Reba Cooks #7
A new kitchen is born and naturally, I came back to write about it.
:::blows dust off internet::::
The last time I was in this space I was mourning the loss of the shittiest, yet most treasured electric range in all of the land. The year was 2021. By that point, my mojo for blogging or posting anything on the reg was dropping by the day. We were fresh out of the pandemic (lol) and life was ramping up again. Remember the excitement that fueled Summer 21? Vacations were back, baby! Concerts were happening! The desire to be in my house and sit at my computer any longer than necessary outside of work was about the last thing I was looking to do. With life sort of returning to what we considered normal we started thinking seriously about our kitchen renovation that had been swirling around our brains ever since we closed on this house in April of 2014.
It’s important to understand that when we bought our home, in our most desired neighborhood, it was the epitome of a “good bones” situation. The foundation? Solid. The yard? Vast. The neighborhood? As mentioned above: desired. The house? Well, it looked as if it had been picked up, dipped in a vat of Barbie-skin toned paint, and set back on its foundation. If the Barbie Skin paint on the exterior wasn’t enough, almost the entirety of the interior was painted in various shades of orange. Terra cotta thickly textured walls in the entryway, sherbet orange living and laundry rooms, another darker version of swirled Terra Cotta paint in the half bath and the piece de resistance was without a doubt the southwest-inspired kitchen, renovated sometime in the 2000s, which featured lemon yellow walls, a dark brown chair rail, with a textured naval orange painted below. Ole.
The kitchen featured over 20 (20!) can lights which somehow still never put off any light, set into some gorgeous late 70s bulkheads. There was floor tile on the island, and popcorn ceilings as far as the eye could see. “We’ll take it” we said.
Shortly after closing, we painted almost every inch of the home, regardless of the order it might have been in for renovation. The kitchen for the last seven or so years has been a neutral blue/grey/green that was popular in the mid 2010s, and the trim was painted white. The island also underwent a replacement, ditching the floor tile and adding a more functional and pleasant-looking butcher block top and new cabinet bottom.
The most important lesson here is that the kitchen, for all its aesthetic faults, was actually incredibly functional. It’s a real goldilocks when it comes to the size of it, and had a good triangle situation going between the island, stovetop, and the sink. I had plenty of storage in the cabinets and swapped out an old broom closet just around the corner for a walk-in pantry. The fridge (which was not featured in listing photos) was a behemoth black side by side, sticking what felt like a whole foot beyond the counter’s depth, and was a loyal soldier until its untimely death almost immediately following the death of the electric range (another story for another time).
When the wheels started really turning in regards to a kitchen renovation, we knew that the layout of the kitchen worked, and worked well, and as a project that we Chris would be physically doing 90% of, we needed to keep things as simple as possible. We would keep the footprint of the kitchen as it was, and improve upon what was there, but it would be a 100% gut job. A few things on the wish list included:
A gas range
A second oven
No bulkheads 🙏🏻
Simple right? (lol)
After we figured that out and felt good about it, I started sketching out what I wanted in a kitchen. Hours scouring Pinterest, my favorite designers’ and decorators’ Instagrams, and trying to pay attention to what colors and textures I was attracted to resulted in these sketches made on my iPad in October of 2021:
By the time these drawings were sketched, we had already purchased the appliances (which were delayed ~20 weeks, so good thing we got those taken care of first!). We settled on a 36” range, electric wall oven, low profile vent hood, a Bosch dishwasher, and a GE Cafe french door refrigerator.
I will spare you the details of the following 193 days leading up to writing this, but it should be known that this was without a doubt, the most intense DIY project we’ve ever taken on. I say we only because I was living in the house during the renovation, but all credit and accolades should be directed to Chris. This project was the culmination of every single ounce of mechanical, electrical, plumbing, drywall, flooring, trim, tiling, painting, problem-solving, budgeting know-how that he’s gathered in the last 14 years of home ownership.
He saved us a shit ton of money, is perhaps Lowe’s #1 customer of the year, and somehow— has consistently been able to solve every single problem that came his way. He rewired the entire ceiling (those bulkheads- they weren’t empty!), rerouted our main sewer line, and the HVAC for the vent hood. He chiseled off the horrendous tile floor and prepped it for new flooring. He fixed leaks caused by previous contractor’s errors, and scooped out years worth of animals nests made of pea gravel discovered in the subfloor. He cut and installed flooring, trim, moved and installed lights and speakers. He measured, cut and hung all the drywall. He did MORE MATH THAN I HAVE EVER DONE IN MY ENTIRE LIFE. He fixed what the professionals could not figure out. He lost hours of sleep, hemorrhaged money, probably gained more than a few grey hairs (although as a natural blonde, you’ll never be able to tell), and overall did one hell of a job. There are not actually enough words on the internet to truly repay him for the blood sweat and tears (along with the mental stress) that went into this project and for that— we shall all pause here and say a heartfelt internet thank you to Chris, contractor, DIYer extraordinaire, and love of my life.
