Your kitchen is gorgeous! Great job. I'm also impressed how quickly you got it done, and that it was nearly trouble-free. You must share your secrets now!

Enjoy your beautiful kitchen.

Gorgeous! Our kitchens are similar in colors- is that colonial cream granite? I love your backsplash! I wad details!

Wow! So charming. Love those windows!

Congrats!!!!

I want details:) not wad them silly iPhone!

Absolutely beautiful!

I just posted my plans here a few days ago and hopefully with GW help, I'll be posting some nice pictures of my new kitchen by fall. in the meantime, I'll be reading through your old thread and hoping to pick up some tips along the way - thanks for including that!

No doubt about it, I'm in love. Is that a microwave or warming oven next to the big oven? I love how rich the wood looks and it isn't overcluttered with appliances. Definitely making me rethink some of the things I'm doing.

Lovely! I really like the tile floor, backsplash and granite...they compliment each other beautifully. I can see you entertaining friends and family wonderfully in this space! Kudos to you!!!

What a beautiful, warm space. It really is gorgeous. I love the colors and love that beautiful window. You did get this done quickly! Great job!

CKGM ... my DW was chief stylist ( my title for her) on this project and she did work pretty hard at choosing the various elements. The granite is Typhoon Bordeaux which is very similar to Colonial Cream. The floor tiles are 45 cm sq (18 inch sq) Eurotile Capri Classico while the backsplash is also a Eurotile a (2.5 cm x 15 cm) 1x6 inch Kashmir laid is a brick pattern.

marti8a ... That is a Sharp MW in a drawer between the range and fridge. We had double wall ovens in the old kitchen and I reluctantly gave them up because they didn't fit in the new design. I think it is useful to elaborate a bit - in a kitchen that is essentially 16 ft sq and where aisles are required along two sides, the niceties of double ovens, warming drawer, 48 inch range and all fridge/all freezer plus other goodies simply will not fit unless something else (countertop or aisle width) is sacrificed. I'm a function kind of guy and wide aisles plus copious countertop workspace plus 6 useable large elements on the range all rank very high on my list - since I do most of the cooking especially for entertaining I had a big say in what was traded off in that area. Achieving an uncluttered spacious feel was something I wanted - I hate working in a kitchen with cluttered countertops.

Fantastic!! Really glad you're loving it and the help was useful/helpful for you. Your kitchen is really gorgeous.

Love the hutch area that looks like it must serve you as a breakfast area or something... and how the prep sink helps that as well as the cooking/prep area, so it's not just display space, but functional.

Enjoy, enjoy!

PS.. You changed my user name so that it's more accurate, now that we have 2 sons-in-law. :-)

Awesome and gorgeous

Beautiful! I love the darker cabinetry!

That is one gorgeous kitchen! It makes me want to do all stained cabinetry!!!

Thanks to all of you for your comments.

GW provided lots of direct help but also my lurking led me across many ideas that were very useful. There is a wealth of experience and information in this forum - one only has to be open to new ideas and use it.

rhome410 ... congrats on making my error in your user name more accurate! Your help was especially valuable in the planning exercise. The hutch you referred to was suggested by lisa_a in her drawings and we worked with that concept. It serves as storage (behind glass doors with lights) of all the day to day glasswaare plus the countertop nicely houses the kettle for tea and the coffee machine. A few snacks are stashed in the drawers along with all coffee supplies. The notion of a "beverage centre" with fridge and sink near at hand has worked out incredibly well especially when we are entertaining. Folks congregate in the kitchen but tend to stay out of the working aisles.

What a beautiful room...love that hutch!
I'm curious about the 2 long drawers that rest on the counter under the upper cabinetry...did they have a designated function right from the start? And how do you like it?
Congratulations and enjoy!

Gorgeous! Love the hutch and your sink windows. Enjoy!

Thank you Kat3kits

The two long but shallow drawers that you refer to are used to house spices. I have found in my cooking that I spice things in the prep stages not while cooking usually and so wanted the spices located away from the cooking area. Using an idea found here, spices are placed in small jars from teh dollar store and labelled on top ... they fit perfectly :) into those drawers.

beautiful!! enojoy it!! I would love to know how long your island is an how large your pendants are (something I am currently struggling with). thanks!

It has all come together beautifully! Glad all went smoothly.

What a "handsome" kitchen (first word that popped into my head!)--not frou-frou, yet still rich looking and elegant. I like it!

Again thanks all for your comments. The goal was a traditional but casual kitchen that would be comfortable for entertaining. The island stools are meant for those chatting with the cook as opposed to eating meals - I prefer a table and regular chairs for that.

modernmom35 ... the island is 7 foot 3 inches long on the granite surface by 51 inches wide. The width is about as big as it can be and still allow an average sized guy like me (5 foot 11) to reach the middle for cleaning etc. The pendants are 9 inches across at the base of the globe and house LED bulbs. During the planning stages, bigger pendants were tried but ... 9 inches is about the biggest that still looks right and also are almost the smallest that will house a bulb that produces 800 plus lumens. Choosing pendants for style to match the decor and that produce sufficient light is definitely a challenge and takes a fair amount of time. Even if the first pendants you see are "the ones", you won't know till you look at all the alternatives.

thank you doug! great info!

What a beautiful space. You commented about wanting "an uncluttered spacious feel" and that is exactly how it comes across in your pics. Nice Job.

