It looks warm, rich and inviting!

It definitely looks warm and inviting--just what a kitchen should be imho. You should be very happy with it. Enjoy!!!

Very nice! Can you give us details-granite, floor, backsplash, appliances?? Your kitchen has a great warmth to it. Good job.

It's my favorite coloration: honey /caramel. I think you did a beautiful job. Would love the details.

Beautiful! Congratulate yourself on a job beautifully done!

Details, details, please!

I also love the cabinet color and style, the beautiful counters, the pretty floor, and how warm your kitchen looks. You did a beautiful renovation job! Please... I would love the details of the material and appliances used.

As these things go, it was pretty much a budget project, with most of the materials coming from a big box store.

The floor is Marazzi porcelain tile from HD, I think it's the Montagna Belluno 16".

Cabinets are Kraftmaid...can't remember the door style (sorry!), but it's Honey Spice with Mocha highlights. Other than a couple week delay in delivery, our experience with KM was positive. Everything came as ordered and in good shape. The appliance garage is pretty cool, but does take up a fair amount of counter space in the corner. A few bells and whistles, but probably the cheapest upgrade that we really like are the soft close doors.

Appliances are primarily Frigidaire mid-line stuff, with the exception of splurging on a higher-end (for this project) Bosch dishwasher. Having just moved in, I'm not really in tune with the range/convection oven yet to see if I'll like it or not.

The granite was our one concession to "luxury". It seems the most common name is Stephany (or Stephanie) Fashion, but we haven't seen a lot of info on it. It has a fair amount of gold in it, but this particular slab had strong horizontal bars of dark brown and beige. Our stone store labeled it as "California Wood" which was pretty apt given the appearance. We ended up around $80/sq ft., which may be outrageous, but once you fall in love with something...

The backsplash is something off the shelf at a big box store that was purchased in a fit of "lets just get this dang thing done and get it over with". As a result, it's probably our least favorite thing in the kitchen, but we'll live with it.

We went from a gutted-out abandoned kitchen (at least no demo costs!) to this in about 3 months and spent about $25,000 on everything in the kitchen, which will probably be about 10% of the value of the home.

It was our first experience rehabbing, and if there was such a thing as a "general contractor" on the project, we were it. Despite the inexperience, things went relatively smooth. We've moved into it as our primary residence, so getting a lot of quick value appreciation wasn't necessarily our goal. But we think we did OK on that end too.

Thanks for the kind words!

Thank you for the details that I will print out and see the floor and cabinets in person to see if it would look nice in my kitchen since monitor colors are not always accurate. But I do love the style of your kitchen cabinets so much and the color on my monitor. The granite is beautiful and I love the 16" size tiles in the kitchen.

You did a great job at a reasonable price which includes all new appliances.

Just beautiful, and that is absolutely some killer granite. It is gorgeous!

Congrats and best to you,
pup

examiner, I have a wall above my kitchen cabinets so I think those cabinets would not fit in my kitchen unless the top wall was removed. Did you remove your top wall or was there no top wall? You cabinets with my monitor's reddish color is what I have been wanting for my kitchen. In person, I will have to see the color but I am sure they come in several colors but what I see I love in the design and door knobs.

These cabs go within about 5-6 inches of the ceiling (standard 8' ceiling).....so if you have a 12" soffit, no, these wouldn't fit. But I'm sure KM offers a upper cabinet height that would fit under a soffit.

But really, removing a soffit is no big deal and a minimal expense in the big picture, especially if you don't have any electrical or plumbing stuff in them.

In our case, there was indeed a plumbing vent in a soffit that stuck out about 6" near where the wall and ceiling meet (upper right hand corner of the picture). We could've had it relocated into the wall for a reasonable sum of money, but instead opted to simply build the cabinets around it. So we lost about six inches of the very top shelf of that cabinet because it has a pipe protruding in it. In the big picture we decided no big deal. Those upper shelves are high enough that they are only used for long-term storage items anyway.

