Saturday, January 28, 2012

Inspiration Board - Kitchen


I found this picture in an old issue of Signature Kitchens and Baths magazine:


It was love at first sight. I wanted this kitchen. I needed this kitchen. So we incorporated this layout into our house plans. The layout turned out a bit different on our plans but I think our interpretation of it is even better than the original. For comparison purposes, here is our kitchen floor plan: 

You can see some similarities but I think we simplified things a bit. We also rotated the island so that there wasn't so much wasted floor space. 


I don't really like the finishes (other than the mix of light and dark cabinets, that I love) in my magazine dream kitchen though, so we picked these instead:


























1. We are getting cabinets through Kitchen Craft. We chose the Newhaven door style, with Alabaster and Weathered Slate finishes.

2. We wanted a solid surface countertop but we don't like the look of granite or the maintenance so we are going with Silestone Quartz countertops in Alpina White.

3. We were originally going to go with a skinny multicolor glass tile, but decided that it would date our kitchen before it's time so we are going to go with a matte white subway tile with a grey grout. The picture shown here is a glossy tile and the grout is a bit dark but that's basically the look we are thinking of going with.

4. We wanted a more modern kitchen faucet and went with Purist by Kohler.

5. I love Electrolux appliances but they are at the top end of our budget. By the time we get to the point where we are purchasing appliances I might have to select something else but for now I love love love these ones.

6. Our kitchen has a pretty neutral color palette. We didn't want anything permanent to have a lot of color in case we get sick of it so we are going to add in a splash of color with accent walls. I know some people don't like accent walls but I do. They are a quick and easy way to give your house a little bit of personality. These are the paint colors that will be visible from the kitchen.

7. We don't like the idea of carpet. I hate that dirt gets trapped in the fibres of your carpet but you can't see and it you can never get it out. You don't know what's living in your carpet! That's gross. So we are going with a laminate flooring. We chose Armstrong White Wash Campfire. It is a dark finish floor with a white wash on it. We think it is a good way to tie in neutral browns and neutral greys. It will also tie together our light and dark kitchen cabinets.

So that's our plan for the kitchen. I can't wait to see how it all turns out!

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Paint by Numbers

There is a slim chance that we might be starting drywalling later this week. What does that mean? That we can start picking out paint colors! Although, let's be honest here, I have been thinking about paint colors since before we even started construction. They haven't really changed too much since we first started thinking about paint. We have a good idea about all of the main areas, like the main floor and the family room. The rest of the rooms might vary by accent color but we would like to keep a general trend throughout the house. We are thinking about a palette similar to this one:

Paint Samples

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Where We Are Now

It's official. I am a horrible blogger. I really need to update more often.

Shortly before Christmas we finished framing our house. We have a few odds and ends to finish up before we can go for the framing inspection. Then it will be officially locked up and we can move on to rough-ins.
I am thinking that around the beginning of February we will be at drywall. I am so flippin' excited to be done drywalling (yes, i know we haven't even started yet) then we can start working on the interior finishes and we will start to see some crazy progress.

Not a whole lot has gotten done since Christmas. We took a couple of weeks and stayed with my parents to get out of the camper and to take a break from all things house. It was a nice break but we haven't made a lot of progress since we got back. We have been trying to catch up with our regular work, getting things picked out, ordered and finalized for the next stages in building, and just generally catching up with the day to day things that we just didn't have time to do while we were rushing to get our house closed up.

This week we were all ready to finish up our to do and set up the inspection. Mother Nature had other ideas though. We are having a cold streak this week. We have been having lows of -35 all week (actual temp. not counting the wind chill). We haven't felt like braving the cold (we aren't that crazy) so we are taking this week off. Temperatures are expected to increase on Sunday so we'll be back at it soon.



View from the driveway