One Room Challenge: Week Two

It's week two of the One Room Challenge! If I had a subtitle for this post, it would be Demolition, Decisions and Disappointments.  If you're tuning in for the first time, here's last week's post on my chosen room, our soon-to-be new kitchen.

This week we made tremendous progress in the kitchen. The back splashes are all gone, the counter tops too. Then some quick decisions were made. Lauren found these great looking pulls and handles (image above) and now I just need to decide if I'm really going to go for the brass, so to speak. I chose paint colors for the cabinets (between Benjamin Moore White and Benjamin Moore Dove White) and decided to go with gold old white. And then for the walls, we went with my favorite, Farrow and Ball Elephant's Breath, diluted with white by 50%.

Not much to see here, not yet...
But, in addition to the demo, and contemplating hardware, there were some harder decisions to be made, particularly choosing the marble counter top slabs. By harder I mean expensive, because expensive = stressful... if I choose this wrong, that's an expensive mistake.  I saw several photos from several stone distributors, but even when they held up pure white thassos, like I had them do below, it was still too hard to get a true idea...and I didn't want to make such a big decision based on a photo. So, Lauren and I decided to hit the road in order to see these slabs in person.

And, then of course the slab I fell in love with, the one that looked the most like my current white Calcutta Gold was scooped up by another designer.  This is the one we went with, it's a Statuario Altisimo and it's not a bad runner up. It's a lot softer than what I originally had in mind, but it's a true white, and I'm having it honed. Because of the length of time involved getting this shipped (we went up to New Haven, CT) and then templated, cut, and honed, etc. I didn't want to wait around for "the perfect" slab. Not when this one looked this good!

Lauren had the fabulous idea to miter the marble counter top edges, in order to give the counter tops a much thicker, substantial look. I fell instantly in love with this, but then we ran into the issue of how to deal with my "wish listed" farm house sink opening.  After some contemplating, I decided to abandon my beloved sink, and stick with the large stainless steel sink that came with the kitchen and has an easier to deal with under mount installation.

So between losing the sink and the original marble I wanted I was a little bummed, but not for long. 

Next, Lauren and I met up at Greenwich Tile, where I literally fell in love with everything (see below, it's just pretty tile, nothing to do with my kitchen or even my house) including the owner, Zita! Zita made my day when she told me she reads The Zhush! Hi Zita!

Lauren convinced me to move on from the plain white (safe) subway tile of my current kitchen and mix things up a bit with some painted white glass tiles in a chevron pattern (above). I'm really excited about this stunning new detail!

I'm thrilled with the direction the kitchen is going in...and the whole "new house" project in general-to see the progress in all the other rooms, be sure to follow my instagram account @zhush.

That's it for this week! Here's a recap of my wish list, tweaked into a "to do" list.

1. Replace center island lights with current kitchen lights.

2. Black granite counter tops are going. I love the look of our white marble counters, I'm hoping to find something just as nice.

3. Speaking of white, my preference for kitchens is always all white, just like our current kitchen. I know from past experiences (here and here) that these yellowish/cream cabinets will look amazing once they are re-painted all white. *Paint color chosen!
a. The same holds true for that dark center island-painting it white.
b. And losing the heavy look of those center island "legs".

4. That backsplash is going too.

5. There are currently two fridges in this kitchen-actually one is a giant freezer and one is a fridge. I love the industrial look that stainless steel brings to a kitchen, so I'm hoping to switch out those doors for stainless steel ones.

6. Stain floors a deep dark brown.


7. I would love to have a farm house sink just like our current one. Hoping to make this happen. * not happening.

8. Expand the little built in garbage to two pails instead of one. Move the second dishwasher from the butler's pantry to the kitchen.


9. Painting the walls a complimentary color. Probably a pale greige/gray. *Paint color chosen!

10. Change the hardware...thinking unlacquered brass.

11. Change the glass cabinet doors to look a bit more modern.

12. Replace"breakfast" area light fixture with our current fixture.

13. And, finally, I'm hoping to add a "hot water" faucet. 

Hoping to knock a few more things off this list by next week. In the meantime, check out what all the other "ORC" ladies are up to!

Abby M. Interiors             

Because It’s Awesome

Bijou & Boheme

Chinoiserie Chic

The Decorista

Design Chic

The Design Daredevil

Design Darling

Design Indulgence

Design Manifest

House of Turquoise

Jana Bek Design

Jill Sorensen

Maddie G. Designs

Mimosa Lane

A Piece of Toast 

The Pink Pagoda

Stone Textile

Waiting on Martha

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