We undertook a remodel of our kitchen, dining room, laundry room this summer. I have been inspired by the "Big Enough" house movement, and was determined to keep our 2000 sq. ft 1936 house true to itself while meeting the needs of our family of five. After 6 years in our house we decided that we really just needed a slightly larger dining room, and that all of our other needs could be met within the original foot print. The kitchen remains 16x9. The main structural changes we made were to bump the dining room out four feet, move the wall next to the refrigerator back 18 inches to create more space for the island and install larger, more energy efficient doors and windows.

Here are best before pics I have.

And here are some after pictures. (The laundry room paint looks day glo in these pics for some reason, but it is the same as all of the other rooms.)

There are more pics in my photobucket album linked below.

Details:
Contractor: Baerenk Construction (fabulous!)
Cabinets: Custom from Western Idaho Cabinets
Counters: Emerald Pearl Granite
Backsplash: Anchor Bay Tile- Soho in Bisque, and black liner from Home Depot. (Thanks to Jgarner53 for inspiration)
Windows: Marvin wood interior, aluminum exterior
Lighting: Schoolhouse electric
Wall Color: BM Windham Cream
Appliances: Existing and too many brand names to mention.
Sink: Sterling McCallister 33x9 single bowl
Faucet: Hanover by?

Favorite things: Emerald Pearl granite: it is stunning and bullet proof, deep single bowl sink, new single level island, dish drawer in island, new pantry.

Thank you again, see the link below for more pics.

Heather

In your before picture I was quite fascinated by the brick island! It looked like a barbeque!

Are those steel windows I see in the "before" pics? Can you tell me how difficult those were to replace. Do you know any of the details about taking them out, etc. We have steel windows and have been told they are "historic" so we shouldn't replace them, but boy i'm tempted.. yours look great.
beth

Enjoy!

I am curious also about the brick island in the before pictures. I assume it was removed, not just cut down and refaced, because you mention having dish drawers in the island.

What paint color did you use on the cabinets?

Wonderful job and I wish your family thousands of happy hours in your home.

jb1176 the paint color on the cabinets was one of the finishes offered by our cabinet maker, sort of. They usually glaze it after painting and call it "Ivory". I requested no glaze, they forgot and I had to send back every single cabinet to be re-painted. I matched it fairly closely for the ceiling and trim with BM White Dove.

Beekeeperswife and jb1176: Wasn't that brick island crazy?! I hated it from the moment we bought the house and I can't tell you how many times my kids scraped their knees on it sitting at the island. Yes it was demo-ed (one of my favorite days of construction!) to make way for the longer, wider island.

Your DR cabinet with its colorful dishware display reminds me that I wanted to do something similar in my DR. Hmmmmm, the wheels are turning. Thanks! ;-)

It looks awesome. Great choice of materials. (so glad to see that brick, laminated doors gone). The granite is stunning.
The design looks really nice.

So when is the party for us all ?:)

When you say dish drawer in the island, do you mean dish storage or a dishwasher drawer?

I absolutely adore your pantry...so did my 9-year-old daughter! what are the dimensions, please? I'd also love to know the dimensions of your island and your mudroom...I will look in the album for mudroom pics.

Chris

Bravo and congrats!

Pharaoh: Anytime you find yourself in Boise ID, you come by and we will have a party!

Morton 5: The kitchen footprint stayed the same, but we bumped the DR out 4 ft. The beam in the ceiling of the DR is the old exterior wall.

akchicago: The pantry shelves have 3 tier risers that I found at Target and Fred Meyer. I could probably fit more if I stacked, but then I couldn't tell what I had. This really helps me stay organized becauase I can see everything at once.

mallhgold: Thanks! And the window grids in the DR are painted, the ones in the LR are between the glass, and inspired me to paint the new ones.

Scootermom: The trash is just under the sink on the left side. I got a pull out for the first time and love it becasue I can leave it open while I cook and throw stuff in as I go. The Pantry is a wee 12" deep, 4 ft wide and I think 84" tall. If you had the room, I would suggest 14 inches, because most of the organizer baskets I found won't fit in faced front to back. The mudroom/laundry room you see with the checked floor is I believe about 8x14. And here is a pic of the dish drawer. BEST THING EVER with kids because they can reach everything without climbing on the counters.

Can I ask about the dish drawer? I see you've got some heavy dishes.... do you find it very heavy to open? How big is the drawer? Did you use two pulls and if so do you ever pull on only one and have a problem opening the drawer? Any recommendations on design etc with the drawer?

Thanks! and again you did a terrific job blending all of your rooms and making your vision come to life!

(And as a former Bernese owner, I love your "Saintly" friend there on the floor!)

(P.S. I had bricks on my old island, too!)

I love the dark granite it looks black but photos up
close show the texture and green pearl tones. Lovely.
The cup pulls, the back splash, the light fixtures and
the soft warm wood floors all flow nicely. The details,
the details, the details... the lighted cabinets with the
accented plates, the large pull down faucet fits
perfectly. The black island and it's stools are almost
hidden and do not take over the room but provide
a great place to sip a cup of tea and pour over cook books.

The soft yellow paint just warms this white kitchen and
turn it into a dream. Add to this kitchen the flow into
the rest of the house and wow that BM windham cream (looks
like a soft yellow) pulls the entire house together. It
looks like a show piece. Something out of House Beautiful.
I love the entire house.

Magnificent kitchen!
~boxerpups

Bravo!

Trish

Bri

And I have to comment too on your pantry. I'm in awe of how incredibly organized even its contents are! That's just amazing! Mine would never stay like that for long, much as I'd love for it to!

Congrats on a fabulous job! I'm truly inspired! Thanks for sharing!

marita40: I was originally going to use dal tile. Then we I got the door sample for my cabinets it just looked too white in comparison. So I looked at a lot of tile. I ordered samples from Anchor Bay, including the crackle, which is really pretty. But as Sweeby says, you have to stay with your vision, and mine was clean and simple, so I went with the solid glaze. I think the bisque gives the tile a slightly "older" look, and makes the contrast with the granite a little less severe. If you are considering the bisque, I would suggest ordering a square foot rather than just one tile, because it does trend (IMO) a little warm gray, rather than beige. And at $8.50 sf, it wasn't awfully expensive.

mpmg36: I really think having a shallow pantry helps keep it organized. At one point in our planning we were trying to fit in a small walk in pantry, so at first I was a little disappointed with the idea of the shallow pantry. But I think in terms of function, it works better for me, and my kids, because we can tell what we have at a glance.

May I add your kitchen to the Finished Kitchens Blog?
If so please submit the FKB Category Checklist to give your permission.
Thank you!

But your kitchen is bigger and you put some glass insets on some of your cabinets and you have that terrific island. hmmmmm..... I'm jealous. ;-)

Starpooh: Yes, I will complete the checklist and add to FKB.

Donnakay2009: No weird taste in our water...yet! :) But we also added a small bathroom to the upstairs of our house this summer, using plastic water lines and the kids say the water tastes weird in there. We still have copper lines downstairs, so maybe that is the difference.

rehsal: I actually stole that backssplash idea from jgarner53 on the FKB. She did a green "dot" between pencil liners, cut from a different color liner. I thought that was even cuter than ours, but at the time I was too worried that the Emerald Pearl would be "too flashy" and decided to keep it simple. Wish now I had done the dot.

thanks!