Hi again! I asked you a question months ago, and I could never find this post again! Well, I just found it and reactivated my account. Thanks for replying. I am going to use a lot of your tips (when/if we ever get started on this!

I must say, while trying to find this again, I have looked at a lot of kitchens, and yours is still my favorite. :

Thanks again for all the lovely comments on our remodel. Lakelco, that is a great detail you caught about our fridge. If you notice in the before pic, we had a side by side fridge and I did in fact have difficulty getting larger items in and out and getting the drawers out for cleaning. It could be done, but it took some definite maneuvering, lol. That's why we went with the french door fridge when we bought the stainless appliances. No problems now since we have 2 doors for the fridge up top and the freezer down below. Much better!

Hi,

I love your kitchen! I'm thinking of doing the same layout. Do you have any trouble opening the right fridge door right up against the wall? Can you remove the drawers for cleaning?

Great job on this kitchen remodel!! And the amount spent for such a dramatic change is absolutely amazing. Congratulations on a job well done!

I just wanted to say you did an absolutely beautiful job! The difference is amazing! It is so much more cheerful now. I love the way the gray colored counters look with the white cabinets. We have white cabinets and I don't want a dark counter but I want some contrast. Gray could be a good option. Thank you so much for posting this and congratulations on your gorgeous kitchen!

ShellSTL: continued -
4. We built onto our existing island ourselves in order to cut costs. My husband built the cabinet addition and we added beadboard, trim, table legs and apron, and the Ikea countertop. The Ikea top we purchased in 3 sections (2 large and 1 small and it came to just over $500 total for the wood tops. It's unfortunate there's no Ikea in your area. I've heard many people say Lumber Liquidators is a place to check out if there's one in your area. Not sure how they compare price-wise to Ikea, though. Hope that helps answer your questions:

Hi ShellSTL: 1. We purchased the chandelier on Overstock.com for $130. We weren't sure about buying one on-line sight unseen, but we're really happy with it & the price;

2&3. We removed all the cabinet doors and sprayed them out in the garage. In order to spray the base cabinets & the bulkhead that we'd built, we decided to plastic off & paper that part of the kitchen. A lot of prep work, but we really liked the look of spraying them & the actual spraying part went really fast. We closed off that section of kitchen in plastic - basically a wall of plastic taped to the ceiling that runs from the ceiling to the floor - & covered the ceiling, floor, and window with paper. The island was outside the wall of plastic since it had already been completed at that point. The appliances were moved outside. The island is the only thing we painted the more "stark white" shade of Linen. The perimeter cabs/doors/bulkhead/backsplash beadboard are in the slightly warmer shade we had mixed...

Thanks!
klindseth: Are kitchen is 17 feet 6 inches x 15 feet. The kitchen island is very large (lol at 101" long by 68" wide, but our kitchen opens up to our great room and since we went from dark cabinets to a much lighter off-white and built the bulkhead so the cabinets appeared to go all the way to the ceiling, we thought we could "get away" with a large island in the space without it becoming too much of a focal point to the exclusion of everything else. The main thing we made sure of was that the walkway space around it was up to code, which in our area was at least 36". We actually came in at 41, 42, and 44 inches. Hope that answers your questions and helps with your decision-making:

Hi! I really like your kitchen. I think this has been the kitchen in my head for years. I have a few questions, and I think there may be more, but I will start with a few. :
1. Where did you buy the chandelier and the cost?
2. When you mixed the whites , when painting just the bulkhead, did you use the mixture or just the stark white?
3. When spraying the cabinets, I understand spraying the doors, but how did you spray the base cabinets, or did you brush paint those?
4. I really like the island a lot and have always wanted a wood island. We have two issues, we have a 24 ft. butterfly island and it is difficult to get someting to custom fit that. The cheapest I found is at the home depot for around $2,000. I could remove the entire island and get something to fit the Ikea top, but there is not an Ikea in St. Louis anyway. How much was the wood top?
Thanks for all your input. Your kitchen looks Fab! Thanks for sharing!

Beautiful kitchen! If you don't mind me asking, what are the dimensions of your kitchen area and the island? We are wanting to put in an island eating area in our kitchen, and I really like the size of yours. Just wondering if a similar one would fit in our space! Thank you, and, again, great job!