The original kitchen had a small laundry and half bath attached, and a door to the back yard. The kitchen was bumped out 3 feet towards the back of the house and a hallway added from the garage to the downstairs office. The hallway now separates the kitchen from the laundry and a tiny full bathroom, with a small niche for table linens and display. The door to the back yard is now through the laundry room. The new kitchen is approx 14x14.

From start to finish the process took 7 months, with 2 months of planning and permit back-and-forth, and 5 months of demolition/construction. We remodeled the existing full bath, added a master bedroom & bath, added an office, took the kitchen down to studs and enlarged it, put in all new electrical, plumbing and HVAC, new roof and gutters, etc, etc. For the kitchen, we built all the cabinet boxes and my contractor installed them. I purchased all appliances and fixtures.

Design considerations: we wanted a bright contemporary look that was inviting and uncluttered. We wanted mostly light surfaces because we were concerned the room might be dark. The kitchen faces north and the one window has an overhang from the master above. We also needed to be budget-aware which we mostly followed with the exception of one big splurge (details below). We loved the look of grain-matched walnut and after a visit to SemiHandMade in Southern California, we decided to go with their custom drawer fronts. I'm the cook and wanted a good expanse of work surfaces. My husband is the clean up guy so he researched and chose the sink and dishwasher.

The island is 60" x 30". In order to have an overhang for seating, we needed to have drawers that were 18" deep. Ikea doesn't sell 18" deep drawers, so we ordered these from Sherr's in the custom size we needed. The walnut end and back side of the island were made by a finish carpenter we hired who wrapped it with a mix of walnut veneer and solid walnut to our specification.

Things we love:
- the marble island (aka The Big Splurge)
- the grain-matched walnut doors. We were glad we got the end panels for the upper cabinets as well.
- lots of drawer space
- the trash pullout
- the tall pantry cabinet
- the butcher block counter
- dimmable LED lights
- Sherr's drawer boxes
- Ikea's 20% off sale and exchange policy

Things that aren't done yet:
- glass shelves for niche
- need to find lower bar stools
- some tweaking of door alignment and repair of edge banding

Gardenweb ideas used:
- lots of drawers
- offset drain in the sink to allow for a trash pullout underneath
- air switch for garbage disposal
- induction stove
- Ikea boxes and hardware
- under cabinet LED lights and outlets
- over-the-counter microwave
- recessed fridge
- did I mention lots of drawers?

Things we had to compromise on:
- no room for a double oven and separate cook top
- clearance behind the island is slightly less than ideal
- more filler by the upper cabinets next to the sink than we'd prefer, needed for symmetry

Things that didn't work out the way we thought
- the window was supposed to come down to the counter
- the finished sink wall was 2" narrower than planned, which meant we had to cut down the drawer fronts of a 24" cabinet to 18" and leave a little gap at the end of the corner cabinet (not visible)
- the corner cabinet needed a lot more door clearance than we thought, so the stove wall had to be adjusted
- the beautiful Mockett finger pulls needed to be recessed into the tops of some of the drawers just a little so that they would close properly. My contractor used a chisel and hacked the edge band badly on some of them. My husband and I are working on repairing all of them as we don't want the contractor to touch them at this point.
- the Abstrakt doors and deco strips show every nail and ding, and so were difficult to use at the top of the cabinets where they needed to be mitred.

Cabinets
Perimeter cabinets: Ikea
Door fronts on Ikea cabinets - white are Ikea Abstrakt, grain-matched walnut are from SemiHandMade

http://semihandmadedoors.com/

Counters
Perimeter: Caesarstone in Arctic White. Purchased during the Ikea sale, fabricated by United Marble and Granite (Ikea's fabricator)
Island - Calacatta Oro, honed. Purchased at Da Vinci Marble in San Carlos, CA, fabricated by Marblus Granite in San Jose

Walnut butcherblock counter from Hardwood Lumber Company

Appliances
Electrolux 30" Slide-In Induction Range Model EW30IS65JS (Sears Outlet)
Sharp 1.5 cu. ft. Over-the-Counter Microwave (Home Depot)
Waste King 1HP Eco-Green Garbage Disposer with air switch (Costco)
Hansgrohe Metro HighArc Kitchen Faucet with 2-Function Pull-Out Sprayhead (Costco)
Ancona Tornado II 30" Range Hood (Costco)
Bosch-SHX68R55UC 800 Series 24 In. Stainless Steel Bar Handle Dishwasher
Elkay Gourmet Elumina Stainless Steel 30-1/2" x 18-1/4" Single Basin Kitchen Sink 10" Depth
Kenmore Elite fridge (existing)

Mockett Door pulls 3" Tab Drawer Pull - Satin Chrome (26D)

Omnia Pulls for niche cabinet

Floor - strand-woven bamboo from Teragren in Chestnut

Lights - LED undercabinet and can lights.
Pendants - Bruck Rainbow I (dichroic)

Wall color - BM Decorator's White

Kitchen before with dining room beyond

From Kitchen

Kitchen during with island mock-up. The original subfloor is on the diagonal. New exterior door/laundry room in background.

