Traci, I like what you've done so far! Obviously I'd like it . . . our color schemes appear to be very similar! My cabinets are white with a pewter glaze, the island is charcoal. Walls are grey, probably a bit lighter than yours. My perimeter countertops are Zodiaq Eclipse Blue; the island is Venezia Polo brushed granite -- a very quiet granite -- the interest is in the textured surface.

The first pic below shows my kitchen a few days ago, just before SS appliances were installed. The second one shows the mix I'm using . . . the backsplash will be the darker of the two sample glass tiles. It appears to have brown in the mixture, but not IRL.

I think marble would work for you, but there sure are a lot of gorgeous glass tiles out there!! We sorta fell in love with these two, but there were lots more I could have loved!

I don't envy your living through the remodel -- Ours is new construction, but we've been in your shoes several times. I think wrapping your appliances would be a wise idea. Maybe others will have more advice.

Hi hostagrams,
That's so funny how similar our kitchens are in color palette! The granite that will be on our island is also a similar color (Persian Pearl). I like what you've done also :) I love that glass tile and I actually think I've looked at it before as a possibility. The only reason I ruled it out is that I think I want a different size such as mini bricks or possibly the longer "stick" type glass tile with different sizes (not sure what it's actually called!). Are you using the other glass tile at all or is it one you were just considering?

Good luck finishing up - I think you'll be done way before me! We've still got quite a bit to finish up in another room and some outside work as well, so I'm sure we're looking at at least a few more months. Of course the contractor's estimate was to be finished at least a month ago but you know how that goes!

Traci I love your kitchen, you are going to really enjoy having such a nice big new space!! I really like your ceilings and your color palette!

As far as covering stuff. We have used a thick plastic for some things and then moving blankets for other things that we were afraid might get bumped as electricians, plumbers, etc. have been moving through doing their thing.

I can really relate to all of the dust being EVERYWHERE, we are doing a multi-room remodel, every room has had something done to it and so we have dust everywhere!

Keep posting pics I love seeing the progression of people's kitchens!

I love the color of your kitchen walls! I also love your hardwood floors. What wood species and what stain? Is this site finished and a natural stain? What gloss finish is on the floors that look so perfect with your wall color and cabinet color?

I love the glass backslpashes shown by one of the posters above for your kitchen. I also think a nice tumbled Botticelli with a mushroom color grout would look great.

Thanks Kat! I actually hadn't thought about also covering with blankets - I think I'll cover with plastic AND put blankets over things. I know what you mean about every room having something done to it and dust everywhere. We hadn't planned on doing something in every single room, but one thing led to another and on and on! I've given up trying to keep dust from getting in other rooms now and am just waiting for everything to be finished to clean. I feel as if it must be blowing through the vents also or something because it immediately returns if I do wipe any surface off! Do you have photos of your other rooms? I'd love to see them - you can email directly using my gardenweb page if you'd rather. I also love seeing other photos - of course I always find things I wish I'd done though! :)

Lynn2006 - that is so funny that you asked about the floor! The reason I say that is because it's actually unfinished and hasn't even been sanded!!! Looking back at the photo it does look finished though - I can assure you that in person it doesn't look so great :) The wood is white oak because it's what's in the rest of the house and we're having all the other floors re-finished at the same time the kitchen floors are stained. And even though it's tempting to stick with a natural stain, I've had my heart set on really dark floors forever now, so we're doing an ebony stain throughout the entire house (currently the oak is a medium reddish/golden stain and I'm really sick of it). I am really pleased with the wall color - there will be one more coat toward the end though so hopefully it will look a bit better after that. It's called Argos from SW. Thanks for the Botticelli suggestion - I'll check that out!

What a lovely kitchen you are creating! I was immediately struck by the wonderful natural light, wall color and the interest in the ceiling! Love it!

I think you are so wise to try and cover new appliances with both the plastic and blankets. Especially if they still have to sand floors! Thanks for sharing your progress, it is going to be a great space!

