One Room Challenge: Week 2

Week one is over and I have an update. Not a monumental one, but we’ve made some headway nonetheless. Early last week, we had a carpenter out to discuss building an island in our kitchen.

If you saw the pictures from last week, you’ll notice that previous owners of our house used the kitchen as an eat-in kitchen and had a table and chairs in the middle of the room. There’s room for it for sure. But- the dining room table is just feet away and we don’t need two full dining spaces so close together. What we DO need, however, is prep space. And storage space. AND it would be GREAT if we could move the garbage from the corner of the room where it constantly gets bumped into the wall and takes off the paint. I texted our carpenter this sketch of what I’m thinking:

My sketch for our potential kitchen island

When our carpenter was over, he told me about an island he’d built for our friend and I invited myself over to see it. He also mentioned her countertop, fabricated from reclaimed wood by a sawmill on the Cape. I’d planned on using the same surface for the island as we’ll use for the counters (quartz) but her island (see below) was so beautiful that I’m reconsidering and looking into a wood top. No decisions yet but hopefully soon!

As I’ve given it more thought, I think we’ll replace the microwave opening and drawer with three drawers for more storage. We don’t have a microwave now and honestly, I don’t miss having one. There’s a little corner where we moved our coffeepot that could fit a microwave, but we’ll get more use from a coffee corner and I don’t want to give up storage or prep space elsewhere. At first, I thought we’d leave an opening for a microwave for the next person to love our house thinking that most non-pilgrims would expect one. But we aren’t sure how long we’ll stay in the house and I’d rather design to meet our current needs than someone else’s hypothetical ones.

The island will have three stools on one side and a garbage/recycling pullout, double doors with pull-out shelves, and three drawers on the other. I also pulled together a Pinterest board of island styles I like- Shaker cabinets, relatively modern and pretty no-frills, hopefully something to go with the style of our existing painted cabinets.

Island with seating. (Don't have the image credit as this is a screen shot from Pinterest)

Another island with seating in a similar style. (A Pinterest find as well, so if I track down image credit, I’ll update my site accordingly)

Here’s the third image I sent to give him an idea of what I’m thinking (ditto for image credit on this one)

When designing permanent fixtures or considering kitchen design, it’s important to think about the style of the piece (does it play well with the rest of the space or will it stick out like a sore thumb?) but also the function. At our house, T and I both love to cook and we don’t have nearly enough prep space in the kitchen. We also entertain far more than any sane people with kids under six, so we also need room for larger serving platters and bowls. We have a large mixer and blender that are always out since we have nowhere to store them and I’d love to clear room for valuable prep space. Fingers crossed that an island will be the perfect solution for us! Here’s a pic of the kitchen with the island space taped off.

Progress shot of the kitchen

Notice anything new on the left side of the picture? We also got our new dishwasher installed earlier this week

out with the old..

And in with the new!

It’s from the Frigidaire Professional line and in addition to being fingerprint-free, it is CRAZY quiet. So quiet that we can’t even tell it’s on. The rest of the progress this week was minimal. I think I’ve finally settled on cabinet knobs and pulls after going through approximately one million different options at all of the price points. Initially, I’d settled on knobs in a golden champagne. While the color worked, the mushroom style just felt too starkly modern for these cabinets. Last week, I took a poll on Instagram and the overwhelming winner were these knobs in an ‘antique brass’.

Amerock Allison knobs

I found the knobs at a local hardware store and they’re SUPER reasonable and feel pretty sturdy. I like the simple style and the antiqued brass look but I can’t find pulls I like in the same finish from the same manufacturer. The other option was the same style in polished nickel (though I could only find one knob in polished nickel to use as a sample and it’s in a different style):

Amerock knobs in polished nickel. These cost about $6 more/knob than the brass knob y’all preferred

Right now, I think my plan is unlacquered brass knobs in the same style and unlacquered brass cup pulls to go with them. REALLY wanted bar pulls for the drawers but just can’t find any I love. Unlacquered brass will be shiny in the beginning, but I absolutely love the patina it takes on as it ages and it’s the look I’m really most excited about. Here’s the stove with no knobs, followed by the kitchen we started with earlier this winter to refresh your memory.

Fingers crossed by this time next week, I’ll have all of the doors back on and hopefully knobs. And maybe I’ll have the island and countertops officially on order. If you haven’t already, be sure to check out some of the progress the other One Room Challenge participants have made this week over on the ORC’s blog. Lots of people have had an incredibly productive week!

The decorative piece above the sink is down and I am SO happy about it!