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6 inch recess for fridge

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Looking from hallway; entrance to dining room was enlarged

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From the dining room, niche and hallway at right rear

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Fridge wall

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From dishwasher to plate drawer

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Trash pullout

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Pullout left of stove

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Tall cabinet

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Mockett pulls and damage to edge banding (since repaired)

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Niche cabinet before mirror was installed

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Marble close-up

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Nancy

Love the marble island and the caesarstone perimiter, they work so well together. And the glass cabs are great, as is the breakfast bar area with the walnut counter and white lowers.

It all looks so wonderful. You have to post some updated pics when you fill your glass cabs full of pretty things too. Congrats on your lovely new space.

The waterfall is definetly the show stopper, even with all the other beautiful elements. Great job!

Would love to see where the mockets are. I couldn't see them in the picture

We didn't use the Mockett power products but instead used their drawer pulls (who knew they had other products besides the pop-ups?) Which reminds me that the outlets around the sink aren't to code because in theory there should have been one to the right of the sink. Our city inspector was good about it and granted an exception.

laurat88 I would absolutely recommend my painter, he was wonderful. We used him in our previous house too. He's not my general contractor's sub, which caused a bit of tension. He'd point out to me areas where the GC's drywall guy should have done a better job, and my GC got a bit huffy about it. I was stuck in the middle, but since I cared about the final result I would insist that whatever it was be fixed, and eventually things got worked out. Anyway, the painters were working 10-hour days, 6 days/week for over a month because we really wanted to move in by the end of October. They were the only subs we tipped after the job was finished (although I baked them all cookies nearly every week and had a pizza lunch one day when everyone was onsite).

www.malovanypaintbrush.com
thepaintbrush@yahoo.com

lyban the door under the stairs was there already. The space isn't very useful because it has the cold air return to the furnace in the garage, visible down the front hall. Our architect tried to find a different place for the duct but wasn't able to move it in the end. I'll try to get a picture of it tomorrow.

michoumonster the walnut door fronts all came pre-finished with a natural finish, no stain. When my GC tried to repair the edge banding he used a product with a stain which really wasn't the right thing to do. I've redone some of the edge band with Watco Danish Oil, and touched some of it up with Deft clear wood finish (sold at Lowe's) in semi-gloss. I finished the butcher block counter with Watco Butcher Block oil. It still needs a bit more sanding because it's not completely smooth.

The island end and back side is finished with the Danish Oil. I put 2 coats on - very easy to do. Here's a picture before oiling.

From Kitchen

Also, how do you offset the drain, and where is the microwave plugged in? Intrigued by your OTC microwave choice!

The sink comes with the drain on the right hand side. I think the Elkay may be discontinued but there are others.

The microwave is plugged into a plug that's in the cabinet above. In the 3rd picture down in my first post, see the wires coming through the hole in the shear wall? That's for the outlet. They cut out a spot in the back of the cabinet, and also cut a hole in the bottom of the cabinet to feed the cord through. The Sharp is one of the few undercabinet microwaves out there, although there are lots of other options for built-ins sitting on a lower shelf.

Here's how it looks from below with the LED lights, microwave and undercabinet outlets.

From Kitchen

lyban I'm sorry I haven't been able to get good pictures of the closet under the stairs (friends are now referring to it as the Harry Potter closet). It's very small and has the HVAC return running across it, taking up most of the floor space. I don't think it will end up being very useful.

You have me second guessing my choie of the adel doors. The abstrakt is so gorgeous with the walnut.

Are those LED lights plugged into the power strip as well, or are they hardwired?

Fantastic job!!

drybean the Abstrakt is a really nice look, but it was hard to work with when it was used as crown molding, and also the deco strip underneath the cabinet had issues too. It can't really be caulked without looking odd. If you've got an alternative to use for crown, I'd recommend it.

The pictures don't show it well, but I have a 1" filler on either side of the range. The drawers wouldn't have cleared the range without it. I'll try to take a better picture and post it tomorrow.

They're hardwired and on a dimmer.

It's a long story, but none of this was in the original plan other than the two 1" filler pieces. Our architect's drawing was off by 6 inches on that wall! So we had to have the walnut pieces to the left of the stove remade from scratch, and we cut down the drawer panels on the right of the stove from 24" to 18". Fortunately we hadn't assembled those cabinets when we discovered all of this, so we returned the original ones to Ikea and bought the replacements.

lalitha I don't think our little house will ever be on a tour, but you're welcome to come see it. I'll email you.

From Kitchen

From Kitchen

The balance of walnut, white, stainless and glass and that gorgeous marble island with waterfall edge make for a stunning kitchen.

