Chapter 2: Analysis Paralysis
A kitchen remodel
Not landscape-related, but we remodeled our kitchen and we project managed and designed it. The process may feel familiar to you, and who doesn’t love a good HGTV-ish moment? We’re going to go through the process over the next month, so stay tuned!
yikes.
Material Options
We wanted to make sure the design was cohesive and somewhat timeless. Allison at Cambray Design recommended sticking with a neutral color palette. It was decided we would go all white, which made my color-loving brain itchy, but I understood the reasoning and the easy sell of light neutrals. I also didn’t want to have regrets later and keeping it as basic as possible seemed like the right decision.
From top to bottom left to right: island cabinets, countertop, kitchen cabinets, cabinet hardware, coffee bar tile, fireplace tile, standard backsplash
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OY. This was the design element that took the longest to decide. In case you weren’t aware (I know I wasn’t), Quartzite is real stone. Quartz is the manmade product usually of stone, resin, and color. To make things more complicated, Quartzite is sometimes called Quartz. Whodathunk? Once that realization occured, we were able to narrow down our options. “Narrow” is a loosely used term in this instance. More recently, there have been studies about the correlation of quartz and cancer (quartz is carcinogenic) and I decided for my risk-adverse self I was going to stay away from products manufactured in areas that have loose labor laws. We looked at Caesarstone, Silestone, and Cambria which are made in Italy, Spain, and the good ol’ USA respectively. As the island was sizeable, we were looking for a white stone with a large pattern. The bigger the piece, the bigger the pattern you want to have. Scale scale scale. Because the texture is manufactured, if possible, it would be great to see the actual slab to make sure the pattern looks right. We didn’t have that luxury, but it was fairly easy to tell on the website what wasn’t going to work for us. In the end, we decided to cut a few things from our original design and were able to get the stone of my dreams and I LOVE it.
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As I previously said, lighting was a big deal for me. I think high-end products speak for themselves, but it’s not always in the budget to do it all. So, we split the difference. We had a few high-end elements and the rest were Home Depot. I was most surprised at the quality of the pendants over the island, which were Home Depot. I think they look much more expensive than they are. We chose an Olde Brick Lighting sconce and repeated the look with a pendant of the same style. They’re all made to order in Pennsylvania and I couldn’t be happier. Flanking the stove we used a few picture lights from Kichler and the rest were can lights from Home Depot. Throughout the summer, we’ve only been using the ambient lighting but as winter quickly approaches, we’ll probably be utilizing the can lighting more.
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Another source of stress was the tile. Allison picked out the wonderful tile backsplash in the coffee bar area that we all were jazzed about. I love the craftsmanship and beauty of handmade tiles like zellige, but it wasn’t in the budget. My husband didn’t want to go wild with the tile design but I needed to have something that didn’t feel contractor-designed. My solution was to install the square tile in a brick pattern and I think it adds a touch of warmth compared to the modern linear designs you see nowadays. We also needed to find a tile for the fireplace. I wanted it to look coordinated with the kitchen, but have it’s own flair. It’s such a small amount of tile that I wanted to do something fun. We ended up going with a zellige tile that came in a triangular mosaic. I like the overall look, but because it came on sheets and the tile is so crumbly and thick, it was really difficult for the installer to make it look seamless. So, I see the seams.
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My takeaway of hardware selection is: the bigger the better. I wanted something timeless that we wouldn’t ever have to replace and my husband didn’t like brass/bronze tones. Allison recommended Top Knobs and we went with a fairly simple design
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We were fairly limited in this respect as we were using stocked cabinets from a local company. If we were staying neutral and staying away from grey, it was either white or off-white. I couldn’t pull the trigger on the ultra-white option so we went off-white and ended up designing the island to be a darker espresso color. Maybe we’ll regret the tuxedo look later, but functionally, I’m glad we did it: we use the drawers in the island more than any of the others and they would look dirty and beat up very quickly in a household with kids.
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The existing floors were tile and the kids were constantly slipping on them around corners. I didn’t want the maintenance of hardwood so we went with LVP (luxury vinyl planks). They have come a long way since the 80s. We found a fantastic local company that had some great options. Allison recommended we do a light warm wood tone. She also recommended orienting the planks to go along the longest stretches. And we followed her direction and are very glad we did.
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We were going to reuse our existing fridge and dishwasher, but everything else we had to procure. If you have a Costco membership and never looked at the offers on Costco Next, I HIGHLY recommend you do. Costco partners with different companies to give you a discounted cost of certain items from a wide range of random brands (including Mushie, Caraway, Otterbox, etc) . Because of this, we ended up going Zline for the hood and microwave. They’re decent enough: I think maybe I would do a different micrwave next time (…hopefully there won’t be one). The one item I was stuck on from the very beginning was an induction stove. And, you guessed it: we got it from Costco. I love it.
Next week: Construction!
