Kitchen Crashing: Almost there!

Well, color is done and it looks great. Floors, cabinets, new sliding doors are all in. They have a contractor that is helping install all the big stuff. Considering they revamped the whole layout, it was probably a good idea to have some professional help.

There is so much natural light now! So much in fact these pictures are overly bright.

Appliances are still to come, but they will be going stainless (last I heard anyway).

The counters will be granite.

It has a little more variety than Diana first wanted, so I'm super excited that she branched out. :)

By the way, Diana keeps telling me that I'm too nice describing all this to you, and that I should tell you that she is crazy and wants everything very boring. 

Yeah, except with only minor prodding she painted her kitchen purple, picked a non-rectangular tile, and on her own went for the granite with more variety. Boring? Nah. Definitely tasteful and classic though.

I'm standing with my back against the fridge when I took this. It's sitting in the living room at the moment. The crazy arrangements you have to make to get through a remodel!

It's so close! Back splash and counters need to be installed and the new sink along with the counters and then the appliances.

This post may be linked at the following parties (for their Blog Buttons see my Link Love page): (M) C.R.A.F.T., Amaze Me Monday, Sumo's Sweet Stuff,  (T) A Little Birdie Told Me  Stories of A to Z, The Blackberry Vine, How To's Day , Type A, Amaze Me August, , Show Me What Ya Got,  (W) Wow Me,  Blue Cricket Design, What I Whipped Up, Wicked Awesome Wednesday, Sweet Peas & Bumblebees (TH)   Creative Juice, Thrifty 101 , Smilemonsters , Everything But the Kitchen Sink, Shabby Chic Cottage, Thrifty Thursdays, House of Hepworth's,  (F) Fingerprints on the Fridge, Furniture Feature Friday,  Lovely Crafty Weekend , Remodelaholic, For the Kids Fridays, , Craft Goodies, (Sat) Tatertots and Jello , Anything Goes , Funky Junk Interiors (Sun) Creative Blog & Hop, Sundae Scoop, Under the Table and Dreaming

 

Kitchen Crashing: Back splash Tile

Picking tile was another adventure. Diana wanted something interesting, Kent wanted something that wasn't too busy. Neither wanted something overly trendy. Everyone wanted neutral.

And, if you started reading and are wondering who in world are Kent and Diana, read Kitchen crashing parts 1, 2, and 3. Okay? Y'all with me? Good.

It just seems best to be classic and neutral with cabinets, counters and floors since they are big expenses. Tile isn't something you will want to change often so it needs to be something you want to stick with.

We both started out loving this tile:

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Gorgeous! But Mr. Practical pointed out that the bevels would be a pain to keep clean. We also found the white finish to be kind of bright in person, too stark in the sample tile.

We salivated over this:

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but didn't even think it would be in the realm of affordable.

Diana also picked up tile from local home improvement store. For awhile they were seriously leaning toward a traditional subway tile. And Kent like the idea of stainless steel.

It was kind of cool, but I think we were all a bit worried about how great it would be en masse. It might be a bit too shiny. And too trendy.

So, we looked at stuff like this:

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A nice blend of glass and stone in whites and grays. 

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And this is basically the same but with the addition of stainless steel for Kent.

This was one of my favorites, but neither Kent or Diana were big on the little tiles, and Kent is not big on "busy" (meaning random sizes and colors) at all. It's not my kitchen, so they get to veto me. :) I'll admit as much as I think something like this will be okay over time, it is a bit trendy.

So,after so much searching and debating, Diana went forth and ordered the tile we both really liked:

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It's interesting, neutral colored, the lantern shape but no bevels and not overly busy. It's also a traditional shape so even though it's not common, it's also not overly trendy. We have a winner!

 

This post may be linked at the following parties (for their Blog Buttons see my Link Love page): (M) C.R.A.F.T., Amaze Me Monday, Sumo's Sweet Stuff,  (T) A Little Birdie Told Me  Stories of A to Z, The Blackberry Vine, How To's Day , Type A, Amaze Me August, , Show Me What Ya Got,  (W) Wow Me,  Blue Cricket Design, What I Whipped Up, Wicked Awesome Wednesday, Sweet Peas & Bumblebees (TH)   Creative Juice, Thrifty 101 , Smilemonsters , Everything But the Kitchen Sink, Shabby Chic Cottage, Thrifty Thursdays, House of Hepworth's,  (F) Fingerprints on the Fridge, Furniture Feature Friday,  Lovely Crafty Weekend , Remodelaholic, For the Kids Fridays, , Craft Goodies, (Sat) Tatertots and Jello , Anything Goes , Funky Junk Interiors (Sun) Creative Blog & Hop, Sundae Scoop, Under the Table and Dreaming

Kitchen Crashing, the part in which we demo

The demo has begun in earnest. Kent and Diana included refinishing their wood floors in the rest of the house, so they were banished from the house for awhile. And otherwise they have been roughing it.

The dark side of remodeling; your ping pong table becomes your kitchen and you are all smushed in the basement.

But, back to the kitchen.

They stripped the walls down to the studs, removed cabinets.

It's so open right now!

They may still take out the floors themselves, but at this point it is time to turn things over to the contractor.

For now, it's buh-bye old kitchen!

It's outta here.

If you missed the before:
Kitchen Crashing part 1
and part 2


P.S. Opal Slate did not work. Back to the drawing board on color.

Kitchen Crashing: More color and Floors

If you are not in the loop, check out "Kitchen Crashing" where I explain what is going on with my friends' kitchen.

