Tracey, it looks fantastic! I have seen various pix over the months and didn't realise you hadn't done a full "reveal". Amazing, isn't it, how the small details can make us feel like it's DONE.

I am sure you have been enjoying your kitchen!

Eliz

Beautiful!!!
I especially love that floor!!

It may be "tiny" but it is very well done! My cabinets are Kraftmaid too (similiar style door) and they went in yesterday. Love the backsplash and granite! Congratulations!

I haven't been here for a while until recently, so this is my first view of your kitchen. Lovely! AND you get to live in NY; what a bonus!

I love the layout and how you made one side one long run. Great prep space :-) Everything looks great! Enjoy!

I absolutely love your cabinets! I'm a sucker for the colors you used, so well done. It really doesn't look as small as you make it seem. Looks very warm, inviting, and functional as an added bonus. Enjoy!!

Amazing! I love the potfiller--I mean sink--next to the stove. I can see putting a cutting board over it to make extra counterspace when needed, and that whole clear counter opposite makes the kitchen seem so much bigger. Love the window too.

Great job! Love the combo of dark counters with the cabinet color. As others have said, how nice to have all that uninterrupted counter space. Enjoy!!!

Absolutely beautiful. You really made a small space look very elegant. It was meant to be that it took that long...since you had such a good outcome. Many of us take years to complete projects, so you are not alone. :-)

Hey there! And, of course some of your original GW buddies are still hanging around these parts. It just wouldn't have been right to leave until we saw Charlikin's finally finished, really completed NYC galley kitchen!

By all means, I'm totally loving your kitchen. You have maxed that 70 sf footprint to perfection! All your colors and finishes are wonderfully coordinated --especially that maple ginger glaze on the cabs with that great backsplash. What a long way you've come in creating this great little kitchen! I can still remember the day we had brunch with the NYC GW TKOS and afterwards walked up Broadway to Quintessential sharing our angst over how to pull off our respective renos. You hadn't even chosen your cabs yet at that point -- which is why you were going to Quintessential; I was going there to check out appliances and cab pulls. And now here we are -- two years later. Your kitchen is finally finished, complete with wall paint and a window treatment. Looking good! Meanwhile, I'm still creeping along at a snail's pace towards the "really finished" finish line. LOL!

Congratulations, my friend. You have really done a wonderful job with your kitchen! No doubt it will be an inspiration to others who have similar space challenges but want nothing less than a classy, sassy, little galley kitchen that really functions. You go!

Lovely kitchen!!! When did the NYC GW brunch happen? I missed it! When is the next one?

Nice job! So what color is it? (I am in the starting phase and I just put 5 squares of green paint from samples on my walls today!)

Nice choices all around! Love your hardware!

Very nice! I have relatives who lived with a tiny NYC kitchen for years, they would be drooling over the amount of space you managed to pull out of that little room.

Hey Tracey... missed seeing you around here! Yep... some of us are still hanging here with unfinished kitchens. Loved yours before and love it still.

It looks awesome! Love all of your choices!!

What a great kitchen! I love the cabinets and the long prep counter...it makes it seem like it is larger than it is. Great choices!

Really nice to look at and a miracle for NYC. Its got to be so much better to cook in. Congratulations.

Yes, some of us really are still hanging around! LOL!!!

Looks terrific! Isn't amazing how all the agonizing paid off in the end? I'll bet you are enjoying your beautiful new space tremendously!

We are overdue for another get-together, huh? I think Caroline's planning a trip north sometime after she returns from her cross-country trek....!

what a fantastic space. Great job, well planned. now open up that nice looking bottle :) CHEERS!

Wow!!! For a year and a half I've had fantasies about posting my "finished kitchen" thread, and now I've finally done it - and LOOK at all these responses! You guys are awesome!!!

Elizpiz, I feel like I've posted so many pictures of my *unfinished* kitchen - unpainted, no curtains, sometimes no countertops - that it's funny that there were never the finished pix. I can't believe I've been living with this kitchen for over a year now without "finishing" it! Crazy.

