First, I just want to say thank you guys so much for coming along on this journey with us. Many of you have been here with us from the time we bought the house, you’ve been in the planning meetings, you watched the day we took off the roof, and then throughout the process of building it all back up!
We are finally here to share our kitchen reveal!! This kitchen has been such a labor of love, I knew that this would be a space where we were going to be spending most of our time, so we really poured everything we had into the design and it came out so beautiful. We have our family meals here, we host our dearest friends around the kitchen island, we bond here, and we’re just really excited to be able to share all the intricate details with you here today!
Let’s start with the people behind this kitchen! Our architects who built the concept, Christian Rae Studio, our builders who made it come to life, DeRosa Builders, my dear friend and interior designer who helped me along every step of the way, GLDesign, and our vendors, County TV and Appliance, Sub-Zero and Wolf, A-Design for Artur, Torrco, New England Tile, Chloe Winston Design.
The Overall Concept
I would say that the overall concept for this kitchen was for it to be open concept and connected to our family room. We wanted the space to feel expansive as we knew it would be the spot in our home that would host the most people at any given time. I wanted it to feel modern, fresh and coastal but also filled with old world charm and character. I think we achieved this pretty well and I’ll share the different design elements we added to give it all of this and more!
Ceiling Height
The ceiling height in our kitchen and family room is higher than the rest of the first floor. We raised the ceiling in this space to 9 feet, compared to the 7’8″ height throughout the rest of the first floor. This actually ate up the biggest portion of our budget from the entire project but it makes a HUGE difference. It gives the space that expansive and open feel. We were working with the walls that were already here and to take the entire ceiling off the first floor would be a tremendous number.
Beams
We added character grade white oak beams and trim in the space which gives it so much character. I loved the idea of the trim along the ceiling being white oak, it’s such a special moment for the space. Our builders actually built the beams by wrapping an existing steel beam and then matching the other beams to that.
Cabinets
We had our cabinets designed by A-Design by Artur who is a local cabinet maker and his work is phenomenal. He is so so great. We had the opportunity to go and see how the cabinets are made and it just made the whole process special because you really see these handcrafted cabinets and how they’re built. We went with an inset style cabinet and we did shaker style doors. We had them painted white in Benjamin Moore Chantilly Lace. For the cabinet hardware, we did unlacquered brass knobs and pulls from Rejuvenation. We chose unlacquered brass to add that depth, age and character I referred to above. It ages over time and takes on a beautiful patina over the years. It’s a timeless finish and it’s already starting to take on a new look. Our kitchen faucet is the same finish, and I absolutely LOVE it.
Paint
Our walls, trim and cabinets are painted in Benjamin Moore Chantilly Lace. I wanted to do a different color for the island and we landed on Sleigh Bells, by Benjamin Moore. It has a really great natural and coastal blueish-green tone.
Tile
For the backsplash, we went bold (for me). Mostly everything is white, and I wanted something to pop and stand out in this kitchen, so these are hand painted tiles in a picket style shape. What I love so much about these tiles is the variation in color because they are hand painted. It’s beautiful hues blue that are carried throughout the entire house. It ties in our proximity to the Long Island Sound, really bringing in that coastal feel. We got them from New England Tile.
Lighting
We had so much fun with the lighting!! We went to Chloe Winston in Norwalk and loved looking around all the options in their showroom! We used the lighting as an opportunity to bring in more metals and textures, so we chose a really beautiful aged brass pendant to go over the island and for the sconces we did a woven shade with matte black arms. Love the way these lights come together.
Countertops
For the countertops, I love the look of a natural stone, but in a kitchen with young kids it’s not as practical because it’s a very porous material. So we chose a quartz. The quartz is pretty much bulletproof. It doesn’t stain. It cleans up really, really great. So what we went with was the Enigma brand and we chose the Valley and I think it looks so natural and it looks great in this kitchen. If you’re local we chose our stone at Everest in Norwalk and went to Precision Stone in Greenwich for the fabrication. The size of our island is 45″ x 103″.
Appliances
We went with Sub-Zero, Wolf and Cove for our appliances. We actually had the opportunity to go to Wisconsin to their factories to see these appliances being built which was an amazing experience! We have a 36″ gas range with griddle, and a 48 inch side-by-side refrigerator/freezer. We dedicated a whole post to our appliance selection which you can check out here!
We love this kitchen so much, and hope you enjoy the tour!!!
*photos by Stephanie Kursar
