorgeous AND add extra storage!! Since I push forward the sink base slightly, I had some extra landing space next to the sink to balance out the countertop space taken by these cabinets... not to mention the huge run of countertops on the adjacent bar wall for ample prep space!
Once the cabinets, countertops and appliances were in, it was time for the finishing touches! I used matte black cabinet hardware throughout the kitchen and adjacent laundry room. Matte black is my favorite metal accent color. It goes with almost everything and it can feel modern or traditional if done right!
Since I went with inset doors, I was able to use cupboard latch pulls on all of the cabinet doors and paired them with traditional cup pulls on the drawers. I seriously love love love the latch pulls. They give such a unique look that gives a nod to the 100 year old life of the house. For the faucet, I keep the old feel going with a chrome bridge faucet. I have been in love with mixed metals before I ever knew that was a thing - the chrome + matte black combo is one of my faves!! Lastly, I finished off the kitchen with a traditional subway tile backsplash. As you know from Part 6, I got seriously good at laying subway tile so I flew through the backsplash install! And finally the kitchen was complete!
After almost 10 months of living in this house without a functioning kitchen, I FINALLY had a kitchen I could use! What a great feeling that was - I was seriously getting sick of living off of takeout and microwave meals! Let me know how you think the kitchen turned out! And stay tuned next week when it all comes together! If you missed any of the earlier parts to this series, you can check them out below!
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