To all of you who have been following my kitchen reno... thank you so much for your patience. It's been over a month since my last progress post, but it got to the point where it was so close that I just had to wait until it was finished (or 99% finished) before I showed you. Here is a reminder of where we've come from, or read all about the full kitchen renovation in these previous posts.
I can't tell you how ecstatic we are with our finished kitchen! Not only does it look amazing and just how we wanted it, but it is so functional, with so much more storage, and it's a joy to work in! A huge thank you to Rick and his team - Ben and Shane - from Sunshine Joinery. Rick listened to everything we asked for and worked closely with us to create our perfect kitchen. The guys were all a pleasure to have in our home, and their workmanship was faultless.
I wanted the kitchen to fit seamlessly into our house, which is a 1940's bungalow. We took a classic look and gave it a contemporary spin by using panelled, soft-close, handleless cabinetry. The lack of handles gives it a clean, contemporary feel, while the panelling ties in with the era of our home.
You'll remember how I deliberated over the tile choice for our splash back... well, we love our final choice - the Cube Collection from Tile Space, supplied by Napier Ceramic Tiles. I wanted the tiles to contrast the stone marble-look bench top while also complimenting it. I also love the geometric pattern juxtaposed with the vertical panelling in the cabinets. The bench top we chose is an engineered stone called Smart Quartz by Granite Pacifica, colour Mont Blanc, installed by John and his team at Pinnacle Stone.
The wooden shelf is one of our favourite details. Rick made it from our old mantle pieces, so there is history and a story to tell there. The led down lights underneath add additional task lighting to that corner.
One of the things I was certain I wanted was cupboards that went right to the ceiling. They didn't in our old kitchen, and the tops of them were a serious dust collector. It also uses every available space for storage which was important to me. The very top shelves house those things that we don't use all the time, but are still necessary.
The two places we needed handles were on the pull out pantry, and the bi-fold cupboards into another pantry. I'm crazy in love with our brass handles from Schoolhouse Electric. The lines are clean and simple and echo the handles on the fridge/freezer and oven, but the under side is rounded to mould to your fingers - gorgeous! The beautiful Skandi tea towel is from Izzy & Jean.
I was also adamant I was going to have a black stone sink to contrast all the white. It is awesome and big enough to fit a roasting pan! I chose a beautiful Paini matt black tap supplied by Plumbing World in Napier.
One of the few things to finish is to fit a piece of the stone bench top behind the sink and under the window sill - that's happening this week. Plus I'm searching for the perfect piece of art for the wall between the kitchen and dining room windows (will keep you posted on that).
Also, we have some white roller blinds previously used on our kitchen and dining room windows, but because of all the white, I want to have some roman blinds made up in a beautiful fabric - I'm thinking blue and white ikat, similar to the ones we put in this client's dining room.
The pendant lights above the breakfast bar are another fave of mine. They're a Bibby + Brady special from a favourite supplier of ours, so any enquiries can come to me :) Because it's quite a small kitchen, the glass shades don't take up much visual space, and they don't block the view to the tiles and wooden shelf behind. I've pinched some bulbs from our bedroom, but I plan to add some yummy filament bulbs soon.
Our floors are another big win for us. We love the effect of the different boards, and the brass strips that separate them. Barry from Bay Floor Sanding did an amazing job sanding and polishing them, and our awesome builder, Glynn Pritchard - GCP Construction Ltd - had the task of laying the horizontal rimu boards and routering (is that a word?) the brass strips in.
Rather than having bar stools at the breakfast bar, we opted for more cupboards and an open shelf - perfect for adding some colour and pattern.
We still have a little bit to finish off in the dining room. Sunshine Joinery are going to make us a built-in corner bench seat. This will be a fantastic spot to get comfy and admire the kitchen :) It will also bring more storage under the seats. Our American oak dining room table is absolutely gorgeous and made for us by Francois of Le Workshop, and the Italian dining chairs were a brilliant TradeMe find. Opposite the table Glynn has built us a European laundry, and Sunshine Joinery are also making us a set of bi-fold doors for here. When all of that is finished I'll bring you a separate dining room reveal blog post.
I also have to give thanks to the rest of our amazing team - Davyd Auckram the electrician, John Riggs the plumber, Morris the plasterer, and Mark & Pete (my hubby & father-n-law) the painters. This renovation has been a testament to how you need a really great team around you, and plenty of time to project manage it all. This is something Dael & I, at Bibby + Brady, specialise in, so if you would like us to design and project manage your renovations, we'd love to work with you.
I thought I'd better update you on our kitchen reno. Things are progressing nicely - the builder has done a fantastic job getting the walls nice and straight, which is never an easy job with an old house. With the insulation in and the gib up, the plasterer then did his part. He has put the cornice up in the dining room, and will finish in the kitchen once the cabinets get installed. This weekend my husband, Mark, and his dad, Peter, have been busy painting the walls and ceiling in my favourite Resene Alabaster.