Where we last left off (I feel like I am an old school tv show recap), Diana had bought a darker color to try.

On left, was to be the living room and main color, right arrow points to the color that would be accent walls.

She painted the light lavender/gray color on the hallway and didn't like the way it looked in the poorly lit space (no natural light). "It looked like grapes!" said Diana. She tried Valspar's Gravity at 75%. (I'm not sure the 25% less saturation made much difference, but whatev's.) 

Although there is the slightest hint toward lavendar, it is a gray gray color.

So, she painted the accent wall color next to it, and woh-woh, it didn't work. The problem is that they are too similar. Really, she has to go darker on the accent wall now.

So, she is going to try Opal Slate from Valspar.

It's a very gray purple color. The purple is definitely there in real life.

Diana also picked floor tile. They will be going with Mountain Mist by Cascade. It's a laminate.

It looks good, but I think it sounds like I'm chilling in my dishwasher with a pop (or soda). 

Demolition began yesterday. I just have an early shot of the upper cabinets coming down.

Stay tuned for more demo and back splash tile.

This post may be linked at the following parties (for their Blog Buttons see my Link Love page): (M) C.R.A.F.T., Amaze Me Monday, Sumo's Sweet Stuff,  (T) A Little Birdie Told Me  Stories of A to Z, The Blackberry Vine, How To's Day , Type A, Amaze Me August, , Show Me What Ya Got,  (W) Wow Me,  Blue Cricket Design, What I Whipped Up, Wicked Awesome Wednesday, Sweet Peas & Bumblebees (TH)   Creative Juice, Thrifty 101 , Smilemonsters , Everything But the Kitchen Sink, Shabby Chic Cottage, Thrifty Thursdays, House of Hepworth's,  (F) Fingerprints on the Fridge, Furniture Feature Friday,  Lovely Crafty Weekend , Remodelaholic, For the Kids Fridays, , Craft Goodies, (Sat) Tatertots and Jello , Anything Goes , Funky Junk Interiors (Sun) Creative Blog & Hop, Sundae Scoop, Under the Table and Dreaming

Kitchen Crashing

My friend, Diana, and her husband, Kent, are embarking on a huge remodel project and we all get to come along for the ride. And even more fun for me, yours truly has gotten a say in what things should look like. (No veto power though. Hmm. I should work on that. I jest!)

So, the project is THE KITCHEN. Huge undertaking. We are talking a whole new floor plan, demo-ing walls, new cabinets, floors, countertops, appliances, paint...

Here's some before action:

The dining room next to the kitchen.

One view of the kitchen.

And another.

Here is looking in from the formal dining room side, which is not really their formal dining room, but more of an office/mudroom space. You can see the walls don't even reach the vaulted ceiling anyway, so no problems changing them.

I need to snap a picture of the living room too because half that wall is coming down which affects the living room too.

Getting ahead of myself. Here's the new plan:

This is along the wall that currently houses the fridge, wall to the living room becomes 1/2 wall.

The fridge moves to the opposite side next to the sliding door.

The wall separating the living and dining rooms becomes a half wall. And the layout becomes two L's. The left side extends farther than the original kitchen into the formal dining room, complete with bar to sit at and eat or just annoy the cook.

They decided on their cabinet style 

and color and countertops, 

but then I was called in for color opinion (and now I just give my two cents on everything. :) )

"I like white," Diana boldly declared. She wanted to get away from her beige and red 

and brighten things up. The day of sorting through paint chips was hilarious. I vetoed white. I know I don't have veto power, but I did it anyway. It's hard to do white right and it actually doesn't always brighten things. We finally get down to gray and blue.

Personally, I avoid blue in the kitchen since it is an appetite suppressant, but to each her own. But then Diana tossed every blue chip out. (And kept picking beige. I had to remind her we were not doing beige anymore per her instructions.)

Strangely enough we settled on purple. I am uber excited about this possibility and after playing around with Sherwin Williams color picker online, Diana got some samples and put them up on the wall.

Some were a bit "mauve-ier" in person than online, so we decided against that. Not trying to bring back the '80s.

We settled on the kitchen and dining room accent wall being the lavender-gray color in the middle and the rest of the living room being the very light lavender/gray color on the left. I realize it doesn't look like much in the picture, but it's great in person. Just enough color. However, before I managed to post this, Diana picked another bit darker color for the living room and I haven't had a chance to go check it out yet.

Obviously, the paint is not of upmost importance since it will be awhile before they get to that stage in the adventure, but it's nice to know where things are headed.

Stay tuned for backsplash tile discussions, and demolition!

his post may be linked at the following parties (for their Blog Buttons see my Link Love page): (M) C.R.A.F.T., Amaze Me Monday, Sumo's Sweet Stuff,  (T) A Little Birdie Told Me  Stories of A to Z, The Blackberry Vine, How To's Day , Type A, Amaze Me August, , Show Me What Ya Got,  (W) Wow Me,  Blue Cricket Design, What I Whipped Up, Wicked Awesome Wednesday, Sweet Peas & Bumblebees (TH)   Creative Juice, Thrifty 101 , Smilemonsters , Everything But the Kitchen Sink, Shabby Chic Cottage, Thrifty Thursdays, House of Hepworth's,  (F) Fingerprints on the Fridge, Furniture Feature Friday,  Lovely Crafty Weekend , Remodelaholic, For the Kids Fridays, , Craft Goodies, (Sat) Tatertots and Jello , Anything Goes , Funky Junk Interiors (Sun) Creative Blog & Hop, Sundae Scoop, Under the Table and Dreaming