Our solution was obviously not the "correct" solution, and I'm not going to recommend anybody do that, because you are voiding the warranty on the cabinet when you cut into it, etc. etc. etc......but there are little workarounds you can do if you find yourself in that position and you are trying like heck to stay on a budget.

Anyway, IMO, removing soffits is pretty much a no brainer if that's the look you are going for and not a big job at all.

I think it's really pretty! I LOVE those pendant lights and that granite is gorgeous.

I see that you have a 9 inch pullout next to the fridge - that's what mine will look like. How do you like it? I've been debating about where to putt the pull on mine and I'm wondering how you like it with that placment?

Congratuations on your new kitchen?

Whooo-ahh!

What is that granite?!?!?!?!

Warm. Brown. Whatever you want to call it, it is stunning! "Crab nebula" is what first came to my mind even if the colors and tints are off.
It is amazing!

It is warm and inviting--exactly what a kitchen, as heart of the home, should be.

That granite is amazing! Congrats on a job well done!

Just stunning. The floors are gorgeous! And I love them with the granite, cabinets and backsplash! Really well put together. Very inviting.

annie.zz - the KD designed that 9" cab as a pullout, but since we have a pantry just a few steps away, we just went with a basic cabinet door. We use it for broom/mop storage. Not the most efficient use of the space, but works for us. I'm not real sure how convenient a pullout would be there.

mindstorm - the only references we can find online to the granite call it "Stephany Fashion". I'd like to know if anybody else has an alternative name, since there's not many references to it online. Here's another pic. We cut the slab so most of the gold ended up on the island top.

some posts disappeared, so I'll try to remember the questions...

someone asked about the dimensions...it's a little under 12x12. We struggled with the "island vs. no island" question, but took the advice of the KD. The island is 36x60 and we ended up with roughly 36" of walkway between the countertops. Still looking for the right stools.

lynn - you asked for a before pic....the soffits are gone in this picture, but you can clearly see where they used to be. Also note the plumbing vent we ended up working around rather than relocating....

examiner, thank you for the before picture even with the soffits gone, I can see it is a more expensive project for me to remove them so even though I prefer the look with them removed, I think I will have to keep them and find cabinets similar to yours that are shorter. I appreciate your help so much. I just love the way you did your kitchen since it is small like mine and turned out great.

Great job! I think it looks inviting and the granite is indeed spectacular. Enjoy.

Our soffits were full on all of our upstairs plumbing and I was determined to have the cabinets go to the ceiling. The idea of fitting the cabinets around some of the pipes would have saved us alot of money but no one on our project thought of it(including me)! Good job.

Beth

The individual elements are all well thought out and lovely, but what strikes me is the cohesiveness of the total space. Very Lovely. It Talks. It says this room is me, and I have earths and creams and browns and reds and wood and stone and metal and they all match and challenge each component to give a little more. You done good, girl.

That granite says 'look at how pretty I am and then the cabinet says, 'get ova here...Ahmmm gonna slap you down some. and together they make peace. (Should I puke at my own writing- er I do get a bit carried away. Love it.

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

Here is a link that might be useful: FKB Category Checklist

Beautiful kitchen! congrats on all of your hard work.

Wow! You guys have amazing vision. Beautiful, beautiful job. I am glad you went for the granite. Congrats!

I like the whole thing! Exactly where I was headed. Tell me about that backsplash. I do like it a lot.

Your elements are striking a sweet dream of understated
elegance with an exotic stone counter that really brings
it all together. Truly remarkable.

That granite looks worth every penny.

Beautiful job!

I was the one who asked about your dimensions - thanks for the info! I just love looking at your kitchen. It's like gazing into a pair of warm, golden-brown eyes.

And I just want to run my hands all over your island's granite!

I actually really like your backsplash. I think the diagonal small tiles look really cool. Congrats on a job well done. It's pretty.

Very pretty inviting kitchen. You granite is Stunning!