This week the floor boards will be sanded and polished. You can see in the pic below how there was a space between the kitchen and dining room with no floor boards (there used to be a sheet of plain chip board). The kitchen was a later addition, and the boards in the two rooms are different widths. We decided to make a feature of the separation rather than trying to disguise it.
Mark & I selected some recycled rimu boards and our builder, Glynn, lay them perpendicular to the other boards. I took inspiration from Emily Henderson who used brass strips on her kitchen splash back. After a lot of searching I found some bars of solid brass from The Littelmetals Company, and we're going to have them grouted either side of the middle strip of floor boards. I was excited when I saw this image (second below) on LeeAnn Yare's instagram page - this is what we're hoping to achieve, minus the marble.
The lights I've chosen for above our breakfast bar are a gorgeous mix of glass and copper - these are available through Bibby + Brady Interiors. Another touch of metallic will be introduced in the handles. Most of our cabinetry is handleless but these brass handles will be used on the bi-fold doors on the pantry and the European laundry. Although I got loads of suggestions via Facebook on where to get brass handles in NZ, I just couldn't find any I liked as much as the ones from Schoolhouse Electric.
This week the floor will be finished and the architraves will go on around the windows and door. Then next week we are scheduled for the kitchen to be installed - hallelujah!
If you look at these pics (below) it may not look like we've had much progress in our kitchen reno, but in fact we have. You can see the from these earlier posts that all of the old kitchen cabinetry has now gone. I no longer have an oven, a dishwasher, or a washing machine. I'm actually coping OK without an oven, as we have set up a mini kitchen in the living room with a microwave, kettle, toaster, slow cooker, and electric frying pan, and the BBQ is outside. But the loss of the washing machine with our family of five has hit me the hardest. Thank goodness for my Mum and Dad around the corner!
Last week our electrician, Davyd Auckram - Bay Cities Electrical, and our plumber, John - John Riggs Plumbing, were busy doing their part. They're both great guys, and I can highly recommend them - email me if you want their contact details. We also had our hot water cylinder removed and an infinity gas water heater installed, which did mean no hot water for a day - eek!
Today the builder, Glynn Pritchard - GCP Construction Ltd, has started, which is exciting because it means we should have walls again soon. Next comes the floor sanding, and all the while our kitchen is being built by the talented guys, Rick Martin and his righthand man Ben, at Sunshine Joinery.
In my last post I was looking into our option for benchtops, and I can report back that we have chosen an engineered stone with a marble look. Now it's the tiles for our splash back that I'm trying to decide on. My first choice was a small marble hexagon tile, and I still love these, but unfortunately they may be outside of our budget.
I really love these cube tiles, but they're from an Australian company, which means shipping complicates matters.
These cube tiles from Tile Space are pretty gorgeous, but they only come in gloss and I was thinking of going matt. They looked great in Alex and Corban's Block kitchen though, so I haven't ruled them out yet.
There is a similar tile found at Tile Space which does come in a matt white, called Rhombus. It featured last week on the TV programme Our First Home, but you can see it's a lot bigger, and possibly too big for our kitchen splash back.
Perhaps this matt white hexagon tile is the one, it is, after all, the same shape as my first choice only a little bigger. If you're wondering why I'm not considering the good old subway tile, our cabinetry features wood panels (vertical lines), so I want to introduce a more contrasting shape in the tiles.
Here's another hexagonal option from Porteous Tiles which looks pretty fab in pink and red. Hmmm... what do you think?
I talk about this as our "kitchen reno", but really we're tackling the kitchen, dining room, and laundry all at once. It's pretty huge and explains why we're living in a mad house at the moment. Spare a thought for me with my dining table in our living room, our console table holding the mini make-shift kitchen, the pantry in the hall, the dishes in the bathroom sink, and now with the arrival of Cyclone Pam, most of our outdoor furniture has also been crammed inside. Good things are a-coming (I keep telling myself!).
Things are progressing in our kitchen demo. My husband Mark is one of those good Kiwi DIY blokes, and quite a handyman, so he is doing as much of the labour as possible. This includes removing the old kitchen cabinets, gib, skirts etc. He has to do this in the weekends as he's a bank manager during the week, but we're trying to keep the bare basics as long as possible - the oven (although I'm looking forward to saying goodbye to this old girl), the sink, the pantry, and one set of cupboards. Soon our builder will come in to insulate and put up nice new gib. We're really happy with the new kitchen plans, but we are still trying to decide on the bench tops, these are our options...
I've always had Laminate bench tops, but not this time. The advantage of Laminate is that it's the most cost effective option, but in our case it would be a bit like wearing jandals with an evening gown! Another reasonably priced bench top is stainless steel. This can look great, especially if you like the industrial look, but it's not quite what I'm after.
Natural stone (below) - marble or granite - is gorgeous, but is likely to be on the more expensive side. It's also quite unforgiving with knocks ending in breakages for your plates and glasses - not great when our kids are doing the dishes.
