268 pictures, one lunch break...

Thank you so much for sharing the details of your project. There were a lot of things that your GC seemed to do right that I couldn't get anyone to do for me. I now know the correct way to level a floor (adding new joists to the old ones).

Your walnut counters are just to die for! So rich and thick, like a good chocolate shake.

I must say, I don't think I've ever seen a space I'd rather spend time in than your old dining room. What a view! I see why you miss it, but your home now is just beautiful and has lots of memories awaiting you.

(Oh, and your dh is really cute... He have any single brothers you could set kitchenkelly and me up with?)

I'm sure I'll have plenty of questions when I've had time to absorb more. Everything is perfect. Congratulations!

jill - the Minnesota kitchen pics are at the very end of the 268 pics on the link above (you can just use the drop down menu in the pictures list to go to the last one or two pages to view them). We had just built the house on 6 acres in Independence.

basnjas - you cracked me up! My DH is very good to me and we've been together for 20+ years - unfortunately, he has only sisters (and 3 of them at that) - I think that's why God blessed us with 3 boys so he'd have more testosterone in the house to hang out with than he did when he was growing up! As for that dining room view, it was to die for - we'd wake up and find 9 deer just grazing off the patio, or we'd have about 20 pheasants waddle through while we enjoyed breakfast. The serenity of it all is probably what I miss the most which is why I tried to create a special place with this renovation amongst all the craziness here.

Hhhmmm, chocolate shakes you say? I think Chocolate is the 5th food group so that's perfect!!

Warm and beautiful - what a pleasure it must be to be really and truly DONE. Enjoy the wonderful space you've created - and welcome to Massachusetts!

teachbls - Thank you! It took us a while, but e're finding MA a fine place to call home and really do love it.

Really, there isn't much to say about your new kitchen except it is GORGEOUS!!!!! I love every aspect of it. Are you serving up the turkey, can i come over. How fun to be able to spend the holidays in such a lovely space. Enjoy!!!

WOW!! I believe this kitchen was well worth the wait! :) I know it wasn't easy but it's absolutely gorgeous!! It looks like it fits in so well with all your colors/accessories and feels like a great place to call the hearth of the home!!! CONGRATS!!!! Love love love it all!!!

Tara

This is why I love GW so much . . . I get to see drop-dead gorgeous kitchens like yours, Kristin. You've done a fantastic job with your entire home, but that kitchen of yours is the gem of it all! I love your mudroom, too, though. Actually, I'm pea green with envy over your mudroom! Are you a decorator, BTW? If not, you should be! OK, back to the kitchen. I love the way it flows~ the work/prep areas, the entertaining areas. It's warm and inviting. The counters are so pretty and work perfectly with your cabinets. I know that this kitchen will look great in any season, but I can't help but think that yours has to be the most wonderful kitchen to celebrate Thanksgiving in that I've ever seen. Congratulations on your truly memorable kitchen!

Love everything!!! I love the mix of materials, the butcher block island in the middle and your little corner storage area with a window seat....The rest of your house is lovely as well.

One question...I read on the "metal drawer thread" that you have metal drawers. When you get a chance, I was wondering if you might be able to take a picture of them and post here. I love the metal drawers from Ikea. They seem so much more practical in the kitchen. Thanks

mahlgold - here's a couple of pics, if you want closer ones, let me know. Also, how'd it go with your layout? Did that plan I faxed you help?

How beautiful! I could live in your house and just stare at the kitchen all day. You really have an eye for coordinating colors. Very warm and cozy! Congrats!

Hard to believe it's the same kitchen as the before photo. What a transformation. Warm and inviting. I'm off to look at the rest of your album.

Oooh Thank you for the tip!!!!

thanks for the photos....believe it or not, I'm still working on a layout. But the one you sent me is still in contention. Thanks!

What a lovely kitchen!!!!

I am curious about your cabinets... I know they are custom. My custom cabinet maker orders his doors from decore-ative specialists (link below). You doors look very similiar to the Bel Air and San Mareno door style. Do you know if that was your door manufacturer. I am trying to decide on that same style!

Thanks,
Sally

What an amazing kitchen you have designed and built. I can't remember when I've loved looking at so many pics! lol! Truly inspiring and a great lesson in attention to detail. You have managed to do what so many professionals fail to do - meld a highly functional kitchen with warmth, character and a sense of belonging to its space. And it's beautiful, too! AMAZING!

I truly wish you and your family many wonderful years of memory making in your new kitchen. I've no doubt you'll pull that off, too. : )

Diana

Stunning!!!!

