I think your kitchen is beautiful. I love all the special touches. ;)
And, yes, we keep a fire extinguisher in our kitchen too. Safety comes first.

What a gorgeous kitchen!

I spy a beautiful metal glass rack on the wood counter in the first picture. I've been looking for a shorter one like that -- can I ask where you found yours?

jenva2010, the rack came from Vivaterra, but NapaStyle has one now too. They call it the "Inverse." I think both are the same price ($59-ish). Wisteria may have a short one, too...but maybe they only have a tall one...

It's really beautiful. You stuck to your guns and it appears you created just the type of kitchen you wanted. The backsplash is great...One of those lemons into lemonade things that are so great in a building project! I would love to see more of your 'command center' and breakfast room, and the view over your sink into the family room. It's all wonderful.

Oh, grilwprils, your kitchen is stunning, truly stunning, because you created it with your heart and soul! It may be small but it's mighty and full of character and charm (something my '90s kitchen lacks in spades). To echo rhome: I'd love to see more of your command center and breakfast room.

All the wonderful " you " touches in the entire remodel. You got what you knew would work for you. Lemonade for sure ! I love it all. I too have a quirky one of a kind just me kitchen. The design has to follow the limitations of the space and sometimes the crazy GC's. I think you did beautifully. c

Your kitchen is so warm and inviting! I love your soapstone counter and backsplash, hardware, and cypress top. But I lust after your stove, faucet, and work table! Enjoy!

Knowing all the anguish you suffered at the hands of corrupt architects and bad contractors, it's so good to see you finally have the kitchen you worked so hard for. It's really beautiful!!!!!!! Perfect, in fact. You did a great job!

It looks great, but didn't it conceptually start out with more color?

I love a white kitchen so I am not complaining :)

Grlwprls, I wondered what had happened with your kitchen. Nice to see the pictures. I like your kitchen a lot. It has so much of your personality in it. You did a great job and put so much of you into it. Plus I remember the difficulties you had along the way. Well I have to say I like the things that you said people were trying to get rid of. I had almost the same thing happen to me with my granite. I didn't want the granite backsplash but it got installed and could not be removed. I was upset but people coming in to see the kitchen were looking more at my kitchen and not even focused on the 4 inch backsplash like I was. Now I actually like it which surprises me. You have created such an interesting warm space. Thanks for posting the other pictures. It is nice when someone's personality shines through and it isn't so common and standard.

So beautiful! I love the shiny brass knobs on the range; it's just stunning. I would love a place like your storage for my cookbooks.

I don't know the history of your corner store, but it sounds like a great story if you have another thread to refer to. The house I grew up in from birth to abour 10 was a former converted storefront. My grandparents were mom and pop grocers during the Depression.

hi grl..

You have some really cool elements in your kitchen. And as the others said, your personality shines through. I like that alot.

KA:)

All of those special elements add up to a special kitchen! I'm normally not a huge fan of brass, but I do

I like it very much. The detailing is great. Would you be able to post a wider, overall picture. It would help me get a better sense of it. I remember the threads about the layout, and am interested to see if it turned out as I'd imagined. Is marcolo's ''H'' there?

i'm sorry i don't remember earlier posts of your remodel, but i'm thrilled for you! this is such a wonderful space; nicely designed and brilliantly outfitted. really, exquisite i think. all of the details are so beautiful and well thought out. and what faucet is that? i LOVE it. congratulations!

Oh how beautiful! Love the kitchen, love all the special reclaimed elements you have in there, love the layout, everything. But please oh please tell me about your stair treads. What are they? Sourced from where? How thick? Love the topper over your pony wall also although I really like altogether too much to name about the kitchen.

I think it looks fanTAStic! I love all your "you" touches--it leaves your fingerprints all over it, as it should be! These kinds of things make it a home.

I LOVE your range wall, and that RANGE--droolworthy! Everything is so well thought out, and it totally has personality!

I, too, would love to see more of "command central".

Great job, Girl!

BTW, you reminded me that we need a new fire extinguisher. :^)

Beautiful, every detail is just beautiful!! Enjoy.

Grlwprls,
You deserve this beautiful space!
After all the stress and being taken advantage of from
unethical folks. I am thrilled to see you are the
Phoenix rising from the ashes to create a phenomenal space.
~bp

Your kitchen is wonderful, so many great details.

I'm so glad you posted all the pictures. Thanks for the update too.

Utterly smashing. Congratulations for demonstrating that the proof really is in the pudding.