Engineered stone (below) is what I'm leaning towards. Caesarstone, Silestone, Prime Stone, Quantum Quartz etc are made up of approximately 90% crushed Quartz stone bound together by a polymer resin. They're known to be more resilient than marble or granite, and their non-porous qualities means that they're very hygienic. It comes in a wide range of colours, and I've found one that has a 'marble-like' look.
The other option I have been considering is an acrylic bench top - Corian, Kalon, Hi-Macs... These are made of acrylic resin and can be coloured and shaped as you like. They're generally formed in one piece, so are seamless, even if you continue it into the sink and as a splash back. It's easy to repair if you damage a small area, rather than having to replace, so lots of advantages. The only thing that's holding me back is that it can look quite "plasticy' and shiny, and can scratch more easily than stone.
Concrete is a cool industrial option. It can also be expensive, and can stain if not resealed regularly. I've seen some amazing examples of concrete benches, but it's not on the shortlist for our kitchen.
Last, but not least, I really like the look of wood bench tops. They're a nice way to introduce warmth and texture, and you can also choose a plywood, which is very cost effective. Because we have wooden floorboards, and some smaller wood touches in the kitchen, I'm wanting a lighter coloured bench, so we won't be going with wood either.
I will let you know when we make our decision, but would also love to hear your thoughts and recommendations. Do you have a bench that you love? If so, tell me all about it.
You may've noticed that I'm no longer blogging every day. With my interior design business, Bibby + Brady, growing and getting busier and busier, I had been struggling to keep with five blog posts a week. I've decided it's a much better idea to do three quality posts a week - Monday, Wednesday and Friday - where I will share with you Bibby + Brady jobs we're working on, as well as fabulous new products and businesses, and my favourite interior inspiration.
Today is the first in a series of posts on my own kitchen/dining/laundry reno, and I hope you follow me on the journey from demolition to dream finish! This is what I'm living with at the moment - some walls have already been taken back to the framing; old lino ripped up; some cupboards have been ripped out and the pantry relocated before it goes for good.
The old pantry has been moved down to this corner (below) temporarily. The hot water cylinder will be removed, as we're going to have a gas hot water system installed, and a set of bi-fold cupboards will be built to house our laundry and provide extra storage. The laundry is currently in our kitchen, and by moving it we get more precious storage in the kitchen. We used to have a set of industrial lockers in this corner of the dining room, and they have been moved out to our garage to make room for the new laundry cupboard.
We recently had a new round dining room table made in American oak, and we LOVE this! The old chairs will be sold, and in the corner of the dining room we're having an L-shaped booth seat custom made with internal storage. Three new chairs will be added around this side of the table, which means we will be able to fit lots of family and friends around it.
The fridge will be replaced by a double fridge and moves to where the laundry currently is. This is on the outskirts of the kitchen which means when the kids are popping in and out of the fridge (which they seem to do a lot!) they won't have to come right into the kitchen and get under my feet. Wall hung cupboards will be added right to the ceiling with the range hood concealed in one and down lighting added underneath for task lighting. A new oven and cooktop will be installed in the same place as the old oven (which helps with electrics not having to move). On the left hand side will be bi-fold cupboards, a tall pull-out pantry, and the fridge.
Here's another view of where the fridge and pull-out pantry will be. To the left is our back door.
The bench will be extended slightly and will have open shelves and a cupboard on the dining room side to utilise as much of the cupboard space as possible. Storage is key for me as I've lived with this kitchen and it's lack of cupboard space for 10 years. The bar stools will go, as we have plenty of seating around the dining room table. The floor boards will be sanded and polished.
To give you an idea of the look I'm going for, here are some of my inspirational pics. My husband wanted an all white kitchen, so I have found clever ways to incorporate texture to avoid it looking too clinical. I love the contemporary take on an old look achieved by simple wainscoting or wood panelling. Darren and Dee used it beautifully in their Block Glasshouse apartment. To add to the clean look I'm opting for handleless drawers.
There will be touches of wood including an open shelf made from our old mantelpiece.
I have my heart set on a matt black stone sink and a matt black (or even copper!) tap.
The splash back behind the oven will features some gorgeous tiles. I'm hoping for small marble hexagon tiles to bring some more texture and subtle colour to the white room.
Michael and Carlene's kitchen (yes, I was a fan of The Block Glasshouse) has the wall hung cupboards and pull-out pantry similar to the ones we will have. We'll also have the storage cupboard above the fridge.
Although the kitchen drawers will be handleless, the bi-fold doors will have simple but beautiful brass handles.
This is what I want our booth seat to look like - more panelling and comfy squabs.
I know that's a lot to take in, but what do you think??? I didn't mention the benchtop as we're still trying to decide on this and have several options being priced up at the moment. It may be a long process but I promise to include you on our journey, and can't wait to, one day in the near future (please be near!), reveal the finished rooms.
