Revisiting the Kitchen

Happy Boxing Day!!!  Jordan and I decided to revisit some of our favorite posts from 2011 this week.  Today I am reintroducing you to our kitchen.  (Be sure to check out the link to our pantry).  We moved into our townhouse in May after gutting it and undergoing a total remodel job.  For those of you new to our blog, my husband and I downsized from a 4,000 square feet home in the burbs to a 3,000 square feet townhouse in an historic part of downtown Lexington.  Also, these photos were taken before I had my new camera.

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Well, as of today we have been in our new place three weeks, and only a few boxes are left to unpack.  There is occasionally a worker dropping in to fine-tune something, and the painters still are adding some final strokes of genius to our walls.

I promised you on Monday that the next room to be revealed would be the kitchen.  Please keep in mind that, other than “Lulubelle, The Cow” (read about her here),  art work has not been added, but first we need to take another visit to the kitchen BEFORE we bought it.

 

(before)

The first two are photos I took on the day we first looked at the place.  The owner was a single gentleman who spent a lot of money on new granite and stainless appliances, but they just didn’t speak to us.  We were able to salvage the cabinets and move them to our new pantry.  The wall on the left is now gone.

 

(before)

This is his kitchen eating area.  Notice the red below the chair rail and the gold above it.

 

(before)

I took this photo after we had removed his Pergo floors but before the painters did their magic.  The purple area is the pantry.  I revealed the new/improved pantry  here.

 

Now here is the new kitchen.

 

This is the full view looking in from the hallway.  The light isn’t too good in this shot.  We went with a bluish gray pennisula that is glazed white, white cabinets everywhere else, a farmhouse kitchen sink, and carrara marble on all of the countertops.

 

This is from the opposite direction.

 

 

We chose white cabinets, and the pennisula’s glaze helps it blend with them.  It has a lot of features I think you’ll like.

 

For instance, I have shelves for my cookbooks.  And the cabinet door there holds our candles.

 

Here is a close-up of the glazed door.

 

This is the side of the pennisula opposite the sink.  The stools are from CSN.

 

There is a shelf area with glass doors to display some of my Hall’s teapots.

 

And there is a wine shelf.  The door to the left provides more storage.

 

This shot shows it without the stools.

 

This is our eating area.  The cow?  She’s “Lulubelle”.  I ordered her from an artist named Roz Art on Etsy.  She had me at moo hello.  A local shop framed it for me, and she has been waiting patiently for this remodel project to finish so we could move in and she could claim her spot of honor in the kitchen.

 

This shot shows our built-in hutch.  Let’s take a closer look.

 

I think the copper pots work great here.

 

Here is another shot. We used the same cabinet hardware in the kitchen, wet bar, laundry room, guest room built-in, and all of the bathrooms.   (Sorry about the sun’s reflection).

 

I’ve opened the door so you can get a better look.  Some of the dishes are special, like my grandmother’s flow blue, the meat platter I got when staying with some nomads in Mongolia, and our old iron stone, and other things are there because they are blue or white.

 

That bottle on the right is an old Lestoil bottle from the 1950′s.  My mother saved them because she thought they were pretty, and she gave me the blue ones.  They also came in gold and green.  The plate to the left was my grandmother’s and the plate on top is the one I got from the nomads.  We had to use an interpreter to help us bargain, but when she served our meal on it, I knew it would be a great treasure.

 

I found that meat platter to match my grandmother’s flow blue on ebay.  It is Princeton by Johnson Brothers.  There is the second Lestoil bottle.

 

Here is another angle.

 

A lamp maker here in Lexington made this lamp for me out of an extra silver tea pot.  I think it is so sweet.

 

I almost gave this tea/coffee service to Jordan (my blogging partner Spring), but decided the silver would look nice against the marble.  I like a bit of silver in each room.  It is like jewelry.

 

My brother bought this hydrant at an auction years ago for $2.50.  That was before I had it refurbished.  Every time he sees it, he regrets that he gave it up.  I think the kitchen is the perfect place for a fire hydrant.  Don’t you??!!??

 

This bench is very versatile.  I like to move it around, but it works here for now.  I bought the two silk floral pillows in Bangkok.  They are by Jim Thompson, who revived the silk industry in Thailand and then mysteriously disappeared.  The other two pillows were made by moi.

 

The rug is from Pottery Barn.

 

This is a view from the eating area out to our sun room, (here) which was sunny that day.

 

When we decided to sell our last house, my friends gasped because they knew how much I obsessed over enjoyed the six-burner Thermadore stove I had.  Well, luckily, I was able to get another, except this one has only four burners with a griddle.  It has gas burners with an electric oven and griddle.  L.O.V.E. it!

 

The Alessi tea kettle looks nice against the marble back splash.  I have boiled water in it for years, and it still looks new.

 

These are one of my favorite possessions.  They are Dutch cannisters I bought on our first bicycling trip in Holland (here).  The antique shop only sold old enamel ware.  Unfortunately, I was on a bike.

 

 

Remember that wall I showed you in the beginning?  It is now gone, and we open to the great room.  This view looks into the kitchen from that room.  This opening made a huge difference with the amount of light the kitchen gets and with the flow.  The architect and I were in total agreement on this.  By the way, the kitchen color is Stucco by Sherwin Williams.  I really like it.  (You can see the dining area in the great room here and see how I gave myself some kitchen privacy when entertaining here.

 

 

This is another of my Jane Keltner rugs.  You’ve seen three (pantry, sun room, and this one) now.  I think this one has been to the rug cleaners at least 10 times.  It was in front of the kitchen sink in our other house, too.

 

This is another cabinet area, but it hasn’t grown up yet.  It’s still waiting to be accessorized.

 

 

About 30 years ago, my mother tole painted a bread box for us out of a mail box.  Isn’t that clever?  I just love it.

 

I am not really a fan of painted ceilings, (here) but I saw a kitchen in a magazine with white cabinets, carrara marble counter tops, creamy walls, and a light blue ceiling.  I knew then our kitchen ceiling would be a soft blue.  We selected Iceberg by Sherwin Williams.  We really, really like it.

 

Here is a close-up of the sink.  It is by Kohler.  The blue wine bottle holds the dish detergent.  That was one of Martha Stewart’s first “good things” years ago.

 

Here is one more view of our new kitchen.  Stop in anytime, and I’ll make us a pot of tea.

 

Take care.

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