But yes, I *have* been enjoying the kitchen - A LOT. I just searched GW for my old "How cool is my new kitchen thread" where I wax rhapsodic about the dishwasher alone, but it seems to have disappeared. (The jist was that everything that's cool about my new kitchen ends up winding back to the dishwasher! ;-))

Kitchenaddict - congrats on getting your cabinets installed! Isn't it cool when it starts to look like a kitchen again?

Julie, that long run of countertop? First of all, given that I had almost NO countertop space in my old kitchen, it's a total wealth of riches! (Check out the old kitchen photos I'm about to - gasp - post!)

But actually, I had to do it that way. My kitchen is so narrow that we made the cabinets on that side only 19" deep, and appliances wouldn't have fit. It was tough fitting a fridge, dishwasher, sink and stove all on one wall that was less than 10' long (esp. with a heating pipe in the corner taking up precious inches), but we managed to cram it all in.

Chris in NY! Hi!!!

Pllog, your comment about the potfiller made me LOL!!! Very L! (And yes, I have been known to fill pots using my pull-out faucet... ;-))

Marthavila!!! I was hoping you were still there!!! Yes, I *totally* remember that wonderful NYC get-together, and our going up to Quintessentials afterward!!! Right, I hadn't chosen cabinets yet at the first lunch, and by the second I had cabinets and was trying to figure out tile... (OMG, tile was HARD!!!)

For the record, Marthavila has THE MOST BEAUTIFUL kitchen I've ever seen. Pictures again, please!!! (What, it's not finished yet??? What on earth needs to be finished about it? It's GORGEOUS!!!)

Newyorking, the get togethers were in 2008. Seems like yesterday. We should do another one!!!

Debinnh - I highly recommend painting LARGE swatches on your walls to figure out paint colors. Those little squares don't tell you enough. In fact, painting large swatches probably doesn't tell you enough. You have to paint an entire wall. Maybe an entire kitchen. And then put up curtains. And THEN maybe you can tell if you like the color. ;-) (Mine is BM Spanish Olive. I thought it looks kind of "green tea" after it went up - too light, totally wrong... Until I put up the curtain. Who knew the red curtain would make me like the too-light-green paint???)

Doraville, I got so used to seeing my cabinets without hardware that when the handles went on, I considered them "the door pulls that ate Manhattan." I wanted large pulls that I could put my whole hand through. Boy did I get them!!!

Remodelfla - aren't you done yet??? Where are you with it? Really want to know!

Bmorepanic - cook? Cook??? Hey, I'm a New Yorker! I don't cook. LOL!!! (Well, I've been inspired to cook a *little* now... ;-))

Cat_mom! There you are!!! Yours is another one of those absolutely GORGEOUS kitchens!!! That backsplash is just stunning. Yes, when Caroline gets back, let's definitely all get together!!! We can compare our AFTER stories!!! :-)

Everyone I missed - thank you for your kind comments! I really appreciate them. :-)

BEFORE pictures coming up next...

SO - I just realized I omitted a very important part of the archetypal Finished Kitchen posting, which is the BEFORE PICTURES.

Be gentle.

This was vintage 1947. The single was an enamel double sink where one side was intended for doing laundry - I had the dish drainer over that side since there was no dishwasher. The stove had a pilot light that kept going out, and the oven had to be lighted with a match. There was one tiny counter, about three feet long, made of speckled formica with aluminum trim. The cabinet doors had been painted over so many times that they didn't close, and the sink cabinet was metal and had warped so I couldn't open the doors at all. There were FIVE LAYERS of vinyl tiles on the floor. (Discovered the number of layers from the demolition guys. :-))

Dare I say: DYSFUNCTIONAL???

Wow! What a fantastic transformation. I don't remember seeing the before pictures ever (I've only been here since my own kitchen drama started last year). I thought the photos of the "after" were really nice, but when you compare them to the "befores"--whew! Great job!

