Wednesday 21 May 2014

Project ownerbuild - kitchen planning

modern kitchen inspiration


While we are oh so patiently waiting on our steel fabrication, I have been making slow but steady progress on planning out our laundry bathroom and most importantly kitchen.  Key word here is SLOW

It turns out it is so much easier to sit back looking at photos of beautiful homes and thinking "oh I love that kitchen/bathroom/floor tile! I would definitely have that in my home" to actually making a decision. Un-fun things like practicality and the B word (budget) mean that sometimes my grandiose amazing plans have to be scaled back to something a little more modest.

If you follow me on Facebook (and if you don't you should ;p) I posted the other day about my kitchen dilemmas. Looking at high end expensive kitchens and working your way down IS NOT the right way to go. Unless your cool with disappointment that is.

The hubs Mr DD is a bit of tight a*** when it comes to spending on our kitchen and seems to think that we can get an amazing kitchen with stone benchtops for under 20K (you pretty much can't). This has resulted in a fair few heated arguments discussions lately. Ok- we could go down the Ikea kitchen route and probably keep under the 20k but I am not too crazy about the cabinet door colours and am worried about the longevity.

I think the hubs and I have come to an agreement however that while I plan on spending up a little more on the kitchen, we will look at a more budget option for the laundry. Clearly we both love cooking (and eating) much more than laundry so I think it's a pretty fair compromise.

My plans for the kitchen area is to do pretty much this for the layout, now its just a matter of deciding on the finishing and how I want it all to look.

project owner build, kitchen layout


As we have polished concrete flooring, I really wanted to add in some wood to soften the look. After getting a ballpark for real wood I picked my jaw up of the floor and started looking around at more economical options. Laminex and Polytech have some nice textured wood looks but I don't know if I am completely sold on them yet. Particulaly when I keep cutting out kitchens like these...

modern eclectic kitchen

These are two of the wood look samples from Polytec I have been considering, they are nice and textural and the most authentic wood look I have found so far. Although I haven't given up entirely on my wooden cabinets so plan on keeping up the hunt for something amazing.

wood look cabinet laminate

I have never made it a secret that I am not a fan of the high gloss white kitchen. Yes it does look slick and modern but it's not kind with mucky little people running around so I plan on going for a more understated satin finish which hopefully will not mark up as badly.

The biggest ticket item in the kitchen will certainly be our bench tops. After seeing the new range from Caesarstone I fell madly in love with the Calcutta marble look stone I just couldn't get it out of my head. I have compromised a little here and opted for the Stellastone version which is here. It's still excellent quality but is a newer company on the market and comes in a little cheaper. Then because we can't help ourselves we have opted for 40mm stone over the 20mm. This adds a whole lot more again but in our opinion totally worth it.

Stellastone in White marble Quartz

stellastone white marble, calcutta marble


Just as a side note if you are looking for an great catalog of stylish contemporary kitchens for inspiration for your own kitchen reno the Caesar stone website is amazing.

As for lighting, I am planning on roping Mr DD into installing 2 or 3 big over sized industrial pendants over the island bench. I have seen a big price difference in these from these in Masters for $99 (which don't seem to be listed online anymore) or these in Ikea to these ones from Sokol for $249. I will probably go with the cheaper option and possibly spray in the inside with Rustoleum aged copper (not sure if I can even do that) to make them a little less mass produced looking.

industrial pendant lighting
1. Masters
2. Ikea
3. Sokol
4. Solol

That's about as far as I have got in my planning stages. I am a little torn between glass spash backs, pressed tin or tile right now so I can't even begin to contemplate the colours they might end up. I will probably decide on the spashbacks once we are actually in the extension and the kitchen has been installed and I have angst about it for weeks on end.

We got the call last week that our steel frames are ready for collection so once Mr DD gets back from work in a fortnight we will be back onto the build eeek! **by we I mean the hubs (Mr DD) I however will be hard at work making the teas, toasted sandwiches and keeping the littles under control.

Have you planned out a kitchen recently? If you have any advise for me please feel free to share!

Dani xo

4 comments :

  1. Hey danni, can't wait to see it come together. U have a great eye for things so am sure it's going to be fabulous.

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  2. Our rental has white shiny handle-less cupboards and I am CONSTANTLY cleaning them with only one toddler's grubby hands... Have only just stumbled on your blog but loving reading it... :)

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    Replies
    1. Thanks for stopping by and so pleased that you are enjoying the read youv'e made my day :) I am sure I am kidding myself that satin white cabinets will look cleaner with kiddos around, I think the only real solution is a fence haha

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