Before and after - antique cottage kitchen
The kitchen is about as clean as it’s going to get and the forsythia branches I cut are just beginning to bloom, so it’s as good a time as any to post an official before and after (though I don’t consider this project truly *done* done yet, and I’ve posted some of it before). This forum was and continues to be super helpful for an indecisive overthinker like me, so thank you! Totally worth enduring the Houzz hazing rituals.
Here’s the before; not awful, basically functional, but very little drawer storage, none very deep. Typical early 2000s Tuscan-inspired kitchen with some updates (backsplash, honed counters) from the prior owner. I HATED this floor (indestructible but always looked filthy) which made no sense in my house (an 1800s barn converted to a house circa 1900). Not pictured here was a horrible reach in pantry that was just a stack of sagging shelves reached via a closet door. Kitchen was closed off from the dining room and rest of the house, which just didn’t work in a small house like this.
Scope of work involved removing the wall between the kitchen and dining room and replacing windows in both rooms. I performed other renovations on the interior and exterior as part of this project. Construction lasted roughly from March-September 2023, and finished about on budget. I lived in the house through construction, and survived with most of my sanity intact.
Here’s the after!
IDs on key finishes/fixtures:
- Cabinet/wall/trim color: FB Pointing
- Hardware: Merit Metal UL Brass
- Island top: Walnut Woodworks
- Hood: Best WP28M
- Perimeter counters: Olympian White Danby marble
- Faucet: Rohl San Julio C-Spout, polished nickel
- Ceiling lights: Ralph Lauren Marine Flushmount
- Backsplash: Levante Sirocco Glossy 4x4 Field
I kept my 20 year old Sub Zero fridge and Viking stove; they work fine, they’re the right size for the kitchen, and the lead time can’t be beat!
Regrets: Backsplash is the only major one, and I’ll likely replace it in the near term. Otherwise, I would probably have spent the extra few thousand for exposed butt hinges, but that’s with the knowledge that the project has finished on time and budget! I also wonder what drugs I was taking when deciding electrical switching…
Things still to complete/buy: Stools for island; maybe a different rug at the sink (an antique cotton dhurrie maybe *isn’t* super practical here…). Eventually will swap out kitchen chairs. For the open shelves, planning to eventually fill with dish/glassware I actually use. Don’t love the overstyled look. I just don’t have that much I want to look at every day right now!
After drying out all winter and settling (in a 120+ year old house where “plumb” is a foreign concept) there are also a lot of minor trim and caulking issues my contractor is coming back to tackle.
It’s funny, the only thing I KNEW when I started this project was that I did NOT want a white kitchen. Now, the space feels so open and bright that I can’t imagine it in the navy blues or murky greens I’d originally planned on.
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