Give my regards to B'way, love coming to the city!

-Bee

charlikin... life has thrown many curveballs so things slows down and speeds up freqently. More slowing down then anything else. We do have walls down and up, plumbing and electrical moved, bathroom demo'd, and the entire tile flooring up. So bascially the structure is what's it's going to be and as soon as we knock down some high points from the old motar on the floor we can go ahead and get the tile laid. It'll be quick from there. Now to find a deal on bathroom tile!!

Tracey,
What a great job you did. I'm so glad I got to see both before and afters. I first saw the afters thinking it was the befores since most show the befores first, and I kept saying, OMG what's wrong with that kitchen, its beautiful, why did she want to change anything and of course I kept scrolling down to finally see the befores.
You did a fantastic job, you must be so happy. Great transformation. Those before and afters belong in a magazine.

Bee, I don't think I ever posted the BEFORE's - too embarrassing!

Remodelfla - I'm sorry about the curveballs, and I'm glad things are progressing for you! Your kitchen design is so interesting and innovative, I guess I'm just impatient to see the final result. (Not as impatient as you, I'll bet.) But life has its own ideas, and things don't always go in a straight line. You'll get there!!! (Oh no, you're doing the bathroom at the same time??? I did that too, and it was SO HARD! There are so many decisions to make in both the kitchen and the bathroom, and doing both was just too much.)

Nursetammi - eek! Figures I wait a year to post my finished kitchen photos, and then mess it up by not showing the before pictures first... Grrrr on me!

Hi charlikin!
Now that you are finally finished are you ready for the Finished Kitchens Blog? You can let me know in this post or shoot me an email: starpooh@gmail.com.
Then, when you get the chance, please submit the FKB Category Checklist so I can easily categorize your kitchen.
Thanks!

Here is a link that might be useful: FKB Category Checklist

Yay! I've been invited onto the FKB! Yay!!!

Thank you, starpooh. I will fill out the checklist tomorrow.

And btw - thank you so much, starpooh, for running the FKB. It is an invaluable resource for so many people here on GW (and probably elsewhere). I know I referred to it many times during various phases of my renovation. Maintaining it has got to be a lot of work for you, so I just wanted to express my appreciation.

I love it! And so glad you included the "before" shots! Everything fits in perfectly...it looks so fresh and modern. I do think the "before" kitchen was sort of charming...but you must really be enjoying the new one. I am always impressed by NYC apt. kitchen renovations, as I can imagine the logistics alone are a nightmare. Congrats and enjoy!

Tracey, I have been watching your renovation of your tiny NYC Galley Kitchen with such admiration and amazement at the changes you made, how well designed and efficient your kitchen is and how beautiful it is.

I love the floor tile and seeing your small space is what had me due to my tiny foyers with tile on the diagonal. In fact you are the one that mentioned the Akoya Bone looking like real travertine so I looked it up and did use it for my two tiny foyer areas. After my other deadlines are done, I have to look for tile for the kitchen and I love yours but I have learned to test colors in my home. For instance, I don't seem to like the way the Akoya Bone tile samples (some left over I put on the floor in the kitchen for a few weeks to see if I could get used to it and it just is not right for my kitchen) look in my kitchen with the different lighting but I love them in the front tiny foyer.

I also love the backsplash, the faucet, the quartz counters, the beautiful Maple kitchen cabinets (I am now thinking I need to stay light like you did on the cabinets since I don't have a big space either), the updated beautiful hardware on the doors, and new efficient and beautiful SS appliances, and adding the window treatment.

I did not like my bedroom paint color or the new blinds until I added sheers that drape around the blackout linen duet honeycomb blinds. It is amazing how adding a window treatment changes the color on the walls (mine softened it and made it no longer clash with my blinds) and makes everything feel complete.

by the way, I have the same paper towel rack that I love.

I would love to see the light fixture. I am going to price under cabinet lighting also so thank you for reminding me to do that.

Great job! A really fabulous transformation! Thanks for adding the "before" shots too.