Sink to island: 37"
Range to island: 39"
Microwave cabinets to island: 39"

Question - how wide is your dish drawer? If you have been following our thread - we had a dish drawer failure as the KD didn't know the total weight included the drawer weight....

a2gemini I did follow your thread about the weight in your dish drawer. You can see from the picture above that the drawer we use for dishes isn't from Ikea, it's a Sherr's drawer made from solid maple if I remember correctly. Each drawer in the island is 30 inches wide, but the island cabinets are only 18 inches deep. The drawers are very solid, and even if I'd used Ikea drawers I think the weight would have been ok. The KA mixer in the 15" Ikea pullout is fine. The other island drawers hold heavy wood cutting boards and salad & mixing bowls with no problem.

I just love the walnut. I'm so happy to see the Semi Handmade doors in action. I considered it for a long while but I was able to find frustratingly little from people who had used them.

Great job, again! I keep coming back to stare at your photos.

Can I ask for details on your LED lighting- what are those things holding it to the light rail? Did you have to modify them to hardwire them?
thanks!
Nancy

The Electrolux range is working well for us and the cooktop doesn't need nearly as much cleaning/scrubbing as our old Jenn-air stove top (non-induction) did. DH loves the dishwasher!

I am especially enamored with your slab of Calacatta Oro that you got from DaVinci. Been scouting there myself for marble. Did you ever consider a marble with a more brown veining to match the walnut? Like the Volakas:

Or the Calacatta Vagli:

I am considering the marble with the brown for my next project and am wondering if you saw these and ruled them out because of the brownish veins. My island may end up being walnut too and I am toying with the idea of using these.

You did an amazing job and all the obsessing that you mentioned obviously paid off. It looks fabulous :)

Dreambuilder the drawers are all standard Ikea drawers, which are steel with a particleboard bottom. For the tall cabinet I used the basic Ikea drawer dividers.

Firsthouse_mp thanks for your nice comments. Your island was one of my inspirations (was it quartzite?) I didn't see the Volkas at Da Vinci but I did see the Calacata Vagli and another one called Calacata Caldia. DH and I were looking for a marble that had the effect of a river flowing over the side of the island. We weren't focusing so much on the color although we didn't want it to be too gray. The Volkas in your picture looks like it would have been a good choice for us. The veins in the Vagli that we saw looked a little muddy, as did the Caldia. I know they get in new marble all the time, but once we found that slab of Calacata Ora, which is a little creamier in person than in the pictures, we were sold. All Natural Stone in San Jose has gorgeous marbles too.

What was it like to work with semi-handmade? We're thinking of doing ikea cabinets with custom doors, and semi-handmade is local to me. I love how they match the wood grain across the fronts, but our home is older (1940) and I have to wonder if the slab front (would do walnut or mahogany) is too modern for our space. I love what you have done though, I may have to go visit their office and see if I can get a sample door.

Thanks.

Our house was built in 1940 and is of no discernible style as far as I can tell. It's in a neighborhood of Craftsman and bungalows. When we were house-hunting we bid on an original Craftsman and I would have done a completely different kitchen if we'd won that bid. As it was, I didn't have a problem adding a more contemporary kitchen to this house. I think the cabinets we took out were the originals, painted white by a later owner.

Hope that helps!

The drawers fronts themselves are adjustable about 1/4 inch up and down. If you set the bottom drawer to be on its lowest setting and the top drawer to be in its highest, the middle drawer might be ok if you have a 3-drawer cabinet, for example.

I hope you can adjust so you don't have to cut into the drawer tops.

Since I'm of the opinion that a picture is worth a thousand words, I just took a couple. Sorry they're not in better focus.

Pull installed on the top of the drawer.

From Kitchen

Pull inset into top of drawer (you can see the slight tear in the drawer material on the right side of the pull):

From Kitchen

YoungDeb-bummer. I really don't want to have to have to do that.

Yes, similar issues with having to chisel into some of the tops of the SemiHandMade drawers too. A good finish carpenter should be able to do this. Unfortunately my GC didn't have one (long story, I won't bore you with the details) and so he took a chisel to the drawers that didn't close all the way and notched out enough room for the pulls. There's a picture above of some of the damage he did. I bought a roll of walnut iron-on edge banding and am slowly repairing everything that needs it.

I felt a lot better after watching a couple videos of the process. Go to YouTube and search on "how to apply edge banding" for more information. I'm also linking more information below.

Do you have your SHM drawer fronts already? If not, maybe you could send them your pulls and have them do the cutting at their shop. I think the drawer fronts are just a hair bigger than their Ikea counterparts, which is good because it covers more of the cabinet box, but not so good when the drawer pulls need such exact clearance.

I was going to use the Mockett pulls on the niche cabinet, but the kitchen cabinets were such a pain that I just used small drawer pulls instead.

I had a custom walnut vanity made for my master bath using the same Mockett pulls. I took the pulls to the cabinet maker and had them do the inset cuts when they made the doors. They look great (picture below).

Also, the roll of edge band I bought is about a gazillion feet, way more than I'll ever use. If you want me to send you some I'd be happy to do so, just message me through this site.

Master vanity:

From MasterBath