a2gemini: Our granite is juparana oro. The backsplash tile you see there is an inexpensive 4x4 porcelain tile. Sorry I don't remember the name but we got it at Lowes a few months ago, it is made in Italy and was $0.33/tile. It was on the shelves by all the tumbled marbled stuff that I think it's supposed to mimic. We mixed it with a tumbled marble noce pencil tile throughout: And with a few handmade tiles behind the range: Good luck with your remodel!

That is the prettiest backsplash I have ever seen. I love: - the surprise sparkly squares - the color flow between the backsplash and the granite - the large amount of bright white in the backsplash and granite, with a minimum of grey (I like silver/gold, but not grey tones) - how the cabinet stain seems to match a hue in the mosaic backsplash... PERFECTLY! As though the cabinet stain was designed for that mosaic or vice-versa. Wow. Also quite clever is that curve-around feature on the peninsula. That looks very fun and very practical. Questions: Do you do cartwheels into this kitchen every morning from sheer glee? Did you put brackets under the granite curved out part? What chairs did you settle on ? Thanks to the person who linked to this thread from a posting today!

I'm very sorry to hear of the loss of your DH. If I was doing a kitchen like yours, I would take a good look at this sink by American Standard. Country Kitchen Sink at Home Depot It's lovely. In fact, I'd love to stick it in my own kitchen now. : ) I would avoid a refurbed sink for concerns of the finish not holding up. I had what I'm assuming was a 50's era porcelain on metal sink (not refinished), and while it had a cute style and I loved the integrated drainboard, the finish was worn out in the bottom of the bowl. It almost always looked dirty since the shine was mostly gone and stuff seemed to seep into the finish. We put a few chips in it accidentally dropping things on it or bumping it with pots and pans, too. I too have heard of refinished tubs not holding up, and we use our sinks a lot harder than we use our tub.

My grandmothers kitchen always seemed so tiny to me, it was a galley style and you literally could not pass through to the utility room if she was in there cooking. Imagine my surprise when I learned that she ACTUALLY remodeled the space to be that way on purpose!! We are talking about people born in the late teens, early 20s so of course, the woman did all the cooking and cleaning and for her, it was an efficient use of space. We couldn't help in the kitchen, even when we wanted to because there was simply no room. The best we could do was to be her runners, taking food from the kitchen to the dining room. My kitchen, by Houzz standards is probably small to medium-ish. In real world standards, I have a massive kitchen! It is difficult to quantify my kitchen in terms of size, space etc because I have two definite zones that are VERY clear. I have the work zone, which contains my main clean up sink, double ovens, range and fridge in a 12x12 area. Then I have what I refer to as my auxillary zone, where I have my microwave, coffee makers, wet bar, island for breakfast/casual dining, China hutch and access to my large walk in pantry and that area is 12x15. So all together, not counting the adjacent dining room, my "kitchen" is 324 sq ft. 378 if I include the pantry. I remember when we started planning our remodel almost 2 years ago that my husband couldn't believe I wanted to go through all the effort, hassle, and expense of adding on to the back of the house "just" to put a 12x12 kitchen on an already 3000 sq ft home. He initially was convinced that if we were going to go through the trouble, we should make it larger and grander. I had to explain (several times) that that WAS the size I wanted and that it would work perfectly for my needs and cooking style. At 12x12, I have ample prep space on 3 countertops. I am no more than 2-4 steps from my fridge, sink, stove, trash and ovens. Perhaps most importantly for me though was that I made my work area of the kitchen a strict work area. There is NO traffic through there, no one getting in the way while I'm cooking, no one coming in to get a drink, wash hands, etc. All of that is done through the auxillary zone, which is part of the original kitchen on the house.