{the renovation} cabinets!

Sorry for the lack of posts on the renovation lately!  I’ve been traveling a lot and haven’t had a spare moment to do posts.  But, time I will make to share some exciting progress on the kitchen!

We decided to have our contractor custom-build our kitchen cabinetry.  We had been so impressed with their work on our house thus far, and they shared pictures of recent cabinetry work that looked really great. Plus, the turn-around time was much  much faster than using a semi-custom cabinet maker like Kraftmaid or Thomasville through Home Depot.

They started last Tuesday, and by Wednesday afternoon, this is what our kitchen looked like!

It was especially nerve-wracking seeing my kitchen design installed, not knowing how it would work and feel in reality and not on paper, but I really like it so far!

I was a little worried at first that the pantry was just too big for the space.  But after looking at it from different angles, and imaging it trimmed out, I think it will be great, and will give us tons of needed storage.

I had them build a vertical divider since the microwave wouldn’t take up the full space and so I would have a dedicated place for cookbooks (which is limited! – it will help me purge cookbooks ).  I’ll have space above the microwave to put little baskets for storage or whatever.  The pantry will have a few roll-out shelves and some door storage for cans and whatnot.  I’m going to put an inexpensive piece of butcher block countertop from IKEA on the center cabinetry.

The whole fridge/pantry wall was inspired by the below picture from Erika‘s kitchen spread in March’s Coastal Living.  I loved the idea of a mini coffee/appliance counter with the microwave above and out of the way…and not a focal point of the room.  And I also liked how the fridge on one side was balanced by the pantry on the other.

This next view is looking from the laundry hallway toward the front door.  The peninsula will have a counter height breakfast bar.  The dishwasher is on the left, the sink centered in the middle and on the oven, and drawer storage on the right.

The house originally had tons of tongue-in-groove beadboard covering the walls in the old kitchen and bathroom – it was still in good shape, but had so many layers of paint it would have taken forever to sand/strip it.  I wanted to preserve some of the original “cottage” feel of the house, so I’m having the carpenters put new beadboard on the ends of the cabinets and on the front of the peninsula island.

They’re doing a really cool “flattened” corner for all of the cabinets – I can’t wait to show you how it looks with the trim! 

You can see in the above pic where they’ve sanded away the layers upon layers of old paint…and how AWESOME the floors look.  I can’t wait to see them stained!  (The debate there is a dark walnut stain versus just leaving them natural – most old homes in Vicksburg do the natural stain; I just want to see how all the wood looks before I decide.)

So there you have it!  The cabinets should be done with trim today, and I think will be painted tomorrow.  The doors are being made by Vicksburg Woodworks and I think should be done in the next few days too!  They will be a plain raised panel style (much cheaper than the shaker front I had wanted, boo) and will be full overlay (where they touch and you can’t see a “bar” in between).  Ahhh I can’t wait to see it complete!

Tagged as: cabinets, custom, kitchen, {renovation}