Absolutely gorgeous kitchen! Great job! I especially am drooling over that large wall of storage cabs and your stained glass. I love stained glass and wish I had a space for it in my current kitchen.

I know you gonna love cooking in there. I would! Congrats!

MaryT

Thanks Mary - the stained glass pieces were salvaged from one of my father-in-law's restaurants. They were kept in storage for almost 20 years. My husband wanted to get rid of them, but I just couldn't do it.

Oh wow am I jealous! What a cool kitchen and I can't imagine getting rid of that beautiful stained glass!

ENJOY!!!!

Beautiful kitchen Julie - so much SPACE! It's so warm and inviting - you must be making some great meals on that Capital range! BTW, I think your pics came out great! It is so nice to have that special connection with the glass - as opposed to what I do, which is pick everything out from a store!

Everything looks great! The glass makes it so personal!
Congratulations on a great job.

The glass is fantastic, and you were right to use it! How special.

Love the concrete counters and the wonderful wall of cabinets.

Julie--I've told you before, but it bears repeaing--Awesome job! What a great kitchen! Your cabs, counters, tile, and appliances all look so nice (they have such a cool, funky vibe!), and of course that stained glass is to die for! Love it!!! I'm jealous of all the space you have, too :-)

It's all soooo pretty! I love the colors! Gollee you have everything in that kitchen. I'm envious.

Hey,
The look is wonderful with the stained glass and the wood cabs. It is clean and neat and yet still warm. I love even more that the glass was salvaged than if it were new. It adds such character and the story involved makes it more special ;)
I am very interested in all the details you can spare about your hood installation. We are expecting our island hood will be a challenge and would love to hear about your experience.

VERY nice. Love the concrete counters. Whenever you have a chance, can you get a close-up pic?

Congrats!

Wow, what a great kitchen!

Very nice kitchen!
How do you like the Monogram fridge/freezer? I like the way you have them separate from each other. I never would have thought of doing that.

Thank you all for the kind words. I don't want to post these in the FKB because I do want to get better pictures.
It is such a strange layout and difficult to photograph.

jgirl - LOVE the fridge/freezer. I kept the old fridge in the basement just in case (entertaining days) and have not used it once. I was really concerned about the layout, but the design is extremely practical for my purposes. I frequently do platters, pasta trays and soup pots. Everything fits without a problem. The freezer is never full! Right now I have five 8 x 14 trays of manicotti in there and it looks empty. We had to put it on different sides of the kitchen because of our floor plan. The fridge is in the one spot that is recessed (used to have a wall oven there) next to the cabinets. The freezer is in an area that used to be a separate butler's pantry room. We knocked down two walls to create this odd space. It was the only way to fit what we needed.

Dianolo - not sure what you need to know re the hood. As you can see, it was going to be a challenge to get a hood that vented outside. Our GC found a company that specializes in stainless work and hoods for restaurants. They did the entire hood (although my GC designed it) plus the stainless cap you see behind the range. The wall that the range sits against was really an outside wall. The area behind the range (including the tile stairs) used to be an outside porch that we enclosed to be part of the kitchen. So, yes, it was a very creative job and we are thrilled with the performance of the hood (since we have a grill).

kitchenkelly - I will try to get a close up of the concrete counter for you today.

I added the counter close up.

It's a wonderful kitchen and that stained glass is a knockout!

Hi Julie,
I am interested in how the weight is supported for your hood. I could possibly vent ours like yours does but wonder how it will hang being so heavy. We will have approx 14-15ft ceilings over our island so I was wondering if it would somehow be better to vent sideways like you did rather than up. It is such a p.i.t.a. about something that is not fun to worry about.
I hear ya on the all fridge all freezer love. Mine are Whirlpools and have been in operation in our garage for months. Even with the long walk, I love having them. Someday, they may actually be in our new kit, lol. They make other large firdges look small. The only downside I can see is never being able to use a single fridge again now that I have been spoiled ;)

Would you mind telling me how much space you have between the island and your cabinets? I'm in the planning stages, trying to determine if I can fit an island (or an additional L on a peninsula) in my future kitchen. Thanks for sharing the pictures of your wonderful kitchen.

Thanks Mary - my island is 87 x 29". Unfortunately, it has a measly 6" overhang (KD design error). We have 37" between the island and the fridge/cabinet side and 31" between the island and the sink side. My husband and daughter use it for breakfast and people can sit at the stools (saddle style stools) for coffee, etc.

Re the hood - I have an email to my GC to ask if she knows how they handled the weight issue. I never bothered to think about the *how* on that - just came home one day and it was done. However, it took months for them to fabricate that thing! We couldn't vent "up" because there is another floor above this. The kitchen is on the second of three floors.

I've added a couple more.

Congratulations on your kitchen! Warm, inviting, spacious and functional - you covered all the bases beautifully, and showcased a family heirloom to boot!

Thanks for the close-up of the concrete. Too cool! Next kitchen I am doing that.

