We are totally in the 11th hour here, but I tend to perform better under pressure. It’s true, I am a total procrastinator whose best work is pumped out hours before it has to be turned in. And, here I am, one week away from returning to work, full-time, from maternity leave, and post maternity leave quarantine.
To say this year has been crazy is a major understatement. I promised you guys updates on our renovation and I know I have, totally, been slacking. I knew that doing a renovation in the dead of winter with a 6 month old would be hard but I was totally looking forward to the break in the weather to share more updates. Then Covid happened and this renovation got all sorts of weird.
Standing in line at hardware stores, relying on Amazon and Wayfair, and trying to piece things together became a complex art form. Then, when we finally moved in, trying to pull together pieces to style the place was a complete nightmare with the stores being pretty barren. But, throughout this whole process I learned to just roll with it.
I am sharing my favourite room in the house with you first. The kitchen, it totally was a labour of love, and I mean this in every sense of the word. My hubby’s father, literally, built this entire kitchen, the boxes, the doors, the shelves, the painting. Without him, none of this magic would have been possible. And the canvas he built it all on was literally torn down and put back together by my hubby’s sister’s boyfriend. Having family to lean on during this whole process and still loving them at the end of it is something that I have to brag about.
Lets rewind, I have been flirting with the idea of a kitchen renovation since 2017, while at our old house, and the idea of a dreamy gray kitchen has always been high on my Dream Board (we used Flagstone Grey by Pittsburgh Paints to bring this dreamy gray kitchen to life). I was briefly tempted by the idea of black, but then went back to my original plan (I am loyal like that). We worked for a long time with what has come to be my friend Lee @thestylebox in Windsor, Ontario. She drew us a gorgeous gray kitchen for our old home but after much discussion my husband and I both agreed that we really had just outgrown our old home and as much as we tried to finagle a renovation, there just was not enough room for 3 kids and a fur baby. As the years went by, my father-in-law picked up carpentry again in his retirement and the stuff he was pumping out for friends and family was more than impressive. So, when we bought this home, I had two big asks. Would Lee help me come up with a new game plan for this kitchen and would my father-in-law build it. Luckily, they both said yes! After many revisions to the plan, torn down walls, and a dry wall fiasco, we put together this beauty.
The butler’s pantry lives where the old Master Bedroom closet used to be, and this was literally a dream come true. Having a place to store the serving trays, odds/ends and gadgets, we don’t use on a regular basis, helps to make for such a more functional space. Also, a place to work out of, while hosting really does make for much more enjoyable parties and get togethers.
So, lets get into the specifics. Our kitchen was built out of birch, we chose birch because we knew that we would be painting it, it is cost effective and hard enough to stand up to 3 kids. The flooring is an engineered hardwood called Military Hickory and most days I love it but in hindsight a shade lighter may have served us better with hiding the dog hair. Hopefully, a Roomba is in my future and I’ll fall in love all over again with this hardwood like I did when I first saw it in the store.
We went with clean shaker style cabinets because I am all about clean lines and simplicity. Our matte black handles, believe it or not, I found on Amazon at an unbeatable price, and with stores shut down to the public, I needed an online option. Again, simple and clean. I was torn between knobs over handles for the upper cabinets, but truth be told, my nails grazing around the knobs at our old house destroyed the paint job on our old cabinets over time so I didn’t want to venture down that road again.
Wayfair for the win when it comes to the Zayn 1 by Gracie Oaks pendants. They are simple, they pull together the matte black elements throughout the kitchen and are a breeze to keep clean. Noticing a common theme here, I am all about efficiency and practicality. It is a way of survival with 3 under the age of 6.
We went with quartz countertops with the Carrera finish, which helped me bring together the white island, a last minute curve ball I threw into the plan and the gray cabinets. You see, I can be full of surprises too.
For those who know me, they know I am all about a good deal, and this massive sink, which is literally my best friend, was honestly a steal. If you are reading this and are in Canada, you have kids, and you are looking to replace your sink and faucet, look no further then Costco.ca. This massive sink that will hold the millions of cups my kids go through during the day and the faucet by Ancona was $399.99. For real sink and faucet! It’s dual mount and even when it’s full it doesn’t look full because it’s so big. My old sink would literally have one pot in it, and I couldn’t even clean that pot without water being everywhere. I am very passionate about this sink because I am mom and I will be doing dishes until the day I die, so me and the sink must be on good working terms. It’s currently not online at Costco.ca but I have learned to check their site often as things come and go frequently.
The pot filler was also another Costco steal and its on sale right now (even cheaper than what we paid for it). The water pressure is fantastic, my hubby thought it was something we would probably never use but he recently confessed that it is the best thing that ever happened to pasta night.
As for the appliances, they were one of our tougher decisions. I have to admit, we used to own the Frigidaire Professional series, and honestly, I love the look of this line but there were two major drawbacks to our Frigidaire appliances that steered me towards LG this time.
The first drawback being the water pressure out of the water dispenser. I thought it was just ours, but I tested my sister-in-law’s too and it just takes forever to fill a bottle of water with the Frigidaire Professional. With 5 water bottles that need to be filled every morning having a water dispenser that gets the job done quickly is important to me, and this LG fridge delivers on the water pressure. The stove was a major selling point too with the top being stainless steal and the knobs being angled upwards making it harder for little hands to turn. These were things important to our family, not major things but it was what steered us towards choosing LG this time around.
I bought and returned a lot of stools for the island over the summer, but I have finally come to terms with these stools. They’re matte black metal, again sticking to the theme (I love a good theme), but they also incorporate the warm wood which tie back to our floating shelves. They are also super forgiving and easy to clean, which is always a bonus with three hooligans running around. Again, another deal brought to you by Wayfair, you’ll want to check out here. I love being able to share deals with you that may make decisions around renovations a little bit easier because, honestly, by the end of it, you really experience decision fatigue. I had to take a break from it all for a bit because a lot of decisions, even really small ones, felt exhausting.
On another note, the Fiddle Leaf bush is real. I bought it back in April at Annas Flowers in Kingsville, Ontario and I don’t know what it is, but if I buy it from Anna’s it tends to survive. I had to have our photographer Daniel capture the plant in the pictures to, honestly, let the record show that I am keeping this thing alive and it is thriving under my supervision.
I am trying to think of any other detail that might be of interest to readers, so if you have a question shoot me a message. The paint colour is Agreeable Grey by Sherwin Williams and the trim and crown come from a Mill Shop in London, Ontario called Riverside Millwork Group. They were great to work with, offering extremely competitive pricing. It was installed by my amazingly, hopefully one day brother-in-law whose finishing work (trim and tile) is something to truly marvel over. I thought I had an eye; this guy takes craftsmanship to a whole other level.
We went from a kitchen that was literally almost the same length as our, just shy of 10 ft., island and while we made some amazing memories in that small kitchen having the space to allow the whole family to congregate around and snack from this giant island in our new home is something that I dreamed of. My husband and I originally bickered over this island as he could not visualize how it would fit in the space and if you look at the old photo, I totally can see why he thought that. The island is now the place where we all congregate the most, and it really is my favourite part of the entire design plan and home.
Well, there you have it, welcome to the heart of our home, the kitchen. I hope this reveal was worth the wait. Honestly, it has always been a bit tough opening myself up to critics but hey, such is life – que sera sera.
Signing off now, I have to go make dinner in my new … kitchen (see what I did there).
Raising Riblets 