I've already said how beautiful this is, but I just can't stay away! Do you mind if I borrow from your "antique" hutch? I am planning a piece like that as well (in fact, I had drawn something surprisingly similar right down to the beverage center last night), and your pictures will help me show the cabinetmaker what I'm after.

What are the lovely tiles in your backsplashes? (I love the diamond tiles in particular.)

You should get this into the Finished Kitchens Blog.

nepool - They aren't from Decore (Decore's out of CA and mine were local) but the two you mentioned are similar to mine - the raised mouldings around mine have more detail (layers?) and the raised panel has more of a cove detail around it. Still, what you've selected, I'm sure will look lovely!

Thanks, everyone for the wonderful compliments. You have no idea how much sleep I've lost wondering if everything would be pulled together the way I had it in my mind's eye.

For anyone out there exhausted by all the searching for finishes, etc, I have to admit something: I visited a tile showroom twice, an appliance showroom once, a stoneyard twice, and my cabinet makers' showroom three times - otherwise, ALL of my selections were made and/or purchased online! Even when I used one of my GC's subs (for example, for the lighting fixtures or the plumbing fixtures), I would compile my list from online research, then call a showroom and place the order over the phone using model #'s and wholesale pricing - I kid you not, it can be done!! I even bought the stools and little table online through an unfinished furniture site, had them dropped shipped to my cabinetmaker and had them finish them in the same stain/paint/glazes that were being used on my cabs. Don't let contractors keep you in a box with your thinking, just get creative!

sarschlos - of course I don't mind! I stole the idea from the Plato Woodwork website - the Plato company is owned by my dear friends in MN and I couldn't find a dealer here in MA to get my Plato so I took the pic of the hutch that they had and brought it to my custom folks and had it made, with my revisions.

The backsplash tile is from Horus Art - it's actually got a crackled finish which doesn't show up in the pics but makes it look very old and warm. I believe it was their Tiffany series...?

Your Minnesota kitchen and dining room were also amazing! Thanks for letting me know where to find the pictures.

Mnhockeymom, I just love your kitchen!!! I have never seen such a great combinations of colors. The contrasts are stunning. (I would be too afraid to try different materials together.) You have great taste there, lady. You must be so happy.

Another congrats from MN.

Congratulations on a wonderful home and kitchen!
You must be so proud of the finished space.

I really enjoyed the whole slideshow!

Holy Canneloni's!!! I just finished looking at all your pictures. I cannot begin to imagine living in the same house as all that construction and not going stir crazy nutso. You are a saint!! And to have the vision to turn it all around and so well!!! Please tell me you are doing this for a living. You are fantastic. I LOVE your copper prep sink. Can we get more details.

And the rainforest brown granite in the bathroom was one we considered for the kitchen. Love it.

Well done on this transformation

Fantastic!!!!! That marble is so creamy and delicious looking--I could take a bite out of it! What a wonderful kitchen--I want to come visit, too!

Man what vision you have, unbelievable!!!! You have a gift, can I hire you if we ever move/remodel again???!

I'm another guilty one here who went through all 268 photos. Can't wait to see the "professional" photos, yours were fantastic, can't believe they can get any better.

Perfection - love every single detail. Bravo!

What a stunning transformation! Everything is so, so lovely. You have such beautiful taste. Coincidentally, we are in Minnetonka and bought a house in Sherborn 18 months ago. (We decided against the move in the end and stayed in MN.) Funny that we would have been almost-neighbors in both states. Thanks for sharing all of the pictures.

It is all soooo beautiful! It looks so gorgeous when everything comes together so well. That takes real talent to put together!

Thank you all so much - you really make me feel vindicated in so many of my choices! I was offered a job today by my GC but I'm hesitant as I question whether I could do this for others....? Don't you feel like you make so many choices because of the "feeling" you want in your kitchen? I don't know if I could do it or whether I could transfer that thinking for others. I know this sounds weird but I put a lot of emotion into my choices - kind of creating a "space" for that reflects my family and how we live/relate/etc....I do absolutely love doing this (after 4 custom full-house constructions and 1 major reno in 10 years, I'd better like it!) and Lord knows it would be nice to make $$ doing it rather than spend money for it! I told him I'd think about it over the holidays...

My GC did have his professional photo shoot here today - it took 6+ hours which makes me wonder what those pics are going to look like - jeesh, being kicked out of my kitchen that long did not make me happy!!

