Our kitchen renovation became a serious plan in May of last year. Before then, we talked through many ideas on how best to use the space, what we wanted, and when we might be able to do it. I truthfully never imagined we would actually pull it off in our first year here, but 2020 was full of lots of surprises that I never imagined!
I can still remember standing in the kitchen in the early spring and saying out loud, “What if we just covered the countertop with plywood?” to my husband seated at his WFH set up on our dining room table. And as they say, one thing just lead to another.. and we ended up with a full blown, down to the studs, importing an Italian range, renovation.
I’ll start from the beginning, and do my best to break down what the process was like for anyone else who is thinking about starting a kitchen project.
We decided to do the interior design ourselves since it’s something I love doing, my husband Mark did the electrical and plumbing and we worked alongside Kitchen Art Design for our custom cabinetry, and Greycor for our contracting.
We chose to work with Kitchen Art Design because we wanted a custom design that would suit our kitchen best. We were paired with Kara Lindstrom who became our incredible designer and worked with us to bring our dream kitchen to life. We met with Kara and went over our vision for the design and space, and she started to plot it out. What I loved most about working with Kara was the expertise that she brought to kitchen design. I knew what I wanted aesthetically, but she had the experience that really helped in the areas that I was less familiar.
This is the initial inspiration for the kitchen. I wanted it to feel like bespoke English design. The elements I knew I wanted were: light grey/cream cabinetry, carrara marble countertops, a large window behind the sink, wood shelving, floor to ceiling cabinetry where the fridge would be integrated, a hidden dishwasher, brass hardware, and a large range.
We went over all of our needs with Kara: the storage we wanted, the hidden appliances, placement, and she plotted it all out with our specs. We went back and forth with several layout options, trying to make the most of the space we had while still fitting in all that we wanted. I can still remember laughing it off when Kara made the “crazy” suggestion to remove the existing window so that we could fit more in (didn’t she know photographers want all the light possible!?) But I came around on that one, and it was one of the best decisions we made.
It really was such a team effort to land on the final design. Mark and I really loved being able to trust Kara and Kitchen Art Design throughout the whole process. When it came time for the install, everyone involved really worked so hard to make it as smooth as possible. There were of course a few little hiccups that occurred (installing new cabinetry into an 100 year old house with uneven floors and walls helped with that!), but the KAD team worked as quickly as possible - paying attention to each detail to ensure it all was installed properly.
We are beyond thrilled with how it turned out. It truly is better than I could have imagined, and I can’t thank Kitchen Art Design, and Kara enough for helping us build our dream kitchen! I can’t recommend working with Kitchen Art Design enough. It was such a smooth process, and the quality is extremely high.
Now, onto the big reveal with some before and after shots!