It's always so much more impressive when you see the "befores" - and realize how much imagination and vision (and work) had to go into seeing the beautiful results.

You did a great job with a tiny space!

What a handsome and well planned transformation! You've done a superb job!

That is one adorable remodel! Congrats!

a great new kitchen! love the window topper too.

I'm glad you posted the old kitchen - it looks so familiar - like so many kitchens in homes i grew up in or lived in when single -lol!

what a difference the remodel makes. you have so much more counter and cabinet space! do you find the 18" dw big enough?

I love your cabinet pulls. I want pulls with the huge projection yours have - going to look them up!

What a wonderful transformation from the old kitchen. It's so much better and it looks like so much more storage space. Enjoy the new space.

Shanghaimom - funny you should mention logistics. One of the reasons contractors are so expensive in NYC is actually that they have to factor into their price the cost of parking tickets. ;-)

Hi Lynn!! Yes, the diagonal tile worked out really well. I still remember the tile guy saying that you can't do diagonal in such a small space, but I'm really happy with the way it turned out. And I also agree with you that lighting affects everything - something that can look beautiful in one place (whether it's tile, cabinets, or paint color) can look dreadful someplace else (usu. my apt!). You've *got* to see things in the actual setting.

Desertsteph, I think my old kitchen didn't bother me much for many years because it *was* so familiar. ALL kitchens in NYC start off looking like that! (Well, maybe slightly better than that... ;-)) It was quite a revelation to me that a kitchen could actually be nicer - both aesthetically and functionally. I have about twice as much cabinet space now as I did before; vastly more counter space; a functional stove and oven; a microwave I can reach (it used to be on top of the refrigerator); a nice deep sink with a faucet that SWIVELS (!); and... a dishwasher. (I love my dishwasher. :-))

I find the 18" d/w plenty big enough. Especially the Miele - they put an extra rack in it at the top just for silverware, so you don't have to take up space in the bottom rack for a silverware basket. As a result, it probably holds almost as many dishes as a 24" would. Brilliant design.

Thank you everyone for your kind comments and good wishes!

Thank you charlikin! Hope you and the kitties have recovered and the reno itself is just a distant memory!

Yes, we'll try to plan a get-together when C is up!

For some reason, when I click on your hyperlink, I find photos of a finished bathroom, but not kitchen photos. Have you removed the photos of your kitchen?

Me too. I can't see the "After" photos and I would like to very much.

How about now? (I had changed the Picasa album from "public" to "unlisted", so maybe that screwed up the links... I just changed it back to "public".)

Congrats! Very nice and what a difference I think the space looks larger. Love your color choices, very clean nice lines. The wine a good idea that does help make the evening just a little calmer when the madness is surrounding your world. Enjoy your new kitchen.

Wow! That's what I thought after the first pic and then I seen the second one!!! WOW! There is something about galley kitchens that I just love. So much function in a small space. You really did it beautifully.

Just shows what a great imagination and some style can create in 70 sq ft. Really really lovely and totally functional! Tracey I hope you enjoy every second now and thank you so much for showing us your gem!

Someone asked about a picture of the light fixture. Since it's a small room, I was originally going to do a very simple flush-mount fixture, but then I learned about the existence of "semi-flush-mount":

And while I'm posting more pics, here's the heating pipe in the corner of the kitchen next to the stove, taking up precious inches on the wall where all the appliances & sink had to be crammed. The contractor built a 6" wide fake cabinet in front of it so I could have a bit of countertop as a landing spot for utensils while I was cooking. The door of the "cabinet" is attached by heavy-duty velco (which isn't working out well - I'm going to have to find a better mechanism.)

Fantastic kitchen and certainly not tiny for NYC! It looks like a wonderful space in which to cook. I love the floor tiles laid on the diagonal. It really opens the space.

What a great kitchen! I love a galley! I never saw the before either. I only "know" you in your "after" state. :-) Glad the fabric shifted the wall color for you. Small miracles, huh?