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raro_gw

Now for a completely unconventional kitchen

raro
12 years ago

I've been reading about and admiring your kitchens for months. Now it is time to delurk and share our process and current issues in our kitchen renovation. I need help with knob and drawer pulls!!!.

A little background. We are renovating our house and that includes a complete kitchen renovation. The front two rooms of the house (guest room and play room) have been untouched; they date from 1785. The rest of the house which was added in 1902, 1986 and 1994 was gutted down to the studs, walls taken out, second story added. The house was charming but not terribly functional, especially the kitchen. The architect struggled quite a bit with the kitchen plan because it is situated in the entry to the house and has a huge stone antique chimney as well as entrances to other parts of the house as issues to work around. We decided to make the new work modern and to have a natural transition between the colonial times through to the modern times represented in the style. The kitchen style is eclectic. Our town has a historic district commission that has to approval all the exterior aspects of projects and this was the first time they approved a modern addition to a contributing house in the district.

This past week the cabinet maker began installing the cabinets that will define the kitchen out of the open space that is the kitchen/living/dining room � 1) an entryway piece that will have a mirror and drawers and small countertop of Blue Eyes granite facing the door and on the other side will be the fridge (Samsung stainless steel armoire) and a dining height cherry butcher block island and on the side will be storage for table linens 2) along the left wall a coat closet, utility closet and bank of pull-out pantry shelves and the microwave (Miele speed oven), 3) in an L-shape attached to one edge of the chimney the cabinets will only be lower cabinets with a ledge to shield the kitchen from the living dining. Under the ledge and closed off with sliding opaque glass doors will be storage for spices, condiments, oils and vinegars. In the short arm of the L the sink and the dishwasher (Miele with cabinet front) right next to the chimney and in the long arm of the L the range (Capitol Culinarian) and then a floor to ceiling hutch with the back edge being an appliance garage accessed through sliding opaque glass doors. The countertop and sink will be one fabricated piece of stainless steel all the way to the hutch. The hutch countertop will be soapstone.

Now for the colors. This is going to be quite different from the usual kitchen because it is modern and colorful. The floors are wide pine boards that will be finished naturally. The cabinets are painted. The entryway piece is dark gray. The pantry wall is a periwinkle blue. The base cabinets of the L are lighter gray. The range is yellow enamel. The hutch is Chinese red.

After looking some on the web I am at a total loss for the knobs and drawer pulls. Where do I start? How do I do it?

I will try to post some pics from before the hutch went in. I tried successfully on the test forum but don't see here how to embed the pics. Also don't see help on this in the help section. Where do I get help in posting pics?

Thanks in advance for your input.

Raro

Comments (14)

  • liriodendron
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Find the READ THIS FIRST thread (it doesn't have a fixed position as it floats around) on one the first pages or so of this forum and scroll down to find the picture-posting instruction section with in it.

    Basically, you'll need to upload your images to Photobucket (or similar), then copy the URL of the images from PB to here. It's not hard to learn.

    The test forum reportedly no longer works.

    The optional URL thingy below only produces links to other websites, which can work out to your your PB account, but you will get more replies if you figure how to stick the pics in the thread (see above).

    Try to "lighten" the weight and size of the pics, if possible to ease the burden for those with bandwidth issues.

    Believe me, if I can figure this out, anybody can, as I am utterly computer-stooooopid.

    Am interested in your posting as I live in v. old, mostly intact, house, too.

    L

  • allison0704
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Hope you can get pictures posted, also pictures of things in place.

    I have three different paint finishes and one stained. Three different counter materials. Most have different knobs/pulls. I'm thinking that's what you need to do too.

    Here is a link that might be useful: my kitchen

  • mydreamhome
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    How to Post Photos:

    Setup:
    1) Go to photobucket.com and open a free account.
    2) Follow their instructions for uploading your pics to their site.

    Now your pics are ready for posting on sites like GW!

