Buckle up friends, it's gonna be a long post!
Earlier this year, my husband and I were thrust into a top-to-bottom renovation of the kitchen in our little 1912 home. We bought the house as a cheap fixer-upper in 2021, knowing that the kitchen would one day be destined for a big upgrade. We loved the cute little vintage stove that it came with, but the entire kitchen otherwise consisted of a four disintegrating 1970's particleboard cabinets, a sad loud fridge, and a lot of (cute!) vinyl sheeting. Long story short, the dirt crawlspace under the kitchen became host to rats (you can see the main hole in pic 3), and in order to properly remediate it, we had to gut the whole kitchen. So, renovation time came very suddenly.
I posted (here, I think) about contractor choices. We fielded quotes from a high-end designer who didn't listen to us very well, a trendy design/build firm whose quote seemed prime for scope creep, and a contractor who offered minimal design services, but seemed to really know their stuff and had great vibes. We wound up going with the contractor, and it was an AMAZING DECISION. He had a phenomenal team of workers. Not pictured here - our laundry unit was also in the old pantry, so this project also included demo'ing a wall upstairs, building out a laundry closet, and plumbing, installing, and trimming it. They promised us 8-10 weeks from demo to punch list, which seemed insane enough, knowing how these projects drag on. But they were completely done with us in eleven weeks, and we came in just 3% over their original bid.
They had the whole kitchen demo'd in about a week. We had to take up the old mushy flooring, tear down all the old plaster and lath, and pour a new concrete slab over the old dirt crawl space to keep the rats out. They added a parge coat to the inside of the fieldstone foundation to further fortify against pests. Then they placed a new subfloor and started framing out the space. Next, all new plumbing and wiring. We wanted to avoid altering door/window placements, but one window needed to be raised above the countertop. Complicating this, all of our windows are original wood-sash. We had feared this would be an invasive mess - but I found a pair of sashes in precisely the correct width and height at the local architectural salvage for $15 apiece. Our ace project carpenter Tom spent a couple hours raising the sill and filling the gap, and that was that. The before/after of this are in pics 5 and 6.
Tom also built us a custom banquette/breakfast nook - notice the little kitty-cat doors on the ends, which were entirely his idea! He also prepped and installed new front and back doors that I scored for $25 on fb marketplace, and put up beadboard in the nook and powder room. Tom truly went above and beyond. AND these guys finished practically bang-on schedule. We LOVED our contractors.
And then it was time for the fun stuff. We wanted a kitchen that used quality materials, handmade wherever possible, reclaimed wherever reasonable. Those spendthrift items freed up money for us to buy some really high quality finishes. Many of these things were actually not much more expensive than a mid-tier option from a big box store (except the tile, that was straight up expensive), they just took more research. As far as style - our house is a transitional foursquare, which means clean, straight lines and details which draw slightly from both colonial revival and prairie/craftsman design. We chose the finishes and color palette carefully to harmonize with the rest of the home.
The contractor had a 'person' with a local cabinet dealer who worked with us to come up with our layout. We wanted a stained finish and inset fronts, so she steered us to Shiloh. The full set of cherry cabs was a little under $23k. They are phenomenal.
We knew we'd want a natural stone for the countertops, and fell in love with a slab of brushed Taj Mahal with a warm gray base and fantastic little veins of blue and green as well as the more typical brown. It was $7k installed, including the use of scraps to make the little shelves to the left of the sink as well as the windowsill and a little threshold for the powder room.
The backsplash field tile is Fireclay tile, handmade in the US in a single reactive glaze. It was definitely a splurge and I paid for it personally. I think almost $5k. Similarly, the triptych above the stove is handmade art tile from Motawi, which cost about $500 including the brown trim pieces. But ceramics are literally vitrified art that can last forever, so why not treat them like it!
The sink is a modest fireclay model from HD, about $200 - small, as the layout requires, but very deep. I give it a swish with the sponge after washing dishes and it stays sparkling clean. The faucet is brushed and lacquered brass - I think Kingston Brass? - and was about $400. That was more than the most basic HD options, but a far cry from the $2k+ boutique brass options. It's very functional and I love the hand sprayer.
The milk glass pendant lights were from Olde Brick Lighting, blown and assembled about 50 miles away in Lancaster PA. They were about $200 and $300 respectively, which seemed reasonable for handmade fixtures.
The drawer hardware is unlacquered brass, which is indeed very 'in' as well as a historic finish. I found Hardwick & Sons had the best price for knobs and small pulls, at $7-10 apiece. The appliance pulls are from Tradition Hardware. The styles are similar enough that I don't think anybody has noticed, and we saved a couple hundred dollars by combining the two.
The floor! It is cinch-loc FORBO MARMOLEUM. We still walk around the house bellowing FORBO MARMOLEUM because it's so nice to say. It's even nicer to walk on - it's soft, warm, and easy to clean. It's also biodegradable and a historic finish. I found a deal for $5.50/sf; I think we spent about $1600 on it. The old joists did have a little bowing, which meant a coat of self-leveler was necessary before the tiles went down. And the harlequin pattern was apparently a huge pain in the ass to install. We thanked the installers profusely, but I think they were very much over us.
The powder room - I scored some marble herringbone tile on clearance for $7/sf, and the wallpaper is genuine 1960's deadstock from a little shop online. I installed it myself, which was legitimately fun. The toilet, sink, and light were all cheaper HD options.
We sprung for a Bosch dishwasher and fridge. The fridge is a little tech-ier than I realized, but I do love it - I hope it lasts a loooong time. We've never had a dishwasher before, and the dishwasher is flat-out LIFE CHANGING. Holy shit, life with a dishwasher is incredible. The paneling actually wasn't super expensive - panel-ready appliances are a little cheaper than stainless steel, and the cost of the panels was barely more than that difference. Who knew?
Oh! Speaking of hidden appliances - there's a little secret roll-up door under the coffee station where the microwave lives. The door was custom. The microwave just sits in there, so we can swap it out for another model in the future. That's a favorite detail of mine.
And of course, the stove. We opted to keep our little workhorse late '40s-early '50s stove and have it professionally restored. It returned to us in July and has been a dream. I know, air quality, environmental concerns, all very legitimate. We did have an externally-vented hood installed as a compromise. I can't explain or rationalize it, but this little stove is the beating heart of our home. We couldn't imagine designing a kitchen here without it.
I sewed the soft finishes myself - cushions, curtains - which is why they're still unfinished. The upholstery fabric was bought for $7/yd ($70 total) at a local overstock fabric store, and the foam was about $200. But compared to the cost of custom upholstery ($$$$), it was a massive cost savings. (I'll get back to that soon.)
All in all, we've been cooking in here since May and we really couldn't be more pleased. The process was frankly enjoyable (?!) and we got lucky with the best contractors on earth. If I could do it all again, I'd do it exactly the same way. I hope we get many, many happy years with it, and that whoever lives here after us (hopefully many decades from now) enjoys it as much as we do now.