Thanks.

Dianolo - just got an email back from my GC. Here is her response.

"The weight of the hood is carried by flanges at the top of the round pipe that are bolted to wood we attached in the ceiling before we did the drywall. The flanges are hidden now because we plastered over them to hide
them. So basically the connection detail is hidden from sight."

Hope that helps!

How is it holding up? Been thinking of concrete as an option.

The concrete has been wonderful for me. When they installed it, they waxed it. I removed the wax as I like a more matte look.

I've updated my pictures in case you're interested. Here's one I like.

{{gwi:1481855}}

That's really quite an interesting layout. It looks fairly practical though with the freezer off to the side since you access the frig much more often.

I don't think the 10" overhang was a mistake. Any more and you'd really be squeezed tight for frig access.

It's also interesting that the counter height is above the range and seems flush with the top of the grills. Did you lower the range or raise the counter? We are thinking of dropping our Wolf rangetop down so the grills are at counter height since my wife is a lot shorter than my 6'1" :-)

Also, could you tell me how high above the countertop the bottom of that lovely custom range hood is? It's hard to tell from the pictures, but it seems like maybe 34 ish? Due to our limited ceiling height ours will be at 32".

Really, really nice. You should be very happy.

Hi,
I want to add a belated thank you for the tech advice. I haven't been here lately but was sure to clip it today when I found it. I don't understand it, but that will be what my contractor is for, lol.
I just love the overall look of your kitchen as well ;) The wood color is really outstanding.

You are welcome dianalo - your contractor should definitely know what to do - thank you for the compliments!

Tom - it's a 6" overhang - not 10" (I wish!). It's 6" exactly because of what you pointed out - the fridge would not open all the way.

As for the hood - it's 28" above the counter. I thought it might be low, but the fabricator insisted that it was appropriate with our grill (they do commercial restaurant hoods). I have to say we have absolutely no issues odor/smoke/grease wise. The baffles pop into the dishwasher. BTW - I am 5'4" and my husband is 6'1".

I was not home when they installed the range - the range does fall below the countertops, but what you might not realize is that the countertops are 37" high. So....they probably didn't raise or lower anything (a hunch). Yes, the grills are just about flush with the countertops.

The freezer being in a separate location has been great for us. Layout wise, there was no way to put it side by side and I think it would've looked too massive for the size of that section of the kitchen.

We are thrilled with our kitchen - I should find some before pics so you can see why. Our house was built in 1924. The kitchen was updated once in the 50s. Very choppy. The desk/stained glass area/freezer area use to be a butler's pantry. We knocked down that wall. The back wall of the range use to go to the ceiling and the tile stairway behind it used to be an outdoor stair entrance with the back door at the top. That entire area was enclosed to create one larger looking space. Our KD had vision - we interviewed a few KDs and no one else came up with that creative design.

I hadn't seen the new pics--they look great. I like this last one, too!

Your paper towel holder looks cool--any close-up pics of that? What kind is it?

Thanks Cat-mom - I'll get a pic of it, but it's something I picked up about five years ago at a Bed, Bath & Beyond.

Julier - another question about the concrete counters. We are planning on doing concrete as well, and need to decide what kind of sealer to use. As I understand it, penetrating sealer will be less glossy and limit dings to surface, while urethane will be more stain-proof. Also, anything to share about heat resistance?

I absolutely love the look of concrete.

Thx.

Beautiful! We are doing concrete countertops too, we'll be making the forms next week. What color did you use? They don't look hand troweled, were they made off-site or on the counters? Thanks

cbj and mack - The sealer is apparently a huge secret. This is the company we used - www.aceconcrete.com. They are local to us. The countertops were made in their warehouse. The color was not custom but one of the company's colors. It's called "burlap". Love it. The counters are extremely smooth and feel satiny. People are absolutely stunned whenever they touch them. We have relatives with concrete counters that say theirs do not feel that way.

As for heat - I'm not taking chances. They gave me a little concrete trivet which I have put hot pots on with no problems, but I really do not want to risk any damage.

Oh - when the countertops were installed, they were waxed. I removed the wax myself because I prefer a matte feel/look to the counters.

Our GC was extremely impressed with the company and said she would use them again in a heartbeat. I was the one who found the company by searching on-line.

I am sorry, I should have asked before, is your top 1 1/2" or 2". I really like the look.

mackswim - From what I heard the counters are actually 1 1/4 or 1 1/2" (I forgot which), but edges measure out at 2".

I love your kitchen Julie. It is gorgeous. I wish you had done yours before mine because there are some elements I would have considered.

Hi Hedy!! Thanks - but your kitchen is amazing so just forget about it. I should post the nasty "before" pictures if I can figure out how to get them up here.

Hi Julie - I also love your concrete countertops!

May I please archive your kitchen in the Finished Kitchens Blog? If so please submit the FKB Checklist. Thank you!

Here is a link that might be useful: Finished Kitchen Category Checklist

Thanks Starpooh - just did it.