    Posting pics in a GW message:
    1) Begin the written portion of your posting on GW.
    2) When you are ready to add your pics, simply open a new browser window and log into your photobucket account.
    3) Go to 'My Album' & copy the 'HTML Code' underneath the photo you wish to add to your GW post.
    4) Toggle back to the browser window with your GW posting, place the cursor where you want to pic to appear, right click and select 'paste'.

    Your pics will appear in the preview so you can ensure they appear properly before the final submission.(I know, this looks like a lot of potentially confusing steps, but trust me, once you copy the pics into your posts once or twice it's a piece of cake!)

    Hope this helps!

  • plllog
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Just using my imagination, on the hardware question: There's no reason why all the hardware has to match. It sounds like the entryway piece is more traditional than the rest, so you might think about something that will pick up the granite. Perhaps glass knobs, but not the '30's repros. That should look good with the dark gray. If clear gets lost, I'd consider white, or, even better, white and blue swirl (you could buy marbles, and mount them, too, or have them made with scraps of your granite).

    The periwinkle pantry will probably look best with a shiny, silvery colored hardware, like polished nickel. Some kind of bar pull would probably be best, but rather than a plain bar or wire, I'd look for something with an interesting cross section, like a diamond shape.

    You can continue the bar pulls on the lighter gray lowers, but I (being color inclined) might do more glass knobs, but using the red and yellow colors of the hutch and range. More Aggies. :)

    The hutch, however, needs something of its own. Something that will compete with the red. I'd look for some salvage glitzorama drop pulls or something else way out there, possibly in dull brass.

    If that's too many different styles, how about a simple, polished nickel ball knob, and bar pull?

  • raro
    Original Author
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Thanks for reading and advice. I successfully joined photobucket and now need to upload some pics. I hope to post soon. First I will try the plan for the kitchen

    Admittedly, this is an old version. We decided to go with a 4 burner Capital Culinarian and a single big bowl sink. Also, the right most pull-out pantry will now be cupboard that contains the Miele speed oven. This view also shows what more or less what the cupboards will look like from a front view.

    Pllog, I love the ideas you shared. Where do I look for all these types of pulls and knobs?

    Thanks!
    Raro

  • raro
    Original Author
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    This is the old view of the kitchen facing south


    This is that same view while the new cabinets were being installed

    You can really see that old chimney now. The cabinets immediately to the left of the chimney contain the dishwasher and then next to that the sink. I splurged for a wall mount Kohler Karbon and picked a Chicago faucets laboratory fixture for the wall-mount filtered water fixture.

    I was thinking of mounting a hanging pot rack on the side of the chimney so that pots could drain right into the drainboard above the dishwasher. This countertop and integral sink will be stainless steel. Do you think that will look ugly or unsightly to see pots hanging from chimney when viewed from the living/dining room? I was thinking a stainless steel shelf that I saw from Dvorson's web site.
    Thanks for looking, raro.

  • plllog
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Starting with the last question, I don't particularly care for pot racks, except in certain very olde world kitchens, but your idea sounds practical enough. I do think it will muddle up your strong architectural elements. With the strong chimney stack, the slash of the beam, and the way the tall cabinet on the right and the horizontal cabinets next to the FP repeat the forms. From this angle, at least, it's a gorgeous design, and a pot rack would mess that up.

    Regarding the hardware, unfortunately, it takes a lot of looking to get just what you want. Some of my favorite places to look:

    Homeportfolio.com More interesting and unusual stuff here. Not a sales site, rather referrals to the manufacturers.

    Coolknobsandpulls.com Great selection.

    Antropologie has some really cool knobs (probably more in the stores). They're meant to be retro chic, but some of them might work well with Modern.

    Google "granite knobs" and you'll find a bunch of people who make knobs and pulls from your granite scraps if your fabricator doesn't (most probably use these same places). They can probably also mount marbles. :)

    Rejuvenation is another place that has a lot of retro, but some of it is retro Modern, including this Boomerang Pull:

    {{gwi:1883678}}.