I hereby predict that you are ushering in THE kitchen look for this new decade: classic soapstone and white shaker spiced up with oak, brass, 4" backsplash, and the wonderful application of pure tung oil. People will be saying to their designers, "I am going for grlwprls look."

I missed your earlier threads, so this is the first I am seeing of it, and I think it's lovely. I also would like to see a wider shot to get a better overall view of it.

Everyone here seems to be familiar with your range, but I am not. The brass fittings on it are really cool. What brand range is it? How is it to cook on and bake in?

Grlwprls, terrific job! I really love your kitchen.

What a great Friday morning surprise! I love it. I love everything about it from the organic nature and texture of the rangehood and pottery placed against the sleek moderness of the glass BS next to the classic formality of the range, etc., etc., etc. I totally get the putting in what others are taking out. I too also want the oak countertop and the 4 inch BS with the soapstone. I have even gone so far as to consider...wait for it....a countertop of 4 inch white tiles instead of the soapstone. Not sure yet. I also love the faucet. It seems almost royal in some way! Can you tell I love it! Nice job.

Shannon

That is just lovely! What a warm space! I've got a fire extinguisher too. ; )

Just stunning, thanks for posting all the pics. I love the warmth of all the wood, brass, and special touches.Would love to hear more about the decoupaged knobs, especially...

Becky

Thanks for posting--I remember reading about your difficulties in prior postings and am so glad everything turned out so wonderfully for you. Many many things to love in that room, it all comes together beautifully.

This is such a wonderfully personal space. A cook's kitchen with a lot of soul.

What a happy space with real personality!

Thanks everyone, again, I couldn't have done it without a lot of advice from folks on these boards.

The cypress top was from a piece of board that was up in the attic. I hand sanded it and tung oiled it. I went through a lot of tung oil. :-)

THe steps everywhere in the house (including a custom iron/wood/stainless staircase that goes to the loft) were sourced from our rotten floor joists. Nearly every joist on the residential side of the house was rotted and while unable to be sistered, they could be trimmed, milled, and used as stair treads (and shelves). I would say they are about 1 3/4" thick 100+ year old heart pine. Considered "junk" at the time, they are highly prized now!

It's quite difficult to get a good "wide" shot of the kitchen because, in truth, it isn't that wide. It's a 12"/18"/36" range/18" with a blind corner (yuck!) - so 9' wide. The sink run is only 7' and the fridge wall is my "big" space at 12'. Since our sofa is on the back side of the sink wall it took ages to find one that was comfy and yet small enough. We have wall mounted lamps because we can only the tiniest of side tables!

The range is a La Cornue Fe Albertine model and the tap is an Hebeau Estelle with a wooden handle detail. I think the most expensive and ridiculous thing in the entire kitchen is the Rohl brass disposal flange. That thing cost $213 and woe unto anyone that cleans it with anything other than angels tears. It gets all out of sorts if any chemicals come in contact with it!

I'll post a pic of the room overall once our TV is replaced. The house got broken into while we were on vacation and the TV was stolen. We were able to get our components into our small bedroom exercise room, so they (along with several iPods, a macbook, and an iMac) apparently were only looking for the TV (oh, and the Wii motes...makes you wonder why they didn't go looking for the Wii!)

Marcolo's H sort of morphed into the pantry that faces into the living room. I gave up the idea of window seats, etc. and I'm glad. We have a bench under the window in the breakfast room for extra seating if we put the leaf in the table, and truthfully there's not much of a view, so no daydreaming out the window really. I tend to daydream in my private courtyard (by far the nicest little feature of the house).

The family that ran the grocery and many of the children/cousins that grew up in the house have been over to see it. In fact, the week we got our certificate of occupancy, the family brought me over a picture of their parents standing in front of the store. It was quite a moment for me a) because my contractor had crapped out on me and I was feeling quite sorry for myself and b) because the family lost nearly all their pictures in Katrina and it meant so much to me that they wanted me to have one (granted, it's a copy, but they went through a huge effort to find someone in the family that still had photos).

We commissioned a piece of art from the tin of our old canopy (we replaced it) to celebrate the former occupants and their lives here. One son, who just passed away last summer, was a famous jazz saxophonist. Mrs. Gallodoro grew veggies in the yard. The last cousin who ran the store sold parrots and lovebirds. So, we had a piece designed that features a "saxophone cornucopia" full of fruits and veggies with a pair of love birds sitting on the mouthpiece with a ribbon in their mouth with the original build year (1887) and our renovation date (2010).