Wow, beautiful kitchen!! It reminds me of one of my favorite GW kitchen's...alliern.

Paint color is perfect. Good luck with the rest of the reno.

Here is a link that might be useful: alliern's kitchen

Traci

Your new space looks like it is really coming together nicely. I feel your angst about the demo & ongoing reno and general intrusions on your daily life.

If the kitchen is not needed for any pathway or traffic I would ask the GC to put up some plywood in the new/old casement opening - if feasible - - additionally the reason plastic doesn't work is it typically is the thinnest ply they can buy - a 4-6ml ply plastic that is properly installed - may take tacking w/furring strips to top & bottom will do a much superior job - an a big sign on it "NO ENTRY"

good luck

Traci, I'll upload some before and "almost" after pics to my photobucket account and email you the link! :)

Thanks, alice462! I'll post more as I go along, but I'm afraid it may be awhile until truly "finished"! It's interesting that so many people have commented on the paint since it was one of the things I was concerned about. I was afraid it would look too stark being gray, but I absolutely love it!! And my husband was dead set against any gray, but after finally giving in and agreeing he even likes it :)

Positano - I LOVE alliern's kitchen so it's a HUGE compliment to be compared to hers :) The strange thing is that I didn't see hers until I'd chosen all the colors and materials for mine because I didn't find Gardenweb until we were several months into the renovation. If I'd found it sooner I probably would have copied many of the things I've since seen in the kitchens of others - haha! I hope mine turns out even half as nice as alliern's when it's all done though!

jejvtr - I would love it if they were able to avoid using the new area as a pathway, but unfortunately I think they are going to have to due to location. The only large opening from the old kitchen leads directly into the new and into the garage (the door is where you see the rug in the top photo). The old and new kitchens are at the back of the house and currently there is no way out there since we're planning on adding a deck (the old kitchen window will turn into French doors leading to the deck with windows on each side). Anyway, I was hoping the deck could be built and they could cart everything from the old kitchen out that way but my husband said that they would need to have the opening for the doors cut out before to make sure the deck will be level, etc. So...I think I'll just continue my original plan of wrapping everything up, putting brown paper all over the floor and putting the fear of God into the contractors about not messing up the new kitchen - haha!

Gorgeous kitchen! I love your ceiling but I've always loved that type of ceiling. I wonder if I can pull that off in the kitchen/family room of our 15 yr old transitional home....

hostagrams, your kitchen is another beauty (your name makes me think you must be a gardener).

Traci, great progress! The finished kitchen will be beautiful!

Re the dust...hmmm...I don't honestly know that there's any help for it. All the suggestions here are good ones. But it just seems that darn construction dust, because it's so fine, gets in everywhere. We *lovingly* refer to the basement as "the dungeon", because it's the one part of the house we haven't had the heart or will to tackle since moving back in. It is a DISASTER.

There was a post last summer where someone suggested a ventilation set up along with the plastic sheeting. At one point I had it clipped and just tried to search for it; no luck. Maybe that will ring a bell for someone here.

Good luck - it will be worth the pain! :-)

Eliz

Traci, I meant to tell you that I love your ceiling, too!! We also worried about the grey -- it's actually my basic neutral everywhere, and I was afraid I'd feel like we were living in a London fog, but every day I love it more. We'll be moving in soon -- must be out of this apartment May 1 so we're scrambling to get final details done for inspection. We may be sleeping on DD's floor for a while!!

We actually are still considering both of the tiles for the BS -- we wanted to wait till all the other elements were in place before deciding. I love the white one in the sample, but in a photo, I thought looked a little spotty. We'll see when we bring a larger sample into the room.

Lisa: Thanks! My kitchen certainly won't be everyone's cup of tea, but I'm loving it so far! And yes, I am a gardener -- I moved 125-150 hostas from Indiana to Tennessee last spring and have carefully nurtured them for a year -- they're still in pots, waiting for landscaping to happen -- probably not till fall!!