    If you don't have good salvage places and are looking for something old, check out garage sales, flea markets and junk shops. Sometimes you can find a cabinet or chest that has great hardware for a price you'd spend on just the hardware. Sometimes you can just take what you want and give them back the carcass to resell. Sometimes they make you take it away.

    I found my hardware on Home Portfolio when I was looking for appliance pulls to go with the cremone bolts I wasn't getting. More than two hours of trolling later, as my eyes were crossing from page after page, these knobs jumped out and shouted ME ME ME MEE ME. Turned out the same folks made pulls and appliance pulls that I liked better than any others I'd seen too. :)

    It helps if you have something on TV that doesn't take a lot of looking at, if you're going to shop online, or something on the radio with a story to it.

    Most of all, just keep looking around you. Things pop up in unexpected places. LightingUniverse of all places has some cool modern knobs.

  • aliris19
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Wow, what a riot of color! It sounds wonderful. I'm not sure if this is any sense of it at all, but the multi-colors seemed maybe a little like what you were mentioning: http://www.homeportfolio.com/Designers/Room/18741

    Unfortunately I can't see their pulls, but I think there are a lot of knobs. Plllog's ideas are probably better than what's here anyway! But the picture might amuse you.

  • mtnrdredux_gw
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    My hardware sources are linked below.

    One word on Anthropologie. They have some very cool hardware. But I installed and then removed about 3 dozen mercury pulls, which break in your hand. I got ceramic pulls from them instead, which also look great, but those are breaking where they meet the escutcheon. Frustrating, because they have the coolest stuff.

    Here is a link that might be useful: assorted h/w sources

  • plllog
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    YIKES!! Mtnrdredux, thanks so much for the review on Anthropologie's hardware. I've bought other home decor from them that I've been happy with, and had no idea the knobs were problematic.

  • raro
    Original Author
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Thank you so much for suggestions of both specific hardware and sources!!! I can't wait to hop on the web tonight. Hard to resist while working.

    Has anyone seen a source for a metal drawer pull that spans the whole top of the drawer and is fairly low profile with the drawer?

  • liriodendron
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Hanging pots in my experience don't acutally drain out excess water while hung. Gravity usually tips the suspended pot slightly backwards catching a bit of water inside. If you have hard water this will give you a water spot as the trapped droplets evaporate slowly away.

    Also it's not pleasant to have dripping stuff overhead. In theory it could be last thing done, but in practice I often still have to clean off counters and stove top and empty sink strainer, etc., so I'm still in the drip zone after the last item is washed. I prefer a counter-top drainer or simply laying the items down on a counter with runnels. I think I may be the only person on the forum who actually finds a dish drainer an aesthetically pleasing sight. Tatty, peeling stained plastic ones not so much, but otherwise I'm fine with them.

    L

  • aliris19
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Liri- I'm not sure I find drainers aesthetically *pleasing*, but they don't bother me at all. Now, clotheslines -- those I find positively attractive. I love the shapes and colors, the way people arrange them, etc. I actually turn my dish-draining area into a baggie clothes line, or have in the past. My mother was just lecturing me endlessly about this, of course, and dh too was yelling about its incipient likelihood. I actually consider it a mild form of denial and prissiness, wishing to pretend that dishes can't and don't get dirty (ick), and needing to hide it away.

    That's just my own self-satisfying rationalization. I know really that most people just abhor clutter and I might even too, if only I could get it together to banish it.

    For the same reason, perhaps, hanging pots are kinda pretty I think. Can't you hang them where they won't drench you? Mine used to hang from an iron towel bar mounted on the wall. Loved it, just grab and go. And that wasn't overhead, which would also mitigate the hair rinsing.

  • Redhead47
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Agree with liriodendron. Except for open skillets, hanging pots will catch water in the lowest spot. If you want a pot rack, how about closer to the range or cooktop? Makes a lot of sense to me there.

    I also agree with pllog -- that chimney is actually an interesting architectural element in your kitchen. Let it show in its full glory -- and don't block it with a pot rack.

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