I love your kitchen! Congratulations on creating such an attractive, well-planned space at a reasonable cost - and while expecting a baby, too!

I like it all, especially your tile and marble! Thank you for sharing.

OMG!! Iloveit!!!! What an amazing transformation on an amazing budget! I love the lighting; I love the shelving! Awesome!

Really nice job!!! I love the way it all works together. Love what you chose for the lighting. How are your open shelves working out? I'm considering them myself. Really like the large subway tiles and the thick grout lines.

Great job!!!

It's easy to accomplish the "wow" with a wow budget. You accomplished the "wow" with a ho hum budget. Very impressive!

I love your blackboard and your lights and shelves. Your kitchen is small, but overflows with personality and nice touches. Great job!

Wow, that looks like something out of a magazine. It is cottage-y, classy and tasteful at the same time. You have great taste. Congrats.

I LOVE it. You did an amazing job... it is a kitchen with a ton of personality but also very cohesive. The shades on the lights over the island are just so cool. The sconces above the shelves... what a great idea (I love Visual Comfort... and have their stuff all over my house).

Congratulations!

I love everything you have done. Great feel to it all and wonderful style with a capital "S". caroline

What a beautiful kitchen! I just love it! It may be small but you did a great job designing it for maximum function. Where did you get your sink? How do you like your beautiful marble? Is it honed? Have you sealed it? Congrats on all your hard work and having a wonderful kitchen remodel on a tight budget. Genius!

wow..it is perfect! just beautiful.. enjoy every inch of it!
Ree
ps.. where you got the framed black board? did you make it?

That is fabulous! LOVE the light fixtures. How unique and fun.

Congrats!

What a beautiful bright kitchen! I love everything about it. Thanks so much for sharing.

Very, very impressive! It is a 'cottage kitchen', but unique and with a character of its own with your personality and apparently excellent taste built in. I LOVE the gray cabinets.

If you designed this all on your own, you should do this for a living!

Congratulations on getting it done before Baby showed up. Enjoy them both!

I really, really like your kitchen. Your creativity and willingness to think out of the box is totally cool. This is a definite winner in my book. You go!

It's lovely, very creative and eclectic. The elements are each nice in their own right but the way you have brought them together is so pleasing. The colors and finishes are very soothing and there are so many ideas that marry form and function. Nice job. Congrats on the kitchen and especially the baby!!

What creativity. The lighting really sets it off - unique touches that add just that "pop" to the cottage look. But even with the cottage look it's still a little edgy. Love it!! Thanks for sharing.

Looks just like a picture from Cottage Living Magazine! I love viewing your photos. Excellent job!

Really very lovely! Looks like the kind of warm and functional kitchen anyone would be thrilled to live in! Betcha don't miss that blue!

Fabulous!

WOW! What an amazing transformation! I love how you really stayed true to having a cottage / bungalow - fantastic! And the lighting...how not to comment on that? What great whimsy and character! Well done!!

...and good luck w/ your soon-to-come new addition ;-)

Beautiful and it looks so well designed to work in. I especially like the custom lights, marble, open shelves and chalk board.

WOW, WOW, WOW, ..... WOW!!! Absolutely LOVE it, it's an amazing transformation.

Absolutely amazing...Congrats on the kitchen and the baby!!!!

Love it all!!! The fixtures the marble, the sink. Fantastic job!! And I ADORE that blackboard. Where did you find it?
Conngratulations on both the kitchen and the baby. Two magnificent accomplishments at one time. You must be on cloud 9 :)

How cute-I love cottage style and you did a great job at it! Great blackboard-and wonderful different light fixtures. Congrats!

Love, love, love the sliding chalkboard barn door. I want the same thing in my kitchen but can't find anywhere to put one.. What is behind the sliding door? Pantry or hallway?

You did a fabulous job!!! All the elements are so complimentary.

This sells me on the whole open shelving issue! That's just perfect! Love the lights above the shelves, too.

thanks everyone for all the nice comments and I do do this for a living. My husband and I bought a house that I could visualize turning into "our house" and we gutted almost all the rooms and started over. We both love the character of old houses and wanted to keep the integrity of a bungalow but make more modern and functional. I am hoping to have pictures taken soon and sent in to some magazines. To answer some questions:
1. Marble is honed and sealed with 511 Porous Plus
2. The lighting I got at a salvage yard for 25 and then spent 200 having them rewired and the stem put on. Cannot say enough how much stuff you can find at salvage or junk yards. One of my favorite sources for unique accents, accessories, and things to turn into lighting.
3. Chalkboard and shelves I drew up and had made by a carpenter. Chalkboard paint has a magnetic quality to it. In the future I would use magnetic primer under the chalk paint because i'm finding it doesn't hold quite as strong as I'd like it too.
4. The chalkboard is hiding my pantry.
5. The sink I got from a local plumbing supply company that had a customer return it and they couldn't send it back to whitehaus so they sold it to me for basically what they bought it for. right time right place.
6. I have had some stains on the countertops. I spilt saffron on them which left a nasty stain but use a poultrice of whiting (got at sw store) and hydrogen peroxide and left it on for 12 hours and stain gone. also bar keepers friend has taken stains out of that porcelain sink. couldn't live with out either one.