Loves2cook4six - the copper prep sink is the Native Trails Redondo Chico - it's perfectly the right width and depth for pots/strainers, etc and yet it's nice and discreet at the same time.

epicure - you're joking!?!! Did you not sell your house in Mtka? I keep tabs on stuff there and it seems like the real estate mkt is just brutal (still). I left mine furnished for 4 months (living on Cort rental furniture in a rental house - that sucked.) and then finally got all my stuff shipped out to MA, had the MN "staged" and then it sold a few months later - of course we had to move right as the housing "crisis" hit MN - honestly, we thank God every day that our house sold because there are houses STILL for sale (since Fall of '05) that were for sale when we listed! Sherborn is lovely - we considered it since it had more of the "rural" character of Independence/Orono but the commute would have been from hell for DH and the public schools were not the best. Wellesley is very, very much like a blend of Wayzata and Edina (the first I grew up in, the second I was born in) BUT that can be good and bad, and I'm sure you know what I mean (great quality of life but a wee bit snotty). I hope deciding not to move works out well for you - you really couldn't go wrong with either choice!

Lot of work and so worth it! Anyone who gets you and your GC has got gold. Congrats.

mnhockeymom - I looked through all your pictures and enjoyed ever minute of it. I can only dream of having a kitchen that beautiful one day. Can you tell me what kind of floor this is?

I posted a picture awhile back of a floor I had seen in a model home. Mamabi said it looked like Noce Travertine in the versaille pattern and the color was probably Walnut. Do you know if that's what yours is?

Laurie

It's really beautiful! Congratulations on a job well done!

Kristin -- I want to ask you about your 5cm countertop, please. I love it, am mad for it. Today we (toddlers and I) went to a slab yard to see some (icky) slabs of 3cm marble and I asked about getting 5cm slabs: I was looked in the eye and told marble does not come in 5cm slabs. So, I said "well, I know someone [forgive me the exaggeration] in MA who has 5cm marble countertops" and they said that I must be mistaken.

Now, we both know I'm not mistaken, so I'm curious if you had to special order it or if maybe 5cm is common on the east coast? (I'm in CO.) It is just so dreamy in your kitchen that I'd love it here, too, if the number 5 exists in CO, that is! Ha ha.

Thanks for your advice,
-Brooke

msrose - my tile is not a travertine but is ceramic by a company called Cerdomus out of Italy (it's pronounced "Cherdomus") - I happened to be in the tile store the same day as their rep was visiting and I had noticed that their sample boards weighed 5x what other floor/wall tiles did so we got to talking about it - turns out it's really of the same make-up of European commercial tile and he sold me on all the technical facts about it (of course none of which I remember now) - all I can say is that it's indestructible and we love it. I'll post the link to Cerdomus below. Mine is from the Kairos Collection and the color is "ruggine" - their website plays this dumb music and is slow to react sometimes but they've got this amazing section on tile layouts that my tile guy fell in love with!

Brooke - the 2" thick marble was special order - from what I learned, you get it one of two ways...Either you specify what you're looking for (name of marble, color characteristics, etc) and then the stone yard has its supplier/quarry in Italy find something per your specs, take digital pics of it and then you approve it and have it shipped to you - obviously, if you don't like it when it arrives, you still own it. OR, you have your tile yard do a "locate" for some 2" thick slabs that are coming in on a shipment or possibly already here in the States but still at a wholesaler - when they locate slabs, you go to where the slabs are and approve/select them and then the wholesaler delivers them to your stone yard for fabrication. This second option is what I ended up doing but only out of sheer luck - I had told my stone guy a few months earlier that I REALLY wanted to do the extra thick slabs and he just essentially kept his ear to the ground - we got down to the wire where I was going to have to go the "digital pics" route but then his wholesaler called to say a container ship was arriving from Italy and had 7 slabs on it - I needed 4 slabs so we drove down to the shipyard, had them uncrated and displayed in the warehouse at the dock and I chose my 4 slabs on the spot. I don't think it's necessarily common here to have 5cm slabs in inventory but every stoneyard no matter where they are should be able to do a locate or contact their quarry to find you some. Hope that helps!! (For what it's worth, now that I have the 5cm, I cannot imagine anything less. It's truly such a statement in the kitchen. As for pricing, putting a 2" edge on regular slabs would have been close to the same $$ - thus, if you can find them, get them!).

Another one guilty of looking at all 268 pictures and loving every minute of it! Thanks for sharing the pictures and inspiring me! Absolutely stunning!!

mnhockeymom - off-topic, but I found this architect through a design in a kitchen mag I bought and went to his website. His stuff is amazing and he's out of Minneapolis. I recall you relocated from there(??) Not that I plan on using them as I live in NJ, but just curious if you ever heard of them.