Kat - I'll look forward to seeing your other photos!

Lisa - thanks, I'm sure a coffered ceiling would look great in your house! I think it can be tailored for a particular space depending on how formal or informal you want it to look. I have to give the credit for the ceiling to our architect since he suggested it and I'll admit that I wasn't so sure about it at first. Our house is around 70 years old, so I was a bit worried about how it would look, but I think it fits in with the rest of the house pretty well. Honestly, I wasn't sure about it though until it was completely done and painted and then I loved it!

Eliz - thanks! Hope you are enjoying your beautiful kitchen. I can identify with your comment about your basement being the "dungeon" - I am beginning to wonder if ours will ever be clean or usable again! I think we may just have to section it off with the yellow tape you see at crime scenes and just forget it exists - haha :) Right now, there isn't even a foundation in part of it, just red dirt, due to being torn out for plumbing! It's horrible!

Hostagrams - I love the gray and would use a version of it in every room if not for my husband objecting! He thinks there needs to be more color, regardless of whether the colors look good together! Wow - I can't believe you have been taking care of that many hostas for a year - I wish I enjoyed gardening more. Good luck with your move into the new house - I hope everything is done for the deadline of May 1st!

traci29, I can't wait to see the new stain on the floors which will help me to decide if I want to go with light or dark floors. I can't seem to decide and now my busy season has ended (but I still have lots of extensions and I just contracted for outside storage so have less boxes everywhere in my home so I can have my home back and not feel like I have a home in the office LOL), I really want to soon make a decision on my floor since I hate these always dirty 19 year old beige carpeting.

Hi Lynn - hopefully you won't have to wait too long to see the floors stained, although at this point I can't even predict when it might happen! It's one of those situations where we've been saying for about 4 months that we think we have about 2 months until being finished. So basically I think we're on a rolling 2 month schedule and it may possibly never be done! We're in the process of talking to the floor company about how to achieve a stain that's dark enough. I want to just barely see the wood grain and the ebony sample they showed us was horrible. It was a washed out brown color and all the wood grain was showing. If they can't figure out how to do it, then we'll have to find another company who can.

Traci, we used other colors in different rooms, but where there's a neutral, it's grey. We have quite a bit of VERY colorful contemporary art, so we'll be warming up those grey walls with that!

Can't wait to see your floor finished!

Thanks, traci29, I'm going to bring this idea up to our designer. If we can't do it in the kitchen, I'd like to do it in the dining room. As I wrote, our home style is "transitional" but I always figured that was because the architect couldn't decide what style it should be. The end result is that the house can use a bit of style. And I'm working on it!

Hostagrams, that's a lot of hostas to move! I can relate. When I moved to Oregon (the first time, long story), my CB name was "green machine" not because I drove a little green Datsun but because it was filled, absolutely filled, with houseplants (I was an apartment dweller at the time). My parents followed with a van and a trailer containing the rest of my belongings. I don't think I could ever live without a garden. And I'm a lucky soul because I make my living writing about what I love.

lisa - good luck with your kitchen/dining room! I'm sure the coffered ceiling will work in one of them. Ours came about by accident due to having support beams that needed to either be worked into the design or somehow covered, so that's why the architect came up with the coffered ceiling.

These are really beautiful. I don't know if its' too contemporary for you. I think the rumble or shale color would go with the black... maybe?

remodelfla - thanks for the tile suggestions and photos! You're right, that tile is really pretty. It's definitely not too contemporary for me - I was actually originally planning on a much more contemporary look but toned it down due to feeling it might be too different from the rest of the house (it's 70 year's old!). So now I'm trying to find a balance between modern and traditional.

i'm not sure if it's done or not,to keep the dust out of the new kitchen. close off the entrance ways and create a positve pressure by adding a fan pulling in outside air. in the room being demolished, put a fan in the window pulling the air out preferably from a window on a different side of the house on the leeward side.
john