Gorgeous kitchen -- I love everything about it (especially the doggie!). Everything goes together so well. Elegant without being overstated! Enjoy!

Wow, that is a gorgeous kitchen. Warm and rich, but not stuffy.

Love it. What beautiful colors.

Fantastic! I love the cabinets, that is the look we are going for! What make/model/color are they? And are you happy with the look and quality? We are just in the planning stages now so I am gathering all sorts of leads.

I love the neutral palate too, it will help me stay true to my vision for my kitchen when people start urging me add colors in the backslash and such. I'd rather add color in things I can change,like paint and accessories.

The cabinets are from an Ottawa Canada local cabinet maker called Deslaurier Kitchens. They have their own factory in Renfrew ON and a design office in Ottawa. They are on the web at http://www.deslaurier.ca/

The cabinet fronts are made of Maple stained "Log Cabin" which is the dark almost walnut colour you see in the pics. The drawers are the usual full extension soft close and all appear to me to be very well made with attention to detail. They offer a full array of cabinet options and they do custom work as well (for example I needed a 38.5 inch cabinet for the sink to have the gable clear existing plumbing - no problem. There were no fillers in the final cabinet layout.

Deslaurier are not the low price leader but their price is very competitive - lower for example than the local Home Depot for Kraft Made. They also have a high local reputation for quality workmanship.

I had not renovated a kitchen before so was unsure what to expect from a cabinet make - in a sense I was swayed by their reputation and in the end did not regret the choice. They delivered the cabinets on time on the day scheduled. Their installers (they would not allow me to install myself - they would not sell just cabinets) arrived the following day and spent two days dong a careful installation. The installers left me with a list of "defects" that required a return visit. The following day a Deslaurier quality control inspector came out and spent two hours leaving me with an enlarged list of defects to be corrected. They scheduled the date for correcting defects and their installers arrived on time, spent the day doing it right and got my approval on all the corrctions before they left. In all, quality cabinets and quality installation (not to mention quality design help before placing the order) for a competitive but very fair price.

They are fantastic! I think DH would think I lost it if I insisted on finding a way to get them installed in upstate NY though. I'll bring the pics with me to the cabinet place though for visual inspiration and hope for the best. I love that they were upfront about defects and corrected them without prompting. Sounds like they take pride in their work.

looks great! the layout and size is about what we are wanting to build. would you mind posting the dimensions of the kitchen including the island? thanks

so beautiful. can you tell me what brand your range is and info on your hood? thank you so much.

Just gorgeous! I love the cabinets, backsplash, counters,tiled floor, appliances, and the wall color. What is the color of the wall? Everything came together so nicely.

Thanks everyone for so many nice comments.

Izerare ... The dimensions of the space for the kitchen are 195 inches along the stove wall and 194 and 3/4 inches along the window wall. But, the stove wall has a door on one side and a useable aisleway must be provided along that side of the kitchen ... the window wall also has a door (to the back porch) at the end and agains an aisle past the end of the island must be provided. All of this and much more detail on dimensions shows in the original design thread http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/kitchbath/msg1014051516644.html?17 The island is 51 inches wide by 87 inches long over the granite and the result left working aisles about 49 inches wide. That produced the spacious feeling as well as proving very workable with multiple cooks when entertaining. I was helped in this regard by working a bit in a kitchen with 38 inch aisles - it is just so tight to be almost unmanageble with more than one person working in the space.

As I mentioned earlier in this thread, a squaare kitchen of the size we have is not large enough to be the dream kitchen shown in magazines. Lots of goodies do not fit and tradeoffs must be made. I wanted counterspace, large aisles and am unclettered feeling so could not fit in double ovens, larger range, warming drawers and other things like that.

The pictures do not show fully that we retained our "kitchen table" eating area just to the left in the second pic and as well a dining room which is used at least once a week if not more often.

eileen217 ... the range is a Bluestar 36 inch - the Canadian Costco version. It is available here for just over C$3000 and they currently have an additional $500 discount for executive members - it is financially a no brainer for Canadians as anything else comparable is at least double the price. The range hood is a 42 inch Kobe and has so far performed flawlessly - I do a substantial amount of stirfrying so the venting gets well tested! No makeup air systems were required by the code here.

lynn2006 ... the walls are painted Benjamin Moore "Straw Hat". The Typhhon Bordeaux granite and the cabinet stain were taken as base colours and DW plus advisors chose everything else to match achieving an understated traditional look. The granite is deceptive - it has a grey green undertone that an untrained eye does not easily detect. Only through trial and error (and a million trips to the granite vendor) did the final combination of elements emerge. My advice would be to choose granite early and then work with it on style and colour - keep in mind that the dim flourescent lighting of the granite warehouse is really very poor for matching colours and viewing tiles, paint chips and fabrics. It is a challenge stlistically to get it the way you would like it.

The way you like it is easy to say ... having a style design goal early on is important just as is having a functional design goal. The planning was helped immensely by thinking some of this through in advance.

Wow, your kitchen is gorgeous. I like how the backsplash is interesting but kind of blends in to the background. Not busy but not boring either - a perfect balance.

Congratulations...it's beautiful and looks so functional!

Thanks for including the link to the design phase. I remember looking at that thread last fall; it's so nice to put the final product together with the plans on paper.