Kitchen Reveal
It’s time for the great Kitchen Reveal 🙂 To be honest I’ve been waiting for it all to be ‘perfect and complete’ but as it’s still not I believe you’ve all patiently waited long enough. When I recall what my kitchen was and gaze upon what it is now, well it’s just too incredible for words. Some days I just stand looking and smiling, then become inspired and become creative trying new recipes, it has that effect on me much to my family’s pleasure.
Let’s take a tour around the room. All cupboards under the benchtop are drawers (except for below the sink). There are three drawers on two sides which house cutlery, crockery, glass jars etc. On the third side are two deeper drawers for appliances, pots and pans and bakeware.
For the doors and panels we choose Laminex Lamiwood in White Gloss, we debated a two pack coating but decided with small children fingermarks would be forever visible. Our drawers and doors all have soft close hinges and we love them! Recently we went away on holidays and after hearing the children bang kitchen cupboard doors closed all week I’m soo grateful we have soft closing hinges. Our drawers are Harn Triomax’s soft close drawer system and door hinges from Harn too, really impressed with these. Door/drawer handles are Momo Caserta Contemporary Bow handles in brushed nickel and the laminated kickboards have been coated in Brushed Aluminium.
Whilst a stone benchtop would have been wonderful our budget dictated a Laminex Benchtop. We choose Diamond Gloss Kashmir Granite with an Acrylic Edge and I love it!
The two anomalies on this bench are Pop Up Power Points, you can see in the foreground how the pop up looks when pulled up, each has three power points and at the base are two usb portals. When not in use you simply push down with just the brushed nickel top visible.
We decided upon two ovens rather than purchasing another 900mm oven as we’ve discovered heating up a huge oven is often not necessary nor economical. After lots of research we decided on two Westinghouse WVE613S and are very happy with them. We use the left oven for baking and the right oven for dinners. The narrow cupboards to either side of the ovens house cutting boards and baking trays. The corner pantry is huge, floor to ceiling shelving and double the size of our previous pantry. For now we aren’t purchasing a new fridge and freezer but when these ‘reach the end of their life’ they’ll be replaced with stainless steel appliances.
Just ignore the paint, I have been experimenting with colours whilst trying to decide upon the colour for our glass splashback, obviously this colour is a ‘no go’ and since receiving the quote for glass, horror! we’ll be installing tiles after all, not my first choice but I’m at peace with that decision.
To share a few ‘extras’ that make my heart sing; our benchtop in the foreground is 1000mm wide!:-) We call this our servery bench and often use this as a ‘bistro bar’ at meal times, it’s a huge space to prepare meals at and has plenty of overhang for bar stools to gather under.
Under the stainless steel lid in the foreground is our compost bin, I love it!! I so wanted unsightly food scraps out of sight and insisted there had to be a solution, which there was! Once full the bin is simply lifted out, emptied, cleaned and returned.
Our sink tapware is a spray mixer, it pulls out and can be changed to a spray stream. Whilst we could have purchased some incredible spray mixers for $1000!! we settled on one much cheaper, a Mondella Cadenza Curvy Chic and are reasonably happy. To be honest I would have liked a stronger spray but the lack of is more thanks to tank water pressure not the hardware.
Our sink is an Oliveri Nu-Petite Single Bowl and I love the extra depth of the sink, at a 30L capacity it is a great size for our extra large pots. Tip: Check appliance prices online and your local stores will generally match prices. Whilst I love the depth of our sink I confess to being a bit disappointed as to the draining size, it’s on the rather tight size, we only just manage to fit our drying rack on it, though perhaps I’m used to the older style sinks. Our regular and recycled bins sit under the sink.
Looking behind the sink you can see we’ve taken the benchtop flush up to the window runners, a rather tricky design and installation feat but one we’re extremely happy with.
The window and screen opens to become a servery window, think parties on the deck below, a bench running along, food going out, dirty dishes coming in. Having a servery window was rather important to us and we looked at a few options; a gas strut window, beautiful but expensive and what about screens, flies and mosquitoes are an issue in this region. A bi-fold window is also expensive and the screen equally so. After discussing the matter with our glazier we realised all windows in our home already open in the center, our only issue was the screen, we were assured for only an extra $80 a track and screens could be made to meet in the middle and slide open. Huge win, we have our servery window for those future parties.
As well as the drawers and pantry, we also have overhead cupboards and a broom cupboard on the end, so much space 🙂 What isn’t visible are our corner cupboards. We were determined to not have any wasted space so our solution was that the corner cupboards don’t open into the kitchen. The cupboard in the foreground to the extreme left opens into the dining room and houses lesser used items, the corner cupboard just under the red mix master opens to the outside and houses BBQ and picnic items, we’re rather happy with this solution.
So all our hard work on the kitchen is finally complete and leaves us with an incredibly inviting space, welcoming us in to create and spend time together.
#Sharing over at the Builder’s Wife with this week’s Home Improvement Thursday
25 Comments
Lisa
Hi Erin, Your kitchen is set out very similarly to mine; I even have the cupboard on the other side where the dining table is! My metal compost bin sits under the sink … yours is way cooler and easier to use I bet too. I sadly have cupboards and only a couple of drawers, and would do what you’ve done next time … loads of drawers, they are so much easier to use. I love the pop up points, that’s so clever. Using two ovens is genius too! You have given me some great ideas for my next house. Congrats on your kitchen … looks like it’s been worth the wait.
