My husband is from the Netherlands and I love to cook, so we knew our kitchen would be prominent in our home, with a transitional bent. This is the perfectly practical, beautiful kitchen of my forever home dreams.

DETAILS:
Cabinets: Custom made by our amazing Amish cabinet maker, Joe Yoder. All drawers are full extension and soft close with Blumotion. We loved working with him, and he will be making the custom cabinetry in my pantry eventually, after we catch our financial breath!
Touch Activated Recycling Center: Cusom made by Joe Yoder. Power by Blum Servodrive.
Counters: Hanstone Specchio White quartz, with a small slab of marble on the baking center.
Floors: US Floors Marcas Areia planks
Backsplash: Solistone Mardi Gras in Carrollton.
Main Sink: Blanco Stellar Single Bowl with grid (441024)
Main Faucet: Delta Touch 2.0 Pilar
Main Disposal: Waste King model 8000 1 HP
Prep Sink: Blanco Stellar Single Bowl (441026)
Prep Faucet: Delta Touch 2.0 Pilar
Prep Disposal: Waste King model 8000 1 HP
Insta-Hot: from Insinkerator (LOVE this!)
Cooktop: Dacor PGM365-1S (saved $$$ by buying a floor model)
Venthood: Vent-a-Hood SLDH14-136SS (saved $$$ by buying a floor model)
Wall-oven: Jenn-Air JJW9830DD (saved $$$ by buying a floor model)
Microwave: Sharp KB6425PS (saved $$ by buying a dent and scratch)
Fridge: Whirlpool GSS26C4XXY
Dishwasher: Bosch SHE68E05UC
Freezer (in pantry): Frigidaire FKFH21F7HW
Island pendants: ET2 Fizz
Under Cabinet Lighting: Task Lighting Sempria LED UC Series
Under Cabinet Outlets: Task Lighting Angle Power Strips TR Series
Pantry Light: Maxim Malibu
Hardware: Generic pull bars that available everywhere.

Favorite Things (in no particular order):
* cork floors. So soft. So quiet. So easy to clean. LOVE LOVE LOVE them.
* quartz counters. Love the recycled glass and mirror. Easy to clean, no staining, despite my leaving turmeric and juice on it over night! eep!
* instahot. We drink a lot of tea. Now we drink more.
* my backsplash. It stopped me in my tracks when I saw it in a display and if possible, I like it even more in my own kitchen.
* vacupan under the prep sink. I put it to good use!
* pantry. I love having everything I need to make anything I want.
I'll stop now! :-)

View from the dinette:

View from the back corner (looking into the great room):

View from the command center (looking into the dinette):

View from the pantry door:

ET2 Fizz pendants:

Baking Center with lowered marble-topped counter and big drawers.

Top drawer of the baking center.

Most of my baking supplies fit in one of the drawers. I don't having anything in bottom drawer...yet.

Next to the baking center is my double oven, with a drawer below and storage racks above:

A nice bonus, the doors are high enough that I can't hit my head, but still low enough that I can reach everything I need.

Glass and Mugs above, Microwave drawer and another big drawer. The crockpot isn't always there, but I was making curried chicken today. Yum!

Under cabinet outlets by Task Lighting because I didn't want to break up my pretty backsplash:

Corner with storage above and super susan below (which is nearly empty):

Cooktop wall. Love the bottle racks our cabinet maker put in:

Spice drawer:

Cubbies for my oils and cooking wines:

Solistone Mardi Gras in Carrollton:

Bread drawer for the bread-addicted hubby:

View of the prep island from the cooktop side:

LOVE the instahot:

Command Center (ignore the cord that fell down. That has been clipped up)

Touch activated recycling center, closed:

Touch activated recycling center, open:

Outer Island with raised dishwasher. DH loves that it's like a bar with lots of lean-in space:

Other side of prep island, with drawers for all our dishes:

The drawers are so big that just this one holds my mom's entire 12 place setting china set.

We're switching to all cloth, so for now, I have 3 drawers of cloth towels. It'll get organized eventually.

Love the single bowl sink. This was DH's one request. Since he cleans the pots and pans, I was happy to oblige.

Close up of the quartz:

I had to personalize the pantry. "Eet smakelijk" means "eat tastefully" in Dutch.

My pantry :-)

On the freezer, you can see what the pantry will look like after the shelving is in:

My temporary appliance shelf:

Close up of the cork:

Thanks for all the help over the last two years of dreaming!

Bread drawer, is it an insert? Or specially made? I LOVE IT
Great to raise the DW.
LOVE LOVE LOVE Pantry door! Unique and cool, and pretty! BTW, do you mind giving the size of your pantry? It looks large!
LOVE the Pendants!
Back splash!

HOHOHO I will stop, but congratulations you lucky one!

Congratulations! Beautiful job.

Curious about the outlets under cabinet. How did you accomplish that? Like the idea of outlets up and out of view.

Only my second post, but had to come out from lurkerville to post!

[whisper] I have a box now. Still want 'em? [/whisper]

How beautiful. Your cabinets are my MBR cabs. That's all I could afford and I love every beautiful inch of them.

