room-by-room: the kitchen

Well, what do you think? It's November now, our goal was to be in by Nov. 1st, and that's gone, so now we're just taking our time moving in. We're nearly complete with the whole house, just a couple more odds and ends that will get done probably when we're moved. Since it'd be really overwhelming to show you the whole house, I'm going through it room by room. This is what the kitchen looked like before we bought.

 

And this is what it looks like now:

 I can't believe this is our (almost) final product. We still have to add cabinet hardware and the island will be getting a new top. Here's a few of my favorite things:

Soapstone countertops

 These were a fun find. Our original plan A was for Ryan to make wood countertops from the same wood we had our flooring milled from. That didn't work and we didn't have a plan B. We had always loved concrete, but at this point, Ryan was overwhelmed with projects so that undertaking wasn't an option. So we did some research and weren't completely happy with the other options that we were finding, still keeping budget in mind (since we had $0 planned for countertops). We were about to order Martha Stewart's line Corian Soapstone countertops, and it dawned on me, why not look for the real deal? So with a little research I found DIY soapstone countertops from M. Teixeira (for less than Corian). With little knowledge of the stone, it looked do-able online - doesn't everything? And the installation actually went pretty smooth with just one little chip at the end, but epoxy covered it up! The countertops are beautiful!

This is how the soapstone arrived: 6 - 48" x 25 1/2" slabs

Soapstone's natural state

Manufacturer suggests mineral oil. My knowledgeable friend from The Green Design Center suggested using beeswax for a more natural application and it worked great.

 

Eat-In Area Beams & Stools

Industrial style stools are a neat contrast to the rustic beams.

Since soapstone needs a lot of support, we had to figure out a support system over our eat-in area. Our friends had a 100 year old, hand-hewn timber they salvaged from a barn. This is such an awesome touch! Here are some installation pictures:

Cut to size with some pretty fancy machinery.

Set in place, level, have kiddos make sure it's sturdy.

 

Kitchen Island

Something that we overlooked to begin with has turned out to be the perfect match for the job. Original plan was for Ryan to make an island. Yah, that wasn't going to happen at least for another year, so we had bought this about 5 years ago, painted it and it's a whole new piece of furniture for us. We will be replacing the top with a piece of reclaimed wood.

After

Before

Open Shelving

I am so in love with open shelving! I would've done the whole kitchen, Ryan convinced me otherwise and now that it's said and done I'm glad we have some cabinets to hide things. We used wood slabs from Ryan's milled wood.

Kitchen Appliances

We chose GE Slate appliances (minus refrigerator - which is basic basic, which = low energy costs) but I love the finish of these and no fingerprints.

My favorite part of kitchen cabinets = pull out drawers for the pantry.

 

Kitchen Island Lights

Mason jar pendant lights from my favorite store - Angelus in Walworth, WI

 

Our reclaimed barnwood hutch (that's storing random things) also came from Angelus.

I can't wait to start cooking here. If you have any questions about anything else, let me know!