The kitchen and dining room in my Prairie Village colonial was perhaps the most dramatic transformation in the house. We took what was a kitchen, a small breakfast room, a powder room, and a study and opened it alllll up to make one open kitchen, dining and sitting room.
I had a white oak kitchen last time, and really wanted to try something deeper and moodier this time. We used Crown Cabinetry to create flat front walnut cabinets with custom cut out handles. We had enough room for a two sided island, so there was hidden storage on all four sides and even a secret second oven on the far side of the island.
I adore limestone and we picked a super pretty veined gray slab from Rocktops for countertops and backsplash. It was my first time doing a stone shelf and loved having that to cap off the stone backsplash.
I went with Cafe Appliances in Matte black and switched it up from my usual brass to copper handles. A large brass bowl pendant had been on my wishlist, and I lucked out when I found it at RH Baby, as the regular RH one was almost double the price. The barstools are from us, but full confession after a few years of toddlers eating meals in them daily, I had them recovered in a heavy duty performance fabric.
Now don't kill me for never getting a photo of it, but my favorite kitchen trick is an appliance "garage" hidden away. That cabinet to the right of the stove has four drawers below, but inside there is a counter top that hides our coffee maker, my soda stream, our food processor, blender, etc. It is a must for me in every kitchen because we do actually cook quite a bit, and I prefer not to see those everyday appliances sitting out in an open kitchen. In this one, I added a tall shelf above that housed our inexpensive microwave. I'm not a fan of spending a lot on a microwave for display - it just heats leftovers usually so inexpensive works great for us.
Over on the dining room side, we whitewashed poplar slats for the ceiling to create a small differentiation between entry, kitchen and dining. We also purchased an extendable dining that went from seating six to seating a full twelve. It is amazing, and I recommend for anyone who entertains a lot! My favorite piece in there was our Alabaster Pendant, also from RH but it's gone up in price pretty significantly since we purchased. (This "save" is interesting to me!) I honestly thought about taking this one with me when I moved, but decided it belonged there. When it's lit up, it looks like the moon and is very dreamy.
We used a super cute storage cabinet (from Urban Outfitters of all places, now discontinued!) for extra bar and pretty serving piece storage and added a sculptural Justina Blakeney for Target lamp next to it. I liked having the boho piece next to our very modern black stair rail. The entry pendant is from the Abigail collection at Rejuvenation, and I am a huge fan we've used other similar pieces in client projects as well. It's white, yes, but up close it has a lovely stone texture that makes it extra interesting in person. It's called Unglazed Vanilla, see what I mean, oh la la.
Scroll on down for the before and afters and let me know what you think in the comments below. Stay tuned for the rest of the house or catch up on past posts here.
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