Making Over A Beloved Small Kitchen

Your kitchen doesn't have to be enormous to be beautiful.  Just look at this jewel!  I had the opportunity this year (well, honestly, we have been talking about it for a couple of years!) to consult on this pretty makeover for a friend's mother in Delaware.  I wish I could be there to see it all finished and hope to add even more photos to this post as I receive them.

Before

Before

This homeowner has lived in her lovely home for many, many years and raised a large family in this beloved kitchen, but it was overdue for a facelift.  She wanted to use the same footprint that she had as the layout  was nice, but all the surfaces needed updating.  Keeping a close watch on the budget, we decided to use the existing cabinets, but to replace the doors, and to paint the frames.  What a pretty, cost-effective way to approach a remodeling project!

 Right hand side of kitchen

(Note the pretty molding added to the side of the cabinets.)

We chose a bolder shade of the wall color for the backdoor, just for a little pop of color.

Adjacent eating area.

(Note the companion lighting to the kitchen sink pendant.)

Beautiful gray floor tile, black granite countertops, and white bevel edged subway tiles for backsplash.

What a beauty!  Definitely worth the wait.

Stunning Tiny Powder Room

You don't always have to break the bank to create a stunning room....especially if the room is tiny.  My client had a tiny powder room that she just didn't like.  It was a simple room, but very small, and the door had originally been hung the opposite way that we thought it should be installed.  The other big problems were dim lighting and some seriously disturbing red monkey wallpaper.  But the floor tile and toilet were just fine, so we left those intact.

We found some really fantastic lighting and mounted sconces on each side of the sink, replaced the oval mirror with a lovely mirror framed in mosaic tiles, and replaced the pedestal sink with an open vanity with a dramatic vessel sink.  My client ordered the vanity herself from Lowe's.  What a find it is!  The waterfall faucet is a perfect touch, and that idea came from my client's teenage daughter who has quite the eye for design.

This project was a fun collaboration with really lovely results.

After

Before.  Wow.

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Modern Dining Room With A Craftsman Twist

What a lovely space.  This dining room had spectacular views and now it has spectacular lighting and storage.  It is almost cantilevered over a family room downstairs, and perhaps the following photos will make that more clear.

Here you can see the staircase going downstairs and the stone fireplace in the family room.

When I first saw this room, it was off-white with lovely views and terrible track lighting.  Really, truly awful track lighting.  The refrigerator was only temporarily in this space as we were also remodeling the kitchen.  But this stunning wood ceiling was breathtaking, and we needed a way to make it the focal point of the space.  Great lighting seemed to be the answer.

I took this photo the day that the new built-in sideboards were installed.  We later added LED lighting inside the sideboards and granite tops.

The granite was incredibly heavy and the pieces were very tricky to fit.

You will notice here that the new wood floors had not yet been sanded and finished.  That is another chapter!

The homeowner chose this very dramatic flagstone in the adjacent foyer.  Notice the white painted wood doors and trim in this photo.

I found these Craftsman style wood doors to replace them and ordered them locally.  The homeowner was just not thrilled over the white doors.  She was right.

I don't have a photo of these doors completely finished, but you can see what an improvement they made.

I knew that the homeowner, who still lived out of state, had a gorgeous painting and ordered these sconces to go on either side of it.  I felt that we really needed to uplight that amazing wood ceiling, and this was certainly going to help.

My lighting consultants at Cline Holder in Elizabethton, TN helped me choose this stunning fixture to replace the track lighting and help light the table and the ceiling.

I love this fixture.  It really completes the space.

Again, I do not have completed foyer photos, but here you can see the bowl light fixture that we added to replace the track light in the foyer.  This is the view of the dining room as you enter the front door.

Here is a view from the staircase to the upstairs bedrooms.  It feels like you are in a beautifully furnished tree house.

It took a hardworking team a few months to complete, but it certainly is a lovely room that will be enjoyed for years to come.

Dramatic Modern Kitchen

I love this kitchen.  It is spacious, dramatic, highly functional, and has gorgeous mountain views.  I had a wonderful time working with the amazing people who pulled this all together.  Our contractor L.B. Greene and Sons worked for months installing wiring, plumbing, flooring, and lighting for us.  The cabinets were built by George Lamons and his team, and were drawn by Donna Snover of Design Phase.  The inspirations for this design were the stunning high wood ceilings and beams and the beautiful piece of Alaskan White granite that the homeowner chose for the island.

This photo was taken before island lighting was installed.

Still waiting for the refrigerator and a little wiring to be finished here.

Here you can see our lighting challenge.  We had skylights, beams, a wood ceiling that we really could not disturb, and three dreadful track lights from the 1980's.

Here is our crack lighting team trying to figure out how on earth this complicated dropped track system with LED pendants and floods goes together.  You really do not want to know any of the details of this installation!  It was quite the hurdle, but it looks amazing now.

This is a great shot of Mom and Dad's command center area for laptops and running the household.  There is a printer pullout to the left of the knee space and doors behind the knee space to hide all the electrical cord and cables.  Take a look at that gorgeous green glass tile backsplash.  You'll notice here as well that we used the granite countertops only on the island, and instead used quartz countertops around the perimeter of the kitchen for a less busy look.

The pretty brackets under the island were such a nice finishing detail.

 During construction.

I love the day the cabinets arrive.  So exciting!  You can see our paint color dilemma on the rear wall.

I think this lovely kitchen was worth all the hard work.

I don't have a before photo of this kitchen, but it had white laminate cabinets just like these in the adjoining laundry room.  We decided to keep them in this room and replace the countertops, backsplash, sink, ceramic tile floor, and lighting.

Laundry will not be as much a chore in this pretty room!

Luxurious Modern Master Bath

I had the opportunity in the last few months to be the project manager on this stunning master bath remodeling project.  The last remodel was poorly executed and a little disappointing for the new homeowners given the beauty of the bare bones of the space.  The cabinet plan was drawn by Donna Snover of Design Phase, who listened very carefully to my ideas and the ideas of the homeowner and came up with this lovely vanity layout.  I asked our cabinet maker George Lamons to use walnut for this project as I wanted the drama of the dark cabinetry against the chocolate floor tile.  I choose a gorgeous marble called Creama Marfil with a high polish for the countertops and 9" backsplash.

My homeowner had not yet moved to Johnson City and was forced to approve my choices on her phone from this photo.  I think there was a lot of deep breathing involved.

Before

During the tear out.

After

Before....doesn't look too bad here, but you should have seen it in person.

During.....JD Shelton.  What an artist!

During

Close up of the crackled glass tile that we used.

Pretty new sconce for light.

So lovely in person.

Mom's retreat.  

Look how beautifully the light comes through the glass shelves and hit the polished nickel faucet.  Ahh.....

I love the rectangular sinks in this vanity.  Perfect with the design.

Beautiful execution by a great team of people.