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Before & After: A ‘Classic’ Kitchen
June 20, 2014 in Before & After | 24 comments

I wanted to quickly share this kitchen remodel, which was part of a much larger home renovation.  The house is in a great location with knock out views, but was dated and a bit dark.  The new homeowners wanted the house to be brought up to date, to be comfortable and welcoming, and also to look classic and clean.

AFTER:

The husband in this house is a true chef who had a strong opinion on the appliances, layout and finishes for the kitchen.  His experience in their previous kitchen significantly influenced the size of the appliances as well as the maintenance of the countertops and backsplash.

Kitchen detail

BEFORE:

The kitchen before the remodel was very dark.  Dark cabinets were paired with speckled granite countertops that looked very busy and a bit dirty.  The couple and their family live a hectic lifestyle but enjoy a clean, put together house.  It was important that all the elements in the updated space look fresh, orderly to the eye and be easy to maintain.  This helps bring a sense of calm to the otherwise chaotic pace of everyday life!

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In addition to being dark, the kitchen was closed off from the family room with this wall and breakfast bar.  If you spend any time in the kitchen, you know how nice it is to be able to see everyone and not be stuck by yourself doing all the work!

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AFTER:

We actually took an unusual step and removed the pantry to open up the kitchen to the family room.  You can see the large built in storage on the left which replaced the traditional walk in pantry. 

Kitchen After

Every time we do a project some new challenge arises.  This time a challenge arose from the removal of the wall and expansion of the breakfast bar.  As you can see in the photo below there is a side entrance into the hallway between the kitchen and family room.  Originally, the breakfast bar was shorter and terminated in the wall.  When we removed the wall and extended the countertop, no one foresaw that entering from the hallway would lead you directly into the countertop ledge.

Countertop detail

So, with a little creative thinking I designed an edge detail that prevented the issue and added a nice custom flair to the countertop.   The countertop company drew the template and cut the Caesarstone to fit and added a lovely ogee edge detail (one of my favorites).

In case you were wondering, the countertops are Caesarstone’s London Grey.  The homeowners previously had marble in the kitchen and refused to reuse it any future kitchen!  The quartz counters were an easy way to get the look without the maintenance.

Kitchen detail

I hope you find this kitchen as lovely as I do.  I am looking forward to sharing some of the other ‘before’ and ‘after’ photos with you in the coming weeks from this same project. 

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