Kitchen Ideas for the Curbly House Project

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We’re making headway on the Curbly House and the next two weeks will bring about a big leap in the transformation we’ve been dreaming about. We spent much of the last week trying to finalize our choices for kitchen cabinetry, countertops, appliances, and fixtures. While the room reveal won’t be ready until later, I wanted to share a peek at what inspired the design. 

Inspiration for the kitchen remodel

Photo: Decor Chic

 

Photo: Domino

 

We loved the idea adding gray base cabinets to the kitchen island, while keeping the rest of the cabinetry white, but in the end decided to stick with one color. As you may remember, we’re doubling the size of the kitchen by extending it into the dining room. While the new layout is going to make the kitchen a total dream come true for cooking and entertaining, it needs to be seamlessly integrated into the house, making white cabinetry (that matches the wood trim throughout the house) a perfect choice. 

Bruno and I love the idea of adding a butcher block counter top to the peninsula for warmth and an organic element. We think it’ll help tie the room into the adjacent dining area, and help lead the eye out toward the newly landscaped backyard. We’re working with Lumber Liquidators to source a butcher block style that we like, and right now it’s between these two:

Which one do you like best?

If you have butcher block in your kitchen, drop us a line to how you like it! 

Kitchen paint 

We also re-painted all the trim in the house (Pure White SW 7005), using a new paint product we had never tried before: Emerald Urethane Trim Enamel. It’s good for interiors or exteriors, and has a smooth, durable finish that’s perfect for doors, trim, and cabinetry. It was truly a breeze to paint with, with great coverage and leveling, and absolutely no stickiness when dry (some enamels stay sticky for a while). It’s my new go-to paint for trim and cabinets.

Fixtures and appliances

We’ve selected brass and black fixtures for the lighting and fixtures, and all our our appliances will be stainless steel. The kitchen is going to have mixed metals, but we think they’ll play off of each other in a beautiful way.  

 

Staying on schedule

Amazingly, we’re currently on schedule to get the house back on the market by October. Getting off the timeline was probably the thing that worried Bruno the most, and don’t worry, there’s still a pretty good chance we’ll get behind, but as of right now, we’re all pretty shocked and thrilled that things are going according to plan. Our electrical and HVAC work is done (new air conditioning!), and our cabinets are going to be coming in just over a week. That gives us plenty of time to close up all the walls, and do some of the other touch-up jobs that need to happen.

 

Next week, while our contractor begins sheetrocking the kitchen, we’ll be moving in all the upstairs furniture and getting those rooms ready to photograph. The other major job for next week is polishing up the landscaping, and I’m really excited to share the amazing progress we’ve made on the back and front yard.