The old kitchen

Very classic and clean look. Congratulations.

Your kitchen is really fantastic. I love how your backsplash adds colour and creates a focal point without fighting with the other elements. The lack of uppers makes things look really airy and spacious, and gives the window breathing room. (I have anti-upper-itis too ;) ).

I'd love to hear about your Kobe hood experience - I'm tempted to buy one.

The alder veneer adds the warmth of wood but looks updated.

Thanks for sharing!

Love it! Very clean and calming look. Sounds like you are very happy with it, and deservedly so! I wouldn't feel bad splurging a bit, something as permanent and regularly used as a kitchen is a good place for that if your budget can stretch.

Looks awesome. Can't wait to see more of your beautiful cabinets. Between you and dcward I'm really loving Barker and will probably go that way when we do the baths.

Hard to believe that's the same kitchen. Looks beautiful!

The Kobe Hood is from the RA-094 Series. It is well made and was easy to install. The lights are quartz which produce some heat. LEDs would have been nice but for the price (purchased on sale at one of the build.com sites) I have no regrets. The hood is very easy to clean. The overall quality was much better than expected. The hood sat in a box in my living room for 6 months until I was ready to install. I cheated myself out of some of the warranty but the sale price was substantial.

This post was edited by redkev on Wed, Jun 4, 14 at 18:49

WOOHOO!!! Another beautiful Barker kitchen!!! Your cabinets are really beautiful...weren't they easy to assemble? We have done/are currently finishing up our kitchen with Barker and I am a huge Barker cheerleader.

Your cabinets look great and I love how open and airy your kitchen is. Our space is too small to do away with uppers but I love the look when I see others do it. And look at those miles of countertops!!! Nice kitchen!!

Awesome redo. Please do repost after your shelves are installed. 3 quick questions: 1) how much did you raise your ceiling? 2) what's around the corner by the frig? 3) do you have a mw stashed somewhere?

We just finished our kitchen a few weeks ago and, like you, we took on a bunch of the work ourselves (barker cabs too). It's so much work! But, hopefully it feels extremely rewarding because your kitchen looks awesome. It really seems like that kitchen fits your space and location. The tile looks classic. I love the warm modern feel of the cabs and pulls. The stools are awesome. Well done.

The ceiling was raised a full 12 inches. It was customary in this style of home to have a lowered ceiling in the kitchen with a recessed florescent lighting fixture. Now GONE!

Around the corner by the frig is the laundry room which also has the door to the garage.

Believe it or not, I have never owned a microwave. I love to cook and just never found the need for one. I also do not have children. I know I may have a different point of view if it was just not myself and my wife.

12"! Very cool.

Mw placement was a PITA for us. That's why I asked. We opted for a 24" smeg speed oven (installed in a base cab). We don't use a mw very often, but still wanted one. We liked getting a small electric oven in the package. I am teaching our 3 littles to cook using our gas range. Fire hot! That's easy to explain to my kids. Mw: Put stuff in the box, press buttons, and 30 seconds later it will be hot... It's just not as intuitive. And there's no smelling or sizzling or browning to easily observe.

Hey, did you change your floor tiles too?

Yes on the floor tiles. I redid the entire houe in porcelin tile. I am outside watching the stars at the moment so I do not have the tile details at hand. I grew up in a big family. We were early adopters of the MW oven. I remember heating up a lot of tortillas with melted cheese and salsa ( third generation Californian, now escaped to New Mexico).

Great job! The cabinets are so beautiful and I love that you did most all of it yourself. I just got my laundry room cabinets from Barker. Nice company and the quality is very good. Now just need to finish it!!! Can't wait to see the shelves in place. I enjoy looking at all kinds of kitchens and enjoy the variety of materials and knowledge you can gain by hearing people's story. Very functional layout. Everything looks great. Congrats! Love the fan : )

Looks like a calm, cool and clean refuge from the heat! I like your modern style. Also looks super functional! You must be loving all the new storage.

Stunning! Even more impressive after seeing the "before."

Question about your counter stools (I'm glad to hear you find them comfortable, that is never apparent from looking at photos online.) How high is the top of the back from the floor? It looks like they don't stick up above the counter, but maybe that is the photo angle? We are trying not to block off the sightlines across our peninsula, but I do like a back on a stool.

Congrats on such a successful DIY. I look forwawrd to seeing the final images.

Love, love, love your reno results! Your Barker cabs are swoonworthy! The higher ceiling combined with layout changes make your new kitchen feel so much more spacious. And I love the color flip in the backsplash on the two walls--great idea that I've never seen before.

Do you like the Indigo soapstone? Is that a hard variety of soapstone? I'm seriously considering switching to soapstone (have been planning on quartz, but absolutely love the feel and look of soapstone). Did you like working with Dorado soapstone? I live in the Denver burbs and Dorado is definitely on my list of places to visit once I have time to get serious about our reno (probably not until October). Sorry to pepper you with so many questions, but would appreciate any info you can give me.

Congratulations on a job VERY well done! Can't wait to see it with the open shelves.

Really nice! Everything flows together so well. Thank you for posting your kitchen!

Nice transformation. Must.Show.Shelving.

I'm leaning somewhat in the direction you went, although my house is much older and will need some more traditional touches, i.e., more "curvy", but the overall feel of your kitchen is what I'm after too.

Wow really hard to believe it's the same kitchen! I love the spaciousness of it all.

Very svelte, an oasis as said above from the heat. Like the openness, backsplash and the in vogue Minka Air Ceiling fan.

Great job.

Looks great! Love the two-tone backsplash!

Calligaris Boheme Counter Stools Overall Height - Top to Bottom: 35.5 Inches. This makes the back just about level with the top of the counter. The only drawback to these stools is the price $$$!

Indigo soapstone is approximately a mohs 4 hardness so it is one of the harder soapstones. I liked the color of the softer variety that Dorado had in stock but I did not like slabs that were currently available. Dorado was fine to deal with. The other national supplier of soapstone, M. Teixeira Soapstone, also has a yard and sales office in Denver. In hindsight, I should have visited both but we had just a short weekend in Denver, and we wanted to visit a couple of different group of friends.

In the end we are happy with the Indigo soapstone but comparative shopping is always a good idea. I imagine that the sources in Brazil are the same or similar for both of these companies. The sales rep at Dorado was pleasant and the recommended installer in Albuquerque was knowledgeable about soapstone.

Stunning! I love the style of your kitchen, especially the soapstone & backsplash. What are your new floors?

The floor tile is Emser Tile Napa 18" x 18" Matte Porcelain in Grigio. I have allergies so it was important for me to get the wall to wall carpet out of this house. After some cosmetic updates and new windows, my first major project in this house was doubling the size of the master bedroom and bath. I designed an addition that punched out the back of the house and really made the house much more livable. The addition added an enormous amount of closet space and a dressing area. I started with the porcelain tile in the addition, and eventually did the remainder of the house except the kitchen. When I say the remainder of the house, I mean everywhere, including in the closets etc. I even did a partial remodel in the second bathroom, replacing the old vanity with a new one and adding a granite top and new sink. The new tile floor flows throughout the house and gives a modern, clean and spacious look to the house.

Attached is a kitchen progress photo showing the floor installation after completing the demolition. The previous floor was some Mexican style ceramic tile that had the look of Saltillo tile. As you can see, the new tile is installed over the entire floor prior to cabinet installation. I know I could have saved some money by not placing tile under the cabinets but I chose not to do it that way.

Thanks for the extra photos and don't forget to post when you get your shelves up! Great job!