Here are the before pictures. It was a small U-shaped kitchen in which the prior owners added onto. They added another row of shallow cabinets along the far wall. This was nice for additional storage, but didn't flow well with the kitchen since you had to leave the "U" to get to it.

BEFORE:

To make the kitchen more functional, we removed the U and turned it into an L-shape. This really opened up the room and helped everything flow together. The lower cabinets as shown in the first picture outside the U were brought out from 18 inches to 25 inches allowing more storage space. We also added a beverage center and a trash drawer. Everything was built custom (which turned out to be good and bad).

My wife wanted an island, but the kitchen was way too small for that so we ended up doing an island cart that tucks away at the end of the L as shown here

Cart easily slides out for use :)

More pics

Finally we added a pantry on this far wall which also holds our microwave. As you could see from the Before pics, we had an OTR microwave. Utilizing this wall gave us some much needed space after putting in the range hood!

It feels nice to be almost done!!

Click on the link below to see tons more pics including close ups of the backsplashes

Let me know what you think, good or bad :)

Good job! Enjoy your success!

Appliances:
Fridge - Samsung RFG297AARS - Been great so far, love the bright LED lighting, makes ice a little slow but no problems otherwise

Beverage Center - Electrolux - was on the fence about it at first since it takes up so much room in our small kitchen, but we LOVE it and our guests seem to like it as well (especially when it is filled with beer, go figure)

Dishwasher - Maytag - loving the drawer design so far

Range - Capital - I found this forum while searching for reviews on ranges and people here seemed to speak highly of Capital. They seemed to have some of the nicest 30 inch ranges for the money. You don't have too many options outside of a standard 4 burner configuration on a 30 inch so it was nice to get the 25k btu Wok burner in the middle. Have no complaints so far, build quality is top notch.

Range Hood - Kobe 30 inch RA9430 - Love the design, its very effective and has a super quiet setting which is almost completely silent. Also purchased based off the recommendations on this site.

Flooring - Crystal Valley Engineered natural Maple 1/2 inch thick.

Cabinets & Accessories
Boxes - 3/4 inch plywood boxes with solid Maple hardwood doors.
Cabinet hinges, slides & misc hardware - BLUM with Blumotion everywhere

Trash Pullout - Rev-A-Shelf 50qt pull out Waste Container with soft close

Blind Corner - Omega National KitchenMate Blind Corner Caddy (solid Maple) - Very nice unit, uses the space very effectively and you dont have to break your back searching for pots and pans!

Countertops -Quartz - Caesarstone in Desert Limestone (2200)

Backsplash:

On sink side wall: Hakatai - Bohemia Series - Mirage BH801 - we purchased this one first with the intention of getting some sort of metal to have just behind the Range. We purchased this due to how well it just tied everything together. The grout we used was matched to the countertop color.

On Range wall: Porcelanosa IMAX steel lined glass - This seems to be everyone's favorite when the see it in person. It is really stunning. We wanted something sort of high tech looking behind the range and this really sets it off. It is very reflective in the daylight, almost like a mirror.

Sink & Accessories:

Sink - Vigo Elongated Angular SS sink with bottom rack - single bowl - 10 inches deep, 16 gauge insulated. Wife loves this sink, nothing is too big for it. Picked it up on Overstock.com

Faucet - Blanco Meridian Semi-Professional in Satin Nickel - absolutely love this. The fit and finish is awesome.

Soap Dispenser - Blanco Meridian - Satin Nickel

Air Gap - Blanco Meridian - Satin Nickel - Unfortunately I didn't read all the literature on this site about not putting in an air gap until it was too late... :/

Cold water faucet - Brasstech in Satin Nickel - hooked up to reverse osmosis system

Lighting:

Pendants over sink - Access Lighting

Pendants over kitchen table - Access Lighting

Pendants running MR-16 LED bulbs from http://www.divvali.net/ - cool white over sink 6 watts each, warm white over kitchen table 9 watts each.

Undercounter lights - Environmental lights LED light bars in natural white. - these were fairly easy to install and the light output is awesome. They are dimmable as well if you purchase the dimming controls.

Decorative shelf lights - Pegasus lighting LED bullet lights - these are not dimmable in case anyone is wondering.

Please see the link below to check out the Construction photos. I left comments on many of the photos detailing what was going on.

@storklady There were some ups and downs with doing everything custom. We got to pretty much draw things up just the way we wanted it which was nice, but on a few occasions, the finished product did not turn out exactly as planned due to a combination of either errors in the design or in the execution. As anyone who has done a remodel knows, its a process and you don't always get it right the first time. We definitely learned a lot thats for sure.

Let me know if you want more info or if I left anything out :)

Well done!!!

Congratulations.

Your beverage center is lovely :) Is that a bottle of Newcastle I see up top? Love that stuff. We unfortunately do not have the space for a Bev.Center. Wish we could have one! May need to look into that possibility again.

Love your new range and hood and backsplash. Our new kitchen will be the exact reverse of yours, colorwise. We're going light Maple cabs with brown quartz countertops. Not sure about the backsplash and floors yet but I want glass somewhere in the backsplash. We shall see.

Congratulations!! Thanks for the pics and info!!

Congratulations!

@hellonasty Yes that is a lone bottle of Newcastle amongst Heineken Lights and my son's chocolate milk lol!

Take a look at some different models and brands for beverage centers. I know they make smaller ones about 18 inches wide that may suit your needs better. We chose the Electrolux due to the size, overall look and the build quality.

Good luck with your renovation work! Im glad to be able to help people out. I got many of my ideas while browsing the finished kitchens blog and it was always helpful when more details were listed.

there may be more pictures of them somewhere in my gallery, if not, let me know and Ill post some.

HTH

Eliz

Enjoy your new space.

@lisadlu

Doors are a combination of Maple and Birch I believe. My cab maker tried to use large planks wherever possible but most of the doors are more than one piece glued together. Not sure about the warping, everything is fine so far, but it hasn't been that long and I cannot say for sure if it will or wont happen.

Depending on how dark you want your stain, maple may not be the best choice because if you do it too dark, you will not be able to see the grain of the wood. There is a very fine line. Most people who have seen our cabs seem to really like the color.

As far as what is framed and what isnt, everything was initially framed but in order to get the look we were going for, the frames around the cab doors were all cut to essentially make them frameless. Our other option could have been to use frame mount door hinges, but we elected not to go that route (I didnt like the soft close mechanisms as much). The drawers are still framed as they were originally built. Obviously if I could go back, I would have done everything completely frameless.

Check out my construction pics on photobucket, I tried to add detail wherever possible.

HTH!

Ill most likely be active here again for our next go around :)