Let’s talk kitchens. Or more specifically, my kitchen renovation.

Next up, the cabinet color and style. After lots of hemming and hawing we’ve decided to go with a dark brown stained cabinet. I opted for a dark brown because I love the look of them, they won’t show dirt as smudges like white would, and they are a finish and shape that will always be in style. The builder we have hired is building a house down the street from us and just put in the cabinets a few days ago. These are the exact same cabinets we are going to install.

Shayna at The Wood Grain Cottage installed a kitchen in almost the exact same style and finish that I am doing. She also added three features that I am obsessed with and am adding to my new kitchen – the pull-out spice ranks, the vent hood cabinet with a mantle on it, and a cooktop (not pictured) with drawers under it.

Here’s another image I found that shows what we are going for – a cooktop with drawers under it for pot and pans:

We’ve decided to drop the sink area bar-height counter down to counter-height. It will open the area up more with the living room. Unfortunately we can’t remove any of the columns because they are all support walls, but I have some exciting ideas for moulding them up to make them look more intentional. Here’s my current kitchen:

Here’s an image of a kitchen that removed the bar-height counter and replaced it with a single counter-height one:

We’ve managed to incorporate a tall cabinet for an oven and microwave into our design, and I’m pretty stoked about it. I didn’t think it was possible initially, but after some brainstorming we’ve come up with a way to fit it all in. The tall cabinet will look like this (but dark brown):

It will go in the space to the left of the glass corner cabinet (that we are removing):

Next to it will create a somewhat awkward corner space so we’ve decided to add a feature I’m super thrilled about – an appliance garage! After much online sleuthing I’ve finally managed to find an appliance garage that is the most similar to what we are adding over at Eclectically Vintage. We won’t be adding the big open space above the garage though. This area will go directly to the right of the new tall oven cabinet.

Hmmm, let’s see… what else? Oh, the desk! The desk will be built-in using the same matching cabinets and countertop and will go where the green cart is sitting in this picture:

Here’s an image that is the most similar to what we’ve designed. Our desk will only have one center drawer unit under the desk (as opposed to this picture’s two units), and ours will have open shelving where the glass cabinet doors are. Other than that, almost identical.

When I taped off to measure for the island, I also taped off the desk area and added some chairs. On paper everything fit, but I wanted to make sure it didn’t feel cramped in real life. Also, you are getting a sneak peek of the new moulding going in around the windows!

And finally, one surprise feature we are adding. Remember back when I did a mock-up of the dining room built-ins that Sarah did that I wanted to replicate in my dining room? Here’s my mock-up of my dining room with her built-ins:

Ben pointed out that maybe we should have the cabinet builder make custom cabinets for the dining room so that everything matched. The kitchen and dining room are across from one another, and they are both the first rooms you see when you walk into the house, so it seems like a better idea to have them match. So, yup, we are adding the custom cabinets in the dining room as well. They will be similar to what I previously planned, but I’ve made one minor change to the plan. Instead of the shelving part coming down and sitting on top of the counter I’m going to just have cabinets above that are doorless. It will look more like a butler’s pantry or buffet, but the base cabinets will still be almost as shallow as the upper cabinets (most kitchens have 24″ deep base cabinets and 12″ deep upper cabinets. Our buffet will have 15″ deep base cabinets and 12″ upper cabinets). Here’s a picture I found that is most similar to what I have in mind, but picture the buffet with cabinets (no drawers) on the base cabinets and no doors (just open shelving) on the upper cabinets.

The cabinet fabricator comes this week to do a final measurement to begin building the cabinets, so now I’m packing up the kitchen (didn’t I just pack like 10 months ago?). We are packing up the entire kitchen and are planning on living with no kitchen for 6-8 weeks. The grill has a full propane tank and we are stocking up on disposable plates. We’ll be setting up a microwave and fridge in the dining room.

I don’t dare cram any more info into this single post (my fingers are almost numb from typing so much already!) so I’ll give even more details in the next post. Also, I’m going to try to keep this renovation blogged in as close to real time as possible, so there might be some posts that are a quick small update, and others that are more detailed. If you have any questions or any awesome ideas or input, please tell me! We finalize the kitchen plans later this week, so I still have time to make last minute adjustments.