Kitchen Stuff - Decisions Being Made

Hello again!

I met with my kitchen designer yesterday to discuss the cabinets.  I am working with a company called The Jae Company.  My designer Robin has given her permission for me to discuss them in my blog.  The designer had my kitchen design in a computer program which she was able to share with me as we discussed.  I had given her my general "likes" from the samples she showed me, and she got measurements and pictures from my contractor.  I will be working with Paul from Handyman Matters.  I will buy the cabinets and countertop directly from Jae, and then Paul and his people will do the installation.

For the most part, I am asking that the basic footprint remain the same, but we are going to have to tweak some of the cabinet sizes just a little to make things fit the way I want them to.  Since I am keeping the same fridge and stove, it is handy to just measure around them.  Also, the current flooring in the kitchen is laminate, and then the dining room is carpet, so the line where the carpet starts has to be respected.

One thing that I wanted which I am not going to get is upper windows in my cabinets.  Take a look at this photo from the internet:

The feature of the lighted windows at the top of the cabinet doors is very common in this Craftman style design.  So this was something I asked for.  However, it can't happen in my situation because I have a 12" soffit above my cabinets. That means that my cabinet doors are only 30", and the cabinet company doesn't make 30" doors with upper windows like that.  It is affected by the other part of my design - the center verticle piece, seen here:

Notice in this example below that the cabinet doors are taller.  Probably 42". But because we have the 12" soffit, that won't work.

My idea was to have stained glass in the windows - some sort of Frank Lloyd Wright design - with lights inside that can be dimmed.  They would provide a nice ambiance in the kitchen.  Since that can't really happen the way I want it to, we are going to see about putting the stained glass panels in the doors above the stove hood.  I can have a total glass panel in the door, and since the cabinet above the stove is small (about 12") that should work.  There seems to be a lot of Wright glass design available.   Here are some examples that I found by browsing online:

Kitchen Designer Robin says it will not be a problem to work with glass people to have glass inserts made to fit in the doors.  I didn't want my main cabinet doors to be all glass because I really don't want to be able to see the stuff IN the cabinets, but I'm willing to do that with the small doors above the stove.  We'll see...

The next topic was countertop.  As I was wandering around the showroom at Jae, I noticed that they actually have an entire kitchen laid out with my first choice of counter top - Silestone Quasar.  Here is a photo I took that shows a much larger section than the little square I brought home with me:

The cabinet door in this photo shows the fawn color I've chosen, but not the design.  Seeing the larger layout helped confirm this choice of counter for me.  I'm still not thrilled with the choice of Silestone being made in China, but Cambria doesn't really have anything close to this.  

The next thing I have to pick out is my sink.  Robin has recommended quartz composite undermount, so I'm going to look into those options.  There are lots of options available.  I will try to pick a light color that goes with the counter and backsplash - probably something off-white/beige, but I don't want it to look dirty.   Here are some examples:

Once I get the sink selected, I will work on the faucet fixture choices.  

The process of installation is going to be sort of complex because of my choice of a quartz countertop.  The countertop people have to have the cabinets installed before they will measure for the counter.  Then the process of getting that made will drag out to 2-3 weeks.  Paul has agreed to put a temporary plywood counter, and (probably) my current sink in temporarily so we are not totally without that part of the kitchen for that long.  

As of right now, I'm planning for all this to happen in July, so I will need to finalize the cabinet choice in May so those can be ordered.  Also, the sink needs to be here when the quartz people come to measure so they can take the sink with them and under-mount it.  Once that is installed, then Paul's people will do the backsplash, which you can also see in the counter picture above.  That will probably come from Jae as well.  

Still lots to decide, but progress is being made which is exciting for me!  I will keep you posted!

Thanks for reading, and come back again soon!

:)Amy