My dream kitchen

Buying a house significantly under our budget that was still the size we needed and in our desired location meant that we could afford to redo the kitchen and get pretty much exactly what we wanted.  We didn't see a single house in our six months of house hunting with a kitchen anywhere near as nice as this one, even in homes costing $200,000 more. So, in the end, I think we won big time with this house.  The only way for us (in our price range in this city) to get a "dream" kitchen was to do it ourselves.  It was a headache (and still is since we still have a few loose ends not yet tied up), but certainly worth it.  I'm posting pictures for you even though it is really only 98% finished.  We have a few little things still not completed, but who knows how long they will take to finish, so I decided to go ahead and show our friends and family what we've been working on!  I'll explain the missing pieces of the puzzle in case you don't notice them in these pictures.

To explain the process a little... we did not use a designer.  I have watched enough HGTV and do enough cooking that I knew exactly what I wanted in terms of aesthetics and what I needed in terms of functionality before even beginning the project.  Oh, and have you met my husband?  Can you say detail-oriented?  Can you say engineer?  Between the two of us we had the design covered!  Once we had the room dimensions (which we only slightly altered) I knew what I had to work with in terms of space and our relatively few options for a footprint and work triangles.  I made it as functional as possible first of all.  We thought out every inch of free space, counter top, cabinet space, and so on.  Nothing was a coincidence or accident.  It was all planned out to the inch!  The dishwasher had to be to the right of the sink. The sink could not be facing a wall.  The stove, sink, dishwasher, fridge needed to form a tight triangle, and so on... You get the idea!

Here are some photos before and after.

View from the breakfast nook...

Before:

Now:

We moved the pantry down to allow for more storage and shrunk the laundry room to do so. We replaced the desk area with a large hutch for storage and counterspace.  We enlarged the island.  Moved the sink from the other wall (not shown here) to the island and put the cook top against the wall.  We added recessed lights, pendant lights, hardwood floors.  We widened the doorway to the dining room (so the freezer door would open more easily, but we also like the more open look).

View of the other side...

Before:

 Now:

By rearranging all the appliances we gained some nice symmetry along that wall and I got a lovely range and hood against the wall instead of on the island (which is just personal preference, but for me not negotiable!).
We went with separate fridge and freezer units because we loved the look, loved the increased storage and easier accessibility of them.  They are both counter-depth, which makes for easier flow through the room, and easier access to the food on the shelves (nothing gets lost way in the back because it is not as deep as most refrigerators). They are NOT built-in, they just look built-in.  They are by Electrolux, and cost about the same as a decent french-door refrigerator (which is what we had initially planned to get).

View from the dining room looking in...
Before:

 Now:

You can see in this comparison the effect of moving the laundry room back.  We added a frosted sliding door the the laundry room as a space-saver and to increase the natural light it the kitchen when the door is closed.

The countertops are Carrera marble. They are beautiful and relatively affordable, but the trade-off is that they will show wear and tear much more than an indestructible granite.  But since Italian kitchens have been using them for thousands of years, we just went for what we loved!

The cabinets were the absolute least expensive line of "semi-custom" cabinetry we could get from the cabinet company most of the builders use around here. They are exactly what I wanted, but I do admit that having our bathroom cabinet guys make our kitchen cabinets would have been a much better product, look and work experience, albeit at a higher price.  We had a budget to stick to, so we opted for semi-custom.  If I had bought a house in a higher-end neighborhood and felt I could have recouped the extra expense of the custom cabinets, I would have gone that route, but in this home in this neighborhood, it just didn't make sense.

Breakfast nook before:

And now:

We added a built-in bench for increased seating capacity, for aesthetics and for traffic flow (it basically pulls the table closer to the window rather than needing room for chairs to be moved in and out back there).  We can comfortably seat six there now and with an oval table we could easily do eight.

Laundry room....
Before:

 And now:

What's not finished?  Did you notice the single light bulb hanging from the ceiling in the breakfast nook?  We haven't had time to find just the right pendant for that space yet!  Did you notice the strange piece of brown trim above the stove?  That trim was added last and has not yet been painted white!  And we have a missing drawer (that is being replaced because it doesn't slide properly), but I don't think it shows in the pictures.

Other details in case you are redoing a kitchen and are interested... the sink is by Kohler.  The appliances are all Electrolux except for the cooktop which is by Bertazzoni.  The hood is by Zephyr. The cabinets were ordered from Markraft. The pendants were a bargain at Lowes.

A few more pictures:

 

Love my barstools! (From World Market)

Storage galore! I opened a drawer this morning to see what in the world I put in there while unpacking in a frenzy and discovered it was EMPTY!  Oh, my!  What a luxury!  An empty drawer!

 The drawer below this one is missing, but I framed it out of the picture! :)

I love the glass cabinet doors, but haven't quite properly arranged them yet!

I really wanted a farm-house sink.  So glad to have this one (Kohler)!

This baby has some serious storage room!  (Although in looking closely at our fridge contents, what in the world are we supposed to be eating this week???  Hmm... what can I make with beer, milk, eggs and condiments?)

Disclaimer: My kitchen is never this clean.  I just got her all nice and spiffy for you.  Do not be fooled by these pictures that our life is so neat and tidy.  The rest of our house is a disaster.  There are boxes everywhere.  It is December 10 and we do not have a tree yet.  Nor any gifts to put under it.... But my kitchen was clean for 10 minutes this morning.  And I will have to take what I can get at this point.