Btw, I love your blog (we're doing an ICF foundation, a house would be cool but it's not in our budget).

Congratulations! I know this is the result of a lot of planning on your part and you did an awesome job. It must be a dream to cook in. Enjoy!

Trainrunner, dank u wel! Mijn man is geboren in Helmond. Zijn ouders wonen daar nog steeds. (My husband is from Helmond. His parents still live there).

I started a food blog: http://eetsmakelijkwithjen.blogspot.com/, although I haven't keep it up well. I do try to make Dutch food often, mostly hutspot and borenkool, and occasional Dutch treats like paasbrood.

deedles: steal away, I got a lot of great ideas from other GWers over the last two years (and Houzz...and Pinterest). DH got me the Kitchen Aid over Black Friday for a song. It's a beast though, the professional series. There's no way I'd want to pull it out every time I want to use it. We designed that counter for it's home.

rhome: us too! I think we spent the first month walking around saying, 'Do we really get to live here?!' The kitchen has been great for my cooking club and cooking dates with friends. there's plenty of room to work and move around. The prep island in particular is ideal for having one person on one side and one on the other for prep work and cooking making!

kayakjen, the backsplash tile comes in several colors, in case you don't want green (Carrollton). Rampart is red. Bourbon is brown. St. Charles is a creamy white. Metairie is blue (though it looks green on a lot of screens. We ordered a sample, it is definitely blue!). Claiborne is black. Erato is teal.

SusieD3: the bread drawer was custom. It has a plastic liner covering the entire box, plus the sliding lid. The pantry is large! It's 9' x 9'10'. I forgot to mention that it has a sensor light on the door, which I love!

1929Spanish: Thank you! A lot of the kitchens posted here are a bit too tradition for my taste, but I usually see something that I like, style aside. I appreciate that you like my backsplash. Pictures really don't do it justice. Several friends have followed along on FB and our blog, then walk in and say, 'WOW! It's even better in person' Especially the tile. The lines give it a very subtle movement that doesn't get captured in a photo. I ordered vinyl letters for the door. I knew I wanted frosted glass, but the 'pantry' doors I saw were too traditional for our taste. This was perfect for us.

Olandy, thanks for reminding me. I forgot to add the paint color. It's Sherwin Williams Oyster Bay (Harmony no VOC paint). The under cabinet lights are from Task Lighting (tasklighting.com/products/angle-power-strip/). They were fantastic to work with. They even overnighted our order. What our lighting guy put in was plug mold. NOT what we had in mind, so we found Task Lighting. You can even pick the color of the column thing and rows (any combination of black, white and silver). I'm short, so I can barely see them when I'm standing in the kitchen, but DH doesn't see them at all unless he's looking for them.

CEFFreeman, YES! do you still have my address?

I have label-maker-envy. I've got to get one of those.

Congrats!

What an amazing attention to detail!

I have been to Amsterdam and I wish I could say it in Dutch but cannot remember a word.:-(

You have saved me a lot of planning time, thank you! :-)

I am trying to "green" my house too. If you don't mind, I'll PAN you with some questions.

P.S. I can't believe we have the exact same bamboo plant in the kitchen. :P

Did you "float" your floors? I have looked up your cork and the installation method is specified as "Drop & Lock Floating Installation - No glue required."

I have read before that cork should be glued in kitchens. IDK how true it is and I don't want to do it.

Thanks!

Bee, I have an old label maker. The new ones connect to your computer for more options. And then there's the Silhouette, which lets to do labels AND vinyl art. Mother's day is coming...

JScout, yes, you can. DH even said so! (thanks!)

Modern Mom, I'm glad you like it! I found a lot of inspiration here, on the Finished Kitchen blog, Houzz and Pinterest. I can picture certain kitchen with elements I loved, but can't recall whose was whose. :-/

Pondlily, what a fabulous idea!

Eleena, our mantra when making decisions was that we wanted "as energy-efficient, as earth-friendly and as universally designed as we could afford." There's always more than you can do, but every thing that you DO do will help. There are also many ways to look at green resources, too. For example, cork is considered green because it's sustainable, but you also have to ship it over to the States, which uses a lot of oil, so there you go. As far as universal design, I had in mind my own brain injury, my mom's arthritis and my young son's needs in mind. We were working toward accessibility, not nursing home chic! And accessibility is green, because if you build your house for both your current and future needs, you'll save money and resources because you won't have to redo light switches if you put in dimmers, and put in drawers because you have cabinets, and extra lighting because you'll need it later. For example, we went with a cooktop, because if I'm ultimately in a chair, I can pull out the drawers and still cook.

We did float the cork floor. Using glue would release VOCs which we wanted to avoid. I don't see any reason why the floors would need to be glued. In fact, I think you'd want floating to allow the floor to expand and contract, like you would with hardwood. Maybe someone else can chime in about that. You can learn more about our installation at the link below.

And it sounds like your cabinet maker has become a trusted partner in your remodel(s). Nice!

Thanks for sharing.

