This is my dream kitchen; an all-white marble countertop and commercial grade appliances with a big island that opens into the family room.
As I typed this, G made a face that said “our previous home’s kitchen looked like that!” Ok..ok…it was not EXACTLY the same but it came pretty close and we enjoyed every minute of it. As mentioned here and here we will embark on another renovation within the next few months. BUT each renovation is unique in it of itself, whether that be a bathroom, mudroom, kitchen or dining room. The good news is that we have found a contractor but we can’t start the project until late January because of the holiday and our travel plans. Until that happens, I have been researching non-stop for materials that would deem timeless, classic, stylish and hopefully last for decades to come.
One of the rooms that we will renovate is our galley kitchen. Don’t get me wrong, our kitchen is perfectly functional and very efficient but it definitely needs a face lift. I had envisioned how this galley kitchen will look the first time I saw this home in the MLS. For any galley kitchen renovation, one should consider brightening the area vertically to give the illusion of a bigger kitchen. One of the ways to do that is to choose lighter tones that will make your galley kitchen feel much larger. For this home I knew I wanted a bright light kitchen with dark walnut stain wood flooring, accompanied with carrera marble counter top, white subway tiles backsplash, white cabinetry, farmer sink and stainless steel appliances. I want our kitchen to look like these, particularly the first picture:
G shares my vision but not my practicality (which I don’t disagree) on two areas. For instance, the Carrera Marble counter top is not going to happen because it is way too high maintenance (I guess he won’t be cleaning it every 5 minutes haha!). The closest looking stone that requires a tad less maintenance is Dolomite. Well, that’s not going to fly with G either because we have 2 boys and they will make a mess! So…after numerous phone calls, google searches and stone yard visits I found a stone that we both can compromise on; Quartzite (it is not Quartz Stone, which is a man-made material), a natural stone that is more durable and requires less maintenance than granite. Well, I found one that came pretty close looking like Carrera Marble. And yes, they are very expensive (cost twice the amount of granite) but so worth the investment! The other area that G disagrees is installing the kitchen floor in wood. I really really really want that wood floor but after a few interventions from family, friends and even some contractors I settled on porcelain tiles. Well, the boys will spill water, milk, juice, etc on the wood floor and there won’t be a 24/7 maid cleaning after them. My argument is that if you let the liquids sit there for hours and days of course it will damage the wood floor and no one should be cleaning after them but themselves! Anyhow, I digress.
THEN, last weekend while dining at one of the restaurants at the Miracle Mile Shops in Planet Hollywood I pointed out the wood flooring at the shops. G couldn’t believe we were standing and walking on wood floors and the condition looked damn good! Since there have been thousands of people walking on this floor 24/7 for years and will continue to do so why can’t we install wood in our kitchen floor to accommodate 4 people? Without hesitation G gave the green light to go ahead and replace that dirt hoarding vinyl floor with wood…Hallelujah! Now it’s up to me to pull that off with a very limited budget!!!