Erin
Lisa
How amazing that our layout is so similar! Our bins sit under the sink (forgot to mention that), the compost bucket is very easy to use and to remove. If you were doing a remodel you could easily keep your carcases and just install drawers, I agree they are so easy to use. Everyone loves the pop up powerpoints, it just feel so modern 😉 I confess two ovens originally was my friend’s idea in her kitchen, when our large oven died and our electricity bill reduced by $300 I was convinced two ovens would be the way to go.
It certainly has been worthwhile waiting 🙂
Marijke Van der Vlist
Woohoo! Fantastic Erin!
Erin
Thanks Marijke, you’re welcome for a visit anytime to see in person 🙂
Cassie W
Love it! I love all the counter space and all the open walls and windows. Plus you still have plenty of storage. Well done! Enjoy it!!
Erin
Cassie
I can’t decided what I love best, the bench space or the openness and light. Love my storage space, still have a little organising to do there.
Thanks 🙂
Maxabella
The difference between this beautiful space and your old kitchen is just amazing. You must be the happiest cook in town. You deserve this so much, Erin. x
Erin
Bron
Hugely amazing, as you’ve seen the old in person you really appreciate just how different. Very happy, thanks I believe my patience has paid off 🙂
Karen
It looks wonderful Erin! So much bench space, floor space and cupboard space! Many clever design features too. Is it next to your dining space?
Erin
Karen
Thanks 🙂 You’re most welcome to come out anytime to see in person. Yes so much of everything wonderful with lots of extras. Yes next to the dining space, remember how we were going to move the location? In the end we’ve kept to the same space the old kitchen was.
Bec
Well done, you must be so excited finally done. Hooray, don’t you just love building…It is fun to create but gets tiring to complete. Your family has done so well. As builders we know how hard and expensive and stressful it can be, so you have all done such a beautiful job and worked well to get to where you are. Also to add that you have been working with an old farm house so good job, hard to get things level and straight sometimes in that situation. Great work Hassetts!
Erin
Bec
We are rather stunned that it’s finally done. Glad to know we’re not the only ones who struggle to complete. Aw thanks for the words of encouragement xx. Oh yes working with old always contains such ‘surprises’ 😉 Thank you 🙂 Do come for a visit
Angela
It looks great! I like your servery window; that’s a great idea. Plus the two big windows make the room so light and airy.
I know I have dropped the ball as far as the kitchen reveal goes. But our kitchen is still not even as finished as yours yet! We won’t have a floor until December probably… almost a year after we ripped everything out. And the kitchen is in such hard use all the time, it never seems to be clean enough to get pictures! Unfortunately my cleaning and organizing skills were not also remodeled!
Erin
Angela
Glad you like the servery window, any chance you can use the idea for your kitchen? The windows make a huge difference!
Oh now how trying for you {{}} So no progress at all since your last reveal? To make you feel better I’ll disclose the kitchen was cleaned for photos 😉 I’m also working on cleaning habits, with a new kitchen it appears I’ve run out of reasons to not keep it that way. Encouraging you as you work with the imperfect and praying progress begins again soon {{}}
Nicole @ The Builder's Wife
Erin, it looks FANTASTIC!!! How wonderful that it is all done finally and you can relax and really enjoy your family friendly space. I am in awe of your families many talents to bring this space together. Servery windows add so mush to a space, love them!! Really like your bench top also. We installed a laminate bench top in our laundry and are super happy with it. Thank you for sharing xxx
Erin
Nicole
Thank you 🙂 🙂
It is such a relief to have it done, it was certainly a few intense months of with all focus on the kitchen. Aww I’m really, really touched at your words, particularly coming from yourself with your and your husband’s own talents, thank you xx
Looking forward to cleaning up all the building materials on the deck so we can have a party and put those windows to use. I’m rather happy with the bench top too, it looks like it might be stone 😉 and I do actually like the feel of it.
Peta
oh wow I love your idea to get two ovens instead of a huge oven! I will keep this in mind when we hopefully get our own house built in the future.
Erin
Hi Peta,
Really recommend two ovens, we’re saving a bundle on electricity this way! When our 900 oven first died our electricity bill went down by $300 a quarter! Also we can have the roast cooking at a lower temp and the potatoes higher etc
How’s life with a new baby?
Peta
It’s such a brilliant idea! Baby Willow is going well thanks 🙂 And life is as busy as anything!
Jessica
It looks beautiful! So happy for you, Erin!
Erin
Oh thanks Jessica 🙂 🙂
Katherine
Erin, this looks so lovely. Congratulations to all of you on such a huge project. Just making toast must be a thrill in there!
Erin
Katherine
Oh thanks 🙂 Everything is a thrill, even washing up 😉
Amanda
Just wondering how you fitted your bench up to your window. We have this in our house but the bench is flush against the sill and it’s ugly.
How wide is your bench from the window?
Erin
Amanda
This particular part took alot of agonising and asking questions, to be honest the window shops weren’t too helpful in visualising the look we wanted and couldn’t help in how to do it.
PC was determined to make it work and eventually worked out how to do it.
The bench was cut to go past the wall and into the window ‘alcove’ to cover the reveal/sill, the bench is flush to the window. All you can see is the track itself that the window slides within.
Not only making the bench a little deeper for that section but when he put the window in he didn’t place it solidly in place initially, he left it a little lose so we could move it up and down, to adjust to the correct height.
So bench went in, then window was wiggled down into place, tense, precise moments, and then screwed into place. It also involved filing off of mm’s of the aluminum parts of the sliding parts of the window.
If you send me your email, I can send you close up pics
aussiethreads@gmail.com