I first became obsessed with this kitchen a year ago when I started collecting inspirational images for our ‘Dream house’. Since then I have come across these photos countless time and every time I do I fall in love with the space more and more. So, I have decided to just make this kitchen my kitchen.

This kitchen was designed by Tommy Smythe, who you may remember from Design Inc with Sarah Richardson. This was where I first got the inspiration for putting in Herringbone floors, which up until last week, was causing me quite the headache.

As I mentioned in my last Reno post, we were having a very hard time finding a tile that would work of us, in the size and colour we wanted. After hours of research I finally got the brilliant idea to see if I could find out any info about this kitchen, since thats where the inspiration came from. A lot of times if a room is featured in a magazine or website, they list off the products that were used so that people who are interested in using them can find them. I finally found the source of this kitchen and discovered that the floors were done in a black slate. Bingo, this was the solution! Because slate is a natural stone it has a live edge instead of a beveled edge. This means you can cut it in half and the cut edge wont be any different from the other edge. The only down side to slate is that the surface is very uneven, which can be quite the pain in the butt. However, Chad discovered that slate can be gauged which means the surface is worked down to be as even as possible. So after hours of research and more hours of running to every tile store in the lower mainland we finally found a black 16×16 gauged slate tile, in our price range, that we can cut in half to create a herringbone pattern!

Thank God we solved that issue, because it was driving me nuts!

We also met with my uncles who will be building our cabinets for us. We have chosen to do simple shaker style cabinets, much like the picture above. The over head cabinets (which there are only 5 of) will have glass doors, and all the pulls and handles will be the same. We have also decided to paint our cabinets in the same colours as this kitchen. The 5 glass front cabinets and open shelving will be white, as well as our wall of cabinets, and all our base cabinets, including the peninsula will be black. I am really fascinated with base cabinets being painted a different colour, and I think by painting ours black it will really ground our very white space, and add some visual interest and drama.

During our cabinet meeting we also discussed our timeline. Since making cabinets is something my Uncles do in their spare time, its going to take them longer than normal to make ours. 8 weeks longer to be exact. On top of that they are away in Italy when we take possession of the house and wont be able to measure the space and start on the cabinets until they come back. However, we are in no rush to move in, and it will allow us time to focus on other areas of the house and have then all freshened up and set up while we wait for the cabinets. In the end I think it will work out quite nicely even if we move in later than originally planned.

I have been obsessed with Quartz counter tops ever since I first saw Candice Olsen use them on Divine Design, one of my favorite home decorating shows. Since I really want to go with white counter tops, there aren’t many options in the Granite department and I have heard bad things about the way they stain. I would love to do Marble, but again I have read some negative things about its use in the kitchen, so going with Quartz was an obvious choice. We have decided to go with this Caesarstone Nougat. I love that the particulates are quite big and chunky, as if it were Granite, and that they reflect a bit of colour so that it’s not too white.

We have also found the backsplash tile we like. It is a white/grey subway tile that does not have an even surface. You can kind of see in the picture that there is a bit of a ripple affect to it. It catches the light beautifully and is a little bit more visually interesting than a basic subway tile. Since we are going to be tiling from counter top to ceiling, we didn’t want something too boring but at the same time we didn’t want something too overpowering. I think this tile has a nice balance, and works with the counter top quite well.

We have also decided that if we are going to have a rustic beam going along the ceiling between the kitchen and dining room, it might be neat to add some interest to the kitchen ceiling, since we have to replace it anyways. We have decided to go with white wooden planks much like the ceiling in this picture. I love the way it looks and think its fit our ‘Modern Farmhouse’ quite nicely!

We have also picked out the carpet we are replacing in the basement, and have decided on what style of baseboard we like.

I’m still floating between paint colours, but I think once we are in the house and I can see things coming together it will be easier to pick colours.

Other than that, we have pretty much finished doing most of our research for the renos. We have made decisions on all the major stuff so now we get to wait and relax until our posession date comes up!