If you have no ties to Minneapolis, the photos are nevertheless gorgeous.

mahlgold - I've seen AH's stuff - if I recall, they do a lot on the East side of the Twin Cities (St Paul, Stillwater, etc) - very prairie-inspired, very pretty. Both AH and my architect in MN were Sarah Susanka (the "Not So Big House" author) fans. My guy is/was Jim McNeal with De Novo Architects - I looked up their website and just found the link to my previous house - he did an international speech on creating "flow" and putting "Soul" into a home and our house was the feature of the speech. Here's the link w/ pics!

mnhockeymom
Congratulations! All I can say is..wow! wow! wow! beautiful! Ree

Now I see why it was so hard to leave your old house!! But I'm sure you'll make some great memories in your new one. After all...in the end it is just ahouse....we all make it into a home!!

mnhockeymom ~ no need to send me your photos for the FKB. I can pick them up from this posting. But I would ask that you please fill out the FKB Category Checklist so I can easily categorize your kitchen. Thanks!

Your kitchen is gorgeous!!! You should be very proud. I hope you are enjoying your beautiful new house. It's the perfect kitchen to serve your Thanksgiving meal in!

Fabulous kitchen !
Loved the 5cm (2") marble. I've seen pics of undermounted prep sinks with 2" counters and often wondered how they could laminate an edge around an undermount sink. Guess they didn't, just used 5cm slabs.

Thank you!!

Your pics are not showing anymore :-(

Can't believe I missed your kitchen.

I just clicked on the link in the second post at the top and it worked - try again, sometimes Shutterfly goes down at night....???

Bump ... too many nice pics and good info to have it fall off the forum.
Thanks, mnhockeymom, for an inspirational kitchen!

HockeyMom - hurray - I think you were doing design around the same time I was - wow it turned out nice. Sorry I didn't comment before. It was right around the time of your post I was SOO sick of kitchen kitchen kitchen and mine not getting done I just had to stop reading GW for a while. Your kitchen is not at all my style (wait hear me out!) but I find myself strangely attracted to it so I am trying to figure out why... so here are some thoughts

- Wonderful use of contrast, it makes that woodwork around the range look absolutely beautiful. The richness of the woodwork makes that thick marble look amazing and not cold at all like marble looks in some settings!!
- The whole backsplash tieing with curtains tieing with the trim on the tile is excellent. Any one of those items alone is a nice touch but all three tied together = wow.
- I am a sucker for butcherblock :) what kind of wood is it? (sorry if you already answered that.. I kinda glazed over some of the responses there are so many)

Anyway, great job!

Hi mysterymachine - Thank you for the nice words! Your comments are right on with most people who visit....Being a Midwesterner in New England, my style is often not in-line w/ that of friends' and neighbors' here but they all seem to like it - the mix of textures, materials and colors is what always gets them.

Our butcherblock is from BrooksWood out of NY - it is Edge-grain Black Walnut and I love it! I haven't oiled it in forever but it still looks fabulous.

I've got to run to school w/ the kids - any other questions, let me know!!

mnhockeymom, you've done an absolutely wonderful job. I have one question. How did you decide which parts of your kitchen to do with white cabinets and which part needed the darker (cherry, is it?). Thanks.

I see that you have an innate talent for "creating 'flow' and putting 'Soul'" into a kitchen! I am glad someone resurfaced this post, as I hadn't yet had the honor of viewing your kitchen.

I like to categorize kitchens in my mind by comparing them to past GW posts. Therefore, I bestow the "sharb" award to you! Wonderful all the way!

sdionnemoore - the best way for me to visualize space when I'm working on it is to take the elevations from my computer or building plans and actually hand color them in. My husband was very wary of me mixing the white and dark finishes on the same plane so it was also helpful for him to be okay with the idea!

amcofar - wow, you have no idea how honored I am since I absolutely love sharb's work! THANK YOU!! I'm flattered too regarding your flow and soul comments - my last home was a labor of love (2 years in construction, custom from top to bottom) but my husband VERY unexpectedly took a new job just 18 mos after we moved into it and we had to move 1500 miles away. The week after I found out that we were moving, my former architect called me to ask permission to feature our home in a national speaking engagement he was doing about putting soul into a home - he ended up having the most amazing photo shoot done in the home and then told its "story" during his tour. Obviously having left it, all of that is very bitter sweet to me but I did feel a big sense of achievement because I poured my heart into that home and to have it recognized in such a way was very cathartic. Doing this project here helped me heal some wounds and many of our friends tell us that when they're in this house, they just don't want to leave - to me it's been an indication that we brought some soul into this space too! So, thank you for your kind comments....