He really brought my recycling center dream to life. I saw this at Ikea in either Holland or Toronto a few years back:

When I looked for it in our nearest Ikea, I wasn't able to find it, and haven't since. I showed Joe the picture, and he made it work. We really wanted all of our trash and recycling in one place so that guests could recycle without any additional thought--it all goes in one place! The touch activation is just icing on the cake, but very, very nice when I'm baking or am processing chicken!

I love the cork floors and am interested in hearing about your experience with them. And your pantry! -- lots of great space there. Would you also post about your experience with your trash drawer with the Blum Servo-Drive?

Have a blast cooking it up!

I have cork floors, but they've been in their boxes under the kitchen table for 2 years.
I have the cork underlayment, but wasn't sure if on my plywood substrait, I needed to put a moisture barrier like tar paper or Tyvek paper? 3" under my plywood is concrete...

I'm going to read your link and probably contact the manufacturer.

Love love LOVE your kitchen.

We have very similar taste, which I'm sure leads to why I'm drooling so much over your kitchen. As much as I love my space, I would really love working in yours. So incredibly well planned, and really beautiful.

I don't even know where to begin addressing all the details I admire. All I can say is great job. Can I come to dinner? I'll bring the wine. :o)

CEFreeman, did you see the link to our blog above about cork installation. There's pictures of the process. It's basically subfloor, plastic, and cork planks.

JMcGowan, I LOVE the cork floors. It seems some on this forum have had issues with theirs, and other have also loved them, so I suppose it just has to do with brands. Ours are from US Floors, and they are so easy to take care of. Our housekeeper started up last week, and even she was raving about them. She said they took about 1/4 of the time to clean as our old wood floors, and look much nicer. They are soft, quiet, sound-proofing, don't get dust bunnies, and, according to the two teen boys who spend the night last night, perfect for sliding hockey-style on. So there's that, too :-)

In fact, we are planning to rip out the carpet in a few years and do the whole first floor in cork.

Ah yes, my pantry. I love it.

In our old house, we had this:

It worked really well, but I wanted a full size freezer in there so we could buy more bulk meat and dry goods. And I wanted something that could be accessible from a wheelchair if needed, which mean it needed room for the turning radius. And I wanted an appliance shelf for the appliances I use occasionally (like the coffee maker we have out only when my mom visits) that is waist high so I don't have to lift as much.

This is how it will eventually look (ignore the orange) once we bring Joe back:

The recycling center has been a lot of fun. It does have a sweet spot, that I usually miss when showing it off, but it will always open if I'm just leaning against the counter going through mail. The motor sits behind the bins, behind the shallow shelves that you can see when you're standing at the cook top. It plugs into an outlet inside the island (but accessible).

I don't know if you're still checking in on here since your kitchen is done, but I have a few questions for you. I was going to email you through your web links, but I thought that it might be helpful for this info to be on GW for others as well.

We're considering using the Fizz pendants over our island - can you tell me how long your island is? Do you find the coverage/spread of light enough with them? If you had to select pendants again, would you still go with them?

I see that you used the Task angled plugmold. Were you able to source it directly or where did you get it? If you ordered directly from Task, how did you go about doing so? When I look on their website, I don't see a place to order it and we're very interested in going with an angled plugmold if possible.

Our island is about 72" (we're out of town at the moment). We love the Fizz pendants and would definitely get them again. An LED version came out just after we bought ours, so we would switch to those, but love the design of the lights and the amount of light they put out. You can find them on amazon for less than what we spent at our lighting store.

We were not able to source the Task outlets directly. They only sell to contractors and electricians. Our Electrician called them and they were super to work with, even overnighted everything to us to keep us on schedule. we've been really happy with them, and I use the outlets almost every day.

Did those bamboo drawer dividers work for you?
If not, I hope you passed them on. :)

"I decided that the top shelf would be great for family photos. No more staging for me. My house will look like a home, not a model!"

I think we could start a new movement with that philosophy;)

Angela,
Our bread drawer is from Rev-a-Shelf. It comes in two sizes and three colors (almond, white, and clear). The price varies from $30 to $54.

If you google "rev a shelf bread drawer kit," you'll get lots of hits. It seems to be cheaper on Amazon.

We use ours daily. The drawer won't close if the lid isn't closed, which is kind of a pain, but then, if the lid isn't closed, it's not really preserving the bread, either, so we see it as a reminder. We love it and use it daily. We find that it's nice to put our non-refrigerated things like nutella and peanut butter right there in the drawer.

If you look toward the end of this post, I have a few more photos and a description of how it works.

It is SO nice when your hands are full of chicken or dough!

I wanted something that had a little variance to it, but was still subtle. I LOVE this backsplash! It's call Solistone Mardi Gras, and it comes in 4 or 5 colors. This is the grayish green (Carrollton).

We have a house blog, that covers everything from the dream stage to the build to now, at last, the settling in stage. I have the link below.

If you click on the photo of the house, it'll take you to the home tour post.

I really appreciate your help.

Your kitchen is a dream come true!

I'm curious about the Task lighting and outlets, too. We'll be using some kind of plugmold in our remodel - and I need to start getting my head around undercounter lighting, too.

I really do love your pendants... they seem like they have zero glare. Is that true?