Project Hidden Star Reveal

We have a really exciting new reveal to share today! This project was finishing up during the intense Covid shutdown last spring. They were so close to finishing; everything was done except for appliances and door locks. After months of eating out, I'm sure you can imagine how anxious these homeowners were to have their kitchen back. Anyone would be anxious even in the most normal of times, but knowing you are heading into a time where you couldn't go out to eat and it wasn't clear how well grocery stores were going to stay stocked, would be downright frightening to say the least.

Luckily, the contractor on this project is ever the hero, and made sure that everything was in working order before shutdown. Whew! Thank you Struction Contracting!!! I can't say enough good things about this company. If you haven't checked them out yet, take a look here: https://www.structioncontracting.com/. Brad is just an all around great guy!

Enough about that - let's get on with the project details. Let's start with the before photos.

This kitchen actually had good bones. It was large with lots of storage. The knotty alder cabinets and brown counters were a little too cabin-y for this family, though. Also, the work-triangle was pretty crowded, making it hard for multiple people to be working in the kitchen at the same time. We started by demo-ing everything out, including the pantry walls (yes, we got rid of the walk-in pantry - gasp!). The layout needed to include different zones for cooking, so we rearranged a bit. We moved the cooktop to the opposite side of the sink to give some breathing room to the clean-up zone.

We built so much functional storage into this kitchen. Drawers around the cooktop instead of cabinet doors give so much more usable space, and we added a huge pantry cabinet with roll-outs around the corner (you didn't really think we'd get rid of a pantry all-together, now did you?). My favorite storage solution has to be this coffee bar:

Now you see it, now you don't! How gorgeous is that with the white oak interior and tiled splash!

Speaking of backsplashes, the real star of this kitchen is the black porcelain slab backsplash (try saying that three times fast). The homeowner's and I went back and forth for a long time on whether we should play it safe with a white backsplash or go with the dark one. In the end, the homeowners went for it with the dark, and it was worth the risk! This material (solid porcelain) is my new favorite; completely non-porous with no grout lines. Its seriously the lowest maintenance backsplash EVER!

I could go on and on with other special details on this project, but I think the pictures speak for themselves!