Before:

After...

Here is the original floor plan:

And the new floor plan:

(nb. The caption that reads "air gap" should read "vac pan"!)

Here’s what we did:
• Knock it down and build it out. Our house is almost 100 years old and as such, the original kitchen was quite small – about 9x10. We have an unusually shaped lot, and the shape allowed for us to be able to knock down an exterior wall and build out.

• Make it look unique and up to date but fitting with the rest of the house. The objective was to make the kitchen look like it was always there, with more up to date appliances. To achieve that, we had the cabinets hand-painted and distressed and chose heritage colours. We used reclaimed oak planks for the island countertop; the hardware is a combination of hand-forged cast iron from England and finds from architectural salvage. Countertops and the main sink are soapstone.

• Find room for the "library"! An imperative was to find a home for my 300+ (and counting) cookbook collection. We achieved that through clever cabinetry and the acquisition of a beautiful old hutch.

Here are the details:

• Cabinets custom made by Melo Woodworking, a local Toronto company (no web site!). Maple wood stained, painted, distressed and glazed by Homestead House. Colours used were Tapestry for the perimeter cabs and Cartier for the island. They did an amazing and painstaking job.

• Soapstone counters and apron front farmhouse soapstone sink by N+G Soapstone.

• Appliances:
Liebherr RBI 1400 24" all-fridge with Biofresh
TurboChef double ovens, with custom RAL 3011 red oven door
BlueStar 36" cooktop with centre grill
Custom Modern-Aire hood, 1000 cfms
Miele Excella full dishwasher
Fisher Paykel single Dishwasher Drawer

• Walker-Zanger Antequera Random Mini Brick backsplash

• Kohler faucets
Wall-Mount potfiller K-7322
Main sink faucet K-8761
Prep sink Vinnata K-691

• Hardware on the perimeter cabinets: Whitechapel Hardware, based in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

• Hardware on the island and fridge: architectural salvage from Olde Good Things in NYC

• Bar stools from America Retold. Last place I saw them was at organize.com

• Floors are radiamt heated limestone from Marble Trend; it’s Jasman.

• Wall colour in kitchen is Plaster by Homestead House; stairwell to basement and up to second floor is Benjamin Moore Buckhorn

• Art: We have some great pieces, including my beautiful roosters from local contemporary folk artist Pey Lu, and a couple of pieces from my best friend and amateur artist, Vera.

• Timing: We started the project in May 08 and it was "completed" in December (read: we kicked the GC out!!). Along with the kitchen, we rewired the house, excavated down to a new laundry room, added storage, repainted everything, redid the bathroom in the basement etc etc... It was a house reno disguised as a kitchen addition.

• How it came together: We didn't work with a designer - the ideas were ours, brought to life by our GC - and primarily me spending *hours* on Gardenweb. A huge THANK YOU for all of the generosity, advice, wisdom and passion for all things TKO from the great GW community!

Here’s the link to my blog, which includes a full slideshow of the before and after. Enjoy!

Eliz

Your reno sounds similar to mine - we've got foundation work to do first, rewiring, new plumbing, completely gutting the ground floor, then kitchen, powder room, etc. You give me hope that it will be all worth it.

You nailed it with that kitchen, awesome job.

isajules, the backsplash is from Walker Zanger - it's Antequera Random Mini Brick.

HTH,
Eliz

Eliz

I also considered the cooktop between my two windows but we would have had to go through 2 ft stone walls to vent the exhaust outside. Your stone wall looks beautiful.

Your kitchen is one that looks like a great place to work. Love the light and openness the windows provide. And, your antique hutch for your cookbooks - excellent and fitting idea. We had our cabinet maker build a hutch for our new kitchen but I'm still on the lookout for an antique hutch for the dining room.

Thanks for posting the link to your blog. I think I'll spend an evening by the fireplace tonight reading through it and enjoying your photos. :)

I posted a quick comment on your new kitchen post - it's really lovely!! I can imagine how beautiful the rest of the house must be. I hope you enjoyed cooking up a storm over the holidays.

Thanks so much for your nice comments. In regards to the hood, I was worried about it initially, esp as conventional wisdom dictates putting the hood over the entire cooking surface. As it happens, I generally use the induction as I thought I would - for slow simmers and low heat cooking (other than super fast boiling of the tea kettle :-), so the "lack" of hood is not an issue.

We love the open windows too! and our hutch, as I'm sure you must be enjoying yours. I love the contrast of the creamy white with your warm wood cabs.

Hope you enjoyed the blog - just posted about cooking turducken for Christmas. It was delish!

Eliz

I just got a copper hood and now have to redesign my finishes and your kitchen is totally my inspiration.

Thank you,
Amanda

The hood is stainless steel. Funny story about that - when I ordered it from ModernAire (through a local distributor), I asked for a powder coat matte grey finish with stainless steel bands and a stainless steel lip. We weren't back in the house yet (having moved out for four months because of the major demolition work), the cabs were not painted, the backsplash wasn't up and everything was generally in a state of "half-done".

About two weeks after I placed the order, and on one of my regular visits to the house (to babysit the GC! :-), I had a sinking feeling that I had done the wrong thing - that I should have ordered all stainless instead. Called ModernAire - but it was too late - the hood was in production. :-(

Fast forward a few weeks and the hood finally arrives.

It was ordered incorrectly! Instead of the stainless trim, it was all powder coated, an error of the distributor who placed the order. Phew! We were able re-order and even though there was an upcharge for all stainless, I was so happy. A serendipitous accident :-)

I love hearing that the kitchen is inspirational. It was 12 years and *hours* of time researching to get us to the end result and we love it every single day.

Cheers,
Eliz

Lynn

We really do like the Turbochef. The "regular" oven is quite good, and I use that frequently. My favourite things to make in the speed oven are roast chicken (delicious and juicy in 25 minutes) and things like roasted veggies or fish. I can get home from work and have dinner on the table in 45 minutes, including all the prep.

A couple of niggles. Because the temp settings on the oven are on a dial, to go with the retro design, you can't calibrate temperatures. For instance, if a recipe calls for 225F, I can only choose 200 or 250. The increments are more like an old-fashioned oven. So, for instance I don't have 225F, 275F or 475F. Now, I've never had a digital temp dial but I am assuming that I would have more room for calibration.

The other thing is the cleaning. Even though it has a self clean feature I have been advised (by the folks at TC) not to use it. The ceramic plate gets quite dirty. One trick I learned about from this forum is to put 1/2 c of ammonia in a glass bowl and leave it in the oven overnight. The fumes break down the accumulated build up.

Re: induction. I learned about induction through the appliance forum and while intrigued, I didn't want to fully commit, esp. as I had always envisioned a gas range. Plus DH really wanted gas (what is it with men and fire?) I love having both. The induction gives me a bare whisper of heat for super slow or low simmering, which I can't get with gas, and we have recently sarted using our gas grill more frequently with great results. I love the combination!

HTH, Lynn - happy to answer any other q's.

Eliz