Now, onto the pictures. Feel free to scroll past my incessant geeking out of all the fixtures, finishes and appliances below:
Here’s the main shebang, the big reveal! As you can see, the layout remains the same so I’ll talk about finishes! For the cabinets — arguably one of the most important parts of the whole thing—We opted for a custom shaker style, full overlay cabinet built by the wonderful Kline Cabinets out of Maxwell, Indiana in Sherwin Williams Pewter Green. I cannot say enough good things about our experience with Kline. I reached out to them for two reasons: 1) They were recommended on an occasionally toxic but often helpful local Facebook group and 2) I immediately recognized the name as they are a brand name I grew up hearing. My parents used Kline cabinets way back when they were building their very own late 70s custom home, and again when they renovated their bathroom when I was in high school. They’ve just been around forever, and have a reputation that precedes them. Their craftsmanship was top-notch, their installer was meticulous, they were responsive, helpful, and we just couldn’t be happier with the end result. The color itself (after browsing what felt like millions of greens) tends to change in the light, from a richer olive green, to more grey, to almost a blue hue. I’m in love.
The countertops are Soapstone Metropolis Quartz, in a concrete (matte) finish. The unlacquered brass hardware and lighting are all from Pepe & Carols.
The table, without a doubt the finest piece of furniture I’ve ever purchased, is an absolutely gorgeous custom walnut Condesa dining table from Hedgehouse Furniture in Mishawaka, Indiana. It is 40” wide to squeeze in two on each end if needed, and has two leaves to extend to 96”. I’m ready to party.
The biggest change to the kitchen came facing this direction. The counter-depth refrigerator is sleek and (so far) I’ve stayed more organized than with the previous fridge. The shallower depth helps keep everything within reach and I have yet to discover a forgotten clamshell of berries buried in the back.
The wall oven was a real luxury and I feel like I’m just getting started using ALL THE THINGS at the same time. It’s a 30” electric oven, and has a temperature-controlled baking stone (!!) built in to the bottom, and an optional temperature probe for accurate roasting. It has convection, a powerful broiler, can act as a dehydrator and overall workhorse in the kitchen.
The pantry (left of the fridge) was narrowed and is now a pull-out instead of a deep cavern of a pantry cabinet, which made room for the new coffee bar in the middle.
If anything, the pandemic turned us into huge annoying coffee snobs who insist on fresh beans delivered every other week, a burr grinder, and an electric gooseneck kettle heated to our exact temperature specifications. The addition of a small coffee bar in the kitchen felt like a luxury, and one I am thrilled to use every morning. It keeps all of our cups, filters, accouterment, and is the only glass cabinet we put in. Below, is all the storage for coffee, tea, and espresso.
The faucet. What a looker! This is a polished nickel faucet from Signature Hardware. Directly inspired (in many ways, but specifically in the way of the faucet) by Phyllis Grant’s dreamy Berkeley kitchen, I went hunting for something that looked like her beautiful but expensive $1,500 bridge faucet at a better price point. The result was this beauty which is a joy to use and look at daily.
We also opted for a complementary pot filler also in polished nickel to go above the absolute jet-engine of a range. I’ve already filled many pots and feel spoiled by this weird faucet above the stove. The backsplash tile is Retro Lino Ceramic from The Tile Shop.
This little end cabinet was part of my quest to get-shit-off-the-counter. In the previous version of the kitchen, we had a lot of stuff on the counter. Perhaps in some sort of quest to distract from the ugly kitchen, a lack of knowing what was useful and what wasn’t— we’ll never know and it doesn’t matter now! Anyway, one of those things on the counter was a small bowl for the dog’s leash and a pair of boots stashed on the ground below next to the door. In the early phases of design, Kline had the idea to turn a cabinet 180 degrees for boot storage and now the drawer above holds the leash, dog bags, herb scissors, and a flashlight. Practical!
The real showstopper of the kitchen is without a doubt the BlueStar range. Four 15,000 BTU open burners, an integrated 12” griddle, and an oven with a truly insane broiler. Plus, the ability to put a full sheetpan in that sucker is something I never knew I always wanted.
To the left of the kitchen, I left the cabinet door off to store all my cutting boards and pizza peels for easy access, and the “open shelving” above the range store a dutch oven, and on the right— whatever cookbooks from the adjoining home office I’m flipping through that week.
The vent hood is also a beast. 600 CFM sucks any and all smoke and steam coming from the stovetop right up and outside of the house. Considering our last one made more noise than anything else, this is a dream. Also, the LED lights are great AND dim.
This little painting was purchased this spring from local artist Stephanie Paige Thompson and is titled “Time to go to the Grocery Store” it spoke to me as the perfect little entry painting to the new kitchen and now proudly sits as you walk in from the garage (likely— from the grocery store).
And that— is that. The kitchen has been REVEALED! Chris is enjoying his weekends not spent slaving away on a neverending project and I look forward to firing up the range, both ovens, and the hood and making many more meals for family, friends, strangers, you name it, I’ll cook it.
Until next time! ✌️
It looks beautiful! Love the color! And I’m jealous of that coffee station. 😍