That is one gorgeous kitchen! Thanks so much for including all the details and links...so helpful! Enjoy your bright, beautiful, and warm kitchen!!

Beautiful! Love the cabinetry, granite, pendants, and the shape of the island -- must be so great for conversation. Enjoy your wonderful new kitchen!

Beautiful! I am not usually that big a fan of tiled back-splashes, but I absolutely love what you have done behind your range-top.

That's very nice, Carlnorum. Your "crazy" granite makes a gorgeous major feature and strikes me as a perfect use of that strong pattern. Happy cooking!

Beautiful! I like the staggered wine cabinetry by the stairs, creative.

Wow! Stunning backsplash and granite, great with the cabinets. I love the warmth of it all. Simply beautiful.

My before kitchen has a very similar countertop to your before ... one of my favourite things so far (currently mid reno, just done demo) was smashing the h* out of it with a sledgehammer. Apologies to anyone who loves their tile countertop.

LOVE LOVE LOVE your granite!!! It's probably my favorite granite ever that I've seen! We're currently building our house and didn't have it in budget to do "crazy" granite - so although I think it's beautiful, it doesn't compare to yours =) Congrats!!

Your granite is beautiful! And your selection of backsplash is brilliant! WOW!

Stunningly beautiful granite. I'm going to bookmark your post because I'm in your area and may be doing a kitchen remodel within the next year or so. Glad to hear you liked your design/build company.

It is hard to believe the before and after are even in the same neighborhood, lol.... I love the drama of your kitchen with the feature behind the cooktop most of all ;)

Night and day.....

Congrats!

Great improvement - congrats!

Really very lovely... love the creativity by the stairs and the open concept. Enjoy your new kitchen!!

Absolutely gorgeous! Everything goes together so nicely to make it warm, inviting, and yet so classy! Your kitchen is an inspiration for me. Thanks for giving the details.

NICE! I love the new stairway and the way the new cabinets fit along it.

Thanks everybody! We're pretty happy with the results, too. Hopefully the links will come in handy.

@akrogirl - all the credit for the backsplash design goes to our designer, Yana Mlynash. She really did a great job on that one, I think.

@mmhmmgood - I can't tell you how happy I am to not have a tile countertop anymore. Barf.

@annkathryn - I was very happy with these guys and all the work they did. There's a link to their web page in the original post. I'd strongly recommend them. I wrote up a review on Angie's List if you want more details. There are plenty of other reviews there too. If you go in, tell them we sent you!

I should note that we did have a very bad overall experience with the appliance company "Standards of Excellence", so I would avoid them. Otherwise the project went very smoothly.

@remodelfla - taking out a couple of walls really helped with the open feeling. A bonus feature of removing the wall by the staircase is that it's now much easier to hear each other when shouting between floors. =)

I like the granite - what a showstopper and it ties in perfectly with your behind the cooktop backsplash design. The kitchen looks so welcoming with the conversation area at the island - nice job.

Beautiful, crazy, busy granite works so well and is the shining star here. The rest is elegant and so very well suited. What a wonderful vision to have transformed the before into that Wow after. Congrats!

I love your kitchen it looks so beautiful. Great job!!! Love your granite with the cabinet colors. Beautiful.

Beautiful job, really love the granite and the stepped cabinetry at the stairway. You must be in the bay area, I love Bedrosians for stone and tile too.

@pollyanna - yes, we're in San Jose, right near 85 & 17. Technically "unincorporated county", which made permits easy (and cheap), but it means most people in the neighbourhood don't have sidewalks. Boooooo.

I love the large, curved island! I find it super encouraging as I am considering something very similar. I'd love to know the dimensions and any thing you would do different in regards to its shape, seating or whatnot. Very cool way to open up the space and make it much more functional. Way to go!

I love that area, Los Gatos/Campbell sort of mesh there near Camden I am guessing. The streets are confusing and you can go in circles. While looking to buy, we looked and looked at those homes most of them have nice large lots. None were for sale. My DH always loved those homes, because of the large lots, AND lack of sidewalks, and how different from each other and well kept all the homes are. Great job on the kitchen.

@pollyanna - yup that's the place. Good luck with your project!

@NewSouthernBelle - the island is huge. 8' long and 6'9" wide. The short straight side is just a little under 4', and the other side is the curved one. The shape is pretty cool, and the whole island isn't quite squared up with the rest of the kitchen - rotated about 20 degrees or so, which also helps make it look interesting. The countertop is supported on three legs and a pretty thick plywood top. The extra thickness is great - because of that, the granite is stacked up triple thick on the island which makes the countertop look really beefy. The three legs are just a little too close to the edge of the counter, though - it's possible to bang your knees depending on where you're sitting. Unfortunately, all that stone is heavy, so fixing that doesn't seem really practical. Here's a link to a layout diagram that will hopefully help you visualize it:

What a big change! The remodel looks amazing, love the bar and how you opened up the staircase! Absolutely stunning! Congratulations!

I'm still loving that granite :-)

One question though, because my kitchen has a similar oven placement: do you have problems finding a landing place for food that comes out hot from the oven? Do you just put the hot dish on the stove?

gorgeous kitchen! i am also in the bay area and really appreciate your posting all of your sources! btw, where did you purchase your hardwood floors? it seems USC flooring only sells to retailers..

Thank you - that is exactly what I was looking for.

@annkathryn - anything that comes out of the oven either goes onto the stove or just straight onto the countertop on the corner of the island or immediately across from the oven.

@michoumonster - our kitchen design/build shop, Artistic Kitchen Design & Remodeling in Mountain View, are a USC retailer, so we got it from them as part of our project.