An ingredient that should be on your initial list: Talent. Only wish I had it, but nice that others will get to benefit from yours. Good job! (and happy delivery) :)

Can you help me design my kitchen? LOL!!! You don't happen to live near NJ, do you?

Again, just a fantastic job. Are the grout lines on the tile thicker than "usual"?

I too wondered what was behind the chalkboard. That is so cool there's a pantry back there! Nixing the corner windows where the wall ovens are now and changing the single door to a double french door greatly improved the floor plan. Where'd you relocate the washer/dryer? You've done a fantastic job turning this into a very charming space on a very reasonable budget. Are you going to sell? If I were househunting, I would be overjoyed to find a kitchen like this that someone has re-done so beautifully!!

What a wonderful kitchen! I can see how efficient it is, too. Love the lighting over your island . . . fun and practical at the same time, but it still works wonderfully with the cottage bungalow look. You really have vision, jrdip!

That is a truly beautiful kitchen. One of my favorites I have seen on this site. Love the lights! (I just ordered several Visual Comfort lights -- they are the BEST!). I love love love your salvaged lights over the island. Love your chalkboard. Everything about it is wonderful. Very creative.

Gorgeous! This just reeks of personality!!

thanks again everyone. i'm actually located in austin texas. my husband and i moved from atlanta, ga last year. we'll probably be staying in this house for a couple of years and then do another house. but this time i think i'll try and live in this one while remodeling the second one! for an old house it actually has amazing closet space (which sold me) and there was a four foot cedar closet in the hallway so we put stackables in it.
and i too love visual comfort all the lighting in our house is vc... clean and simple my personal mantra.

I am curious about the sliding door track. I've been considering something like that for a pair of french doors I have. Is there a track on the bottom that holds them down? If not, does it wobble alot when you push it. I;m just wondering if there is not a track on the bottom and they are closed, if someone on the outside goes to "push" them instead of "slide" them, they could sort of push up. Does that make sense?

there is a piece that is screwed to the floor that sticks up about an inch and a channel cut out at the bottom of the door. so it runs straight and stays put!

Gorgeous kitchen! What a beautiful job! I love, love, love the sliding chalkboard door - really cute!! You pulled the cottage look together really well and on an amazing budget! My DH would have been much happier with your total than ours!! LOL

Beautiful kitchen. Love the counter. I'm hoping to have an island cooktop myself when I get my remodel underway.

I love your kitchen! What armstrong door style is that? Did you paint them yourself? If so, what finish did you order? Sorry for the barrage of questions, but we were thinking of doing the cream colored armstrong cabinets at one point, but decided against it because I wasn't sure about the color- I didn't think of painting them!

jammonit-cabinet is rutledge flat panel door in natural it is unfinished and I had my painter spray them for us. the inside is already finished so you don't have to worry about having those finished out. i've painted cabinets before but this time it wasn't an option being pregnant.

thanks! I am going to have to take a look at those armstrong cabs again:)

I love it! Makes me wish I would have taken my subway tile to the ceiling ... but was talked out of it.

Love it!!! Great Job!
\ How do you like your marble counters? I am considering marble top for my island, but worried about etching. Yours are gorgeous!

Thanks!

Renee

soupgoddess- i haven't had any problems and i cook a lot. homemade tomato sauces, lots of citrus, lots of oils and i've had no problems. i would not hesitate to put marble in another kitchen. good luck and you'll love them.

jrdip,
Your new kitchen space is beautiful! We are in the process of our cab install. I'm pretty sure we need them to redo our fridge surround. It looks as if your new fridge is counter depth. Will you pls let me know?

Thanks!
Holly

Really nice transformation! Love your sink and the open shelving is perfect. Isn't it great to have those everyday dishes right where you can grab them.

Fantastic! Doing all that on a budget is difficult; your kitchen looks as though you spent twice as much on it---at least. I love the black accents and spotlights.