our new kitchen

To say i’m excited to share our updated kitchen would be an understatement. The kitchen is the heart of our home and where we focused the majority of our renovation budget. It also took the most time, blood, sweat, and tears to transform. Living without a kitchen for 5 weeks and then slowly piecing it together was pretty tough. But as I hope you will agree after seeing the amazing transformation – IT WAS ALL WORTH IT!

As we like to do, let’s take a look at what the kitchen looked like the day we closed on our house.

As you can see, the layout was pretty good but improvements were definitely necessary. A couple days after closing Ken and our friends and family of the strong and male variety got together to demo the house. The kitchen was completely demolished down to the dry wall, including removing all of the soffits from the ceiling to open up the space as much as possible.

After the cabinets, appliances, soffits, carpeting {yes, there was carpeting in our kitchen!}, and everything else were removed it was time to put it all back together. That’s where i came in!

The first step was finalizing the cabinets. We received a few recommendations from friends that had used CliqStudios, so Ken and I contacted them even before we closed to start the design process. Our designer, Mary, was amazing to work with. She got our style right from the start and not only helped us layout the cabinets in the most functional way but also had a lot of great recommendations on how to make the most of our space, where to put our appliances, etc. After receiving a few different free samples we decided on the style-31 cabinet face in painted white.

The next major decision was the countertops. in our previous two houses we had quartz countertops and were really pleased with the look and durability of them. We sourced our stone from CIOT but it is available nationally at most stone shops. When we first started looking for stone I didn’t even know what a fabricator was {renovation virgin over here} but i’m so glad we chose to work with Costin at Stone for You. We dealt with tons of contractors and vendors throughout the renovation process and I have to say that Costin was by far the most knowledgeable and reliable partner that we worked with. I wanted a custom thickness which meant that the edges had to be mitered or built up since quartz doesn’t come in the thickness that I wanted. Costin nailed it and i couldn’t be more thrilled with the results. If you’re in the Detroit area I can’t recommend him and his team enough!

The rest of the details seem small in comparison to the cabinets and counter tops. I knew that I wanted everything to be white and bright and Ken wanted to incorporate a few unique elements like the open shelving and the pot filler over the stove top.

I think my favorite part of our kitchen is that it really feels like us. It’s beautiful but it’s functional and cozy. We have already entertained a few times and it’s a really perfect layout for conversation and mingling. I love that you can see the dining room and the family room from anywhere you’re standing in the kitchen but it still feels a little closed off. It’s the perfect open concept.

I’ve listed all of the sources below but if you have any questions on anything at all, please let me know!

cabinets: cliqstudios / counter top: caesarstone calacatta nuvo / floors: build direct / kitchen table: cb2 / dining chairs: ikea / pendant light over kitchen table: ikea / pendant lights over peninsula: cedar and moss / sink: blanco / faucet: delta / drawer and cabinet pulls: atlas homewares / pineapple cabinet pulls: anthropologie / pot filler: delta / backsplash: stone center online

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p.s. annabelle’s bedroom, our new living room, our new dining room, our new powder room, and our new {old} house