Something old, something new...

For those of you who've been wondering...YES, our kitchen renovation is officially, 100%, totally, absolutely complete! And we're very excited about it. As a refresher, here was our kitchen just a few months ago (from our old doorway):

and now (from our new 7-foot wall opening):

Another of the old kitchen...see the (needless and totally empty) soffit above the old cabs?

Here's that shot now...with our new cabs that run to the ceiling.  :-)

Here's a shot from the old doorway to the dining room:

And here's one from the new 5-foot wall opening!



So...we're all familiar with the wedding-associated saying of "Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue," right?  Well, it seems to apply to kitchen renovation!

Something old:  Aside from all of our old stuff going into the new cabinets, we have this baby to brag about:

It's our new-to-us marble window sill that was saved from the demolition of an old home in Cincinnati. It replaced a smaller marble sill that didn't work after we enlarged the kitchen window. The new one is gorgeous and fits right in!

Something new:  Many things...from our cabs and appliances to the hardwoods and countertops.  It was so much fun watching it all come together!

Something borrowed:  Tony and I searched high and low for a new faucet that we loved, but we kept coming back to this one. Look familiar?

You may recall that we updated a lot of our kitchen in Durham before we moved, and that included the kitchen faucet.

Well, no matter how hard we tried, we couldn't find another faucet that we liked as much as this one...not to mention we know it works well (even if we only got to use it for ten months). So we bought it in AGAIN in a slightly different model!

Something blue: Huh.  This is a tough one.  We don't have much that's blue, except my cobalt blue Kitchen Aid mixer that we got for our wedding back in '02.  It's not new, but it's home in our new kitchen is!  Check it out:

It has it's own shelf that's on hydraulics, so it easily comes out when I need it and easily tucks away when I don't. So wonderful!

Something green: "Something green?" you ask?  Well, from weddings to kitchens...and everything in between, everyone seems to want to "go green" these days...and we were no exception.  We searched high and low for green options for our reno, but things like poured glass countertops and faux-wood ceramic tiles were just a bit out of our price range (too bad because they're all awesome!).  One thing did catch our eye, though, and that was how local tile company Rookwood has, after many years of dormancy, begun to make tile again! This was very appealing because, when we were house hunting a year and a half ago, any home with Rookwood in it advertised this fact because the tile is very desirable. It's understandable, too, since it's handmade in Cincinnati. Well, the factory started producing made-to-order tile again recently, and we couldn't resist looking at the options.

        

       

Their work is like art and can be seen all over Cincinnati, and the opportunity to get in on this piece of history was just too attractive to pass up...so here's our kitchen's green feature: locally made backsplash tile!

We wanted something beautiful that wasn't too colorful or trendy, so we chose their "snowflake" tile, which is white, but has a crackle finish.  Since they're handmade, some tiles are a little more off-white/tan than others; the variations are so pretty!

Each Rookwood client gets a signature tile with their cool tree logo on it. Can you see the crackle?

Oh, and here's the herringbone pattern we chose for oven our cooktop! The tiles are a "pebble" color that goes with our Backsplash paint.  Just a little additional eye candy for our new favorite room.

So that's our new kitchen--the old, the new and everything in between. Come by and see it...we love to give tours!