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So much remodeling progress has been made since my last update here on the blog! It’s wild to think how far we’ve come from the demo of the space that began early March to the floor, sink and cabinets being installed to all that’s recently happened over the past two weeks.
It’s coming together just as I pictured it and while there are still a lot of details I’m excited about that they will finish or bring in over the next couple of weeks (can’t wait for BEATRIX!) every day we’re getting so much closer. Before we know it, we’ll be cooking on our new kitchen.
I thought I would do a post to catch up with where we are now as the last two weeks have been really exciting! The last few days there have been been fun developments, too, so I’ll share a peek at those in today’s post as well.
You might have seen some of these updates if you are one of our newsletter subscribers since I gave a sneak peek awhile back. 🙂 I also post sometimes on Instagram so if you like to get the behind the scenes you’ll want to watch my stories, too! If you’re not on my email list you can subscribe HERE to stay in the loop of our progress and get up to date links to all of our decor posts and resources in future newsletters!
The contractors installed the French doors which look AMAZING! All of the contractors and anyone else who has visited always comments on them because they just add SO MUCH to the room. The door is beautiful with the sidelights and transom, it’s a real statement feature on that prominent wall in our kitchen! Plus it made an unbelievable difference in the room by bringing in the natural light.
They also got the marble and soapstone counters in and they are even more stunning than we could’ve imagined.
Everyone will try to talk you out of real stone, if you have them you probably have experienced the same thing! It’s understandable, they want to inform you of what you need to know in order to make a decision so I’m glad they do. But I find if you listen to them but also to your own heart and home when you’re decorating or renovating, you’ll come up with the right decision for you. I’m so glad that for our “forever home” I listened!
Of course, I was happy with our quartz in our past two kitchens, it can be beautiful, too! In fact, we chose quartz for those homes because my husband didn’t want to have to be cautious with counters, but we’ve had a change of heart in this home and for this season of our life.
Real stone isn’t always the right choice for every person or every home. But for me real stone just creates an experience I want to have in our home. It has a richness that is more than just a pretty material. I find that the real stone is something I FEEL when I’m in the room. It’s an organic element that brings a sense of history and character that you really can’t achieve with a manufactured countertop.
You can read THIS POST on why I chose these materials for this kitchen! You can also see a post HERE about the quartz counters we had in our last kitchen.
So much has happened here in the past week! They’ve been focused on trimming out the doors, as well as casing the openings between rooms. Previously the openings between rooms were just drywall, so adding cased molding gives it an extra finishing touch! We already had the contractors make the two openings taller and wider, which really opened up the rooms so they are less choppy (without removing the sense of them being their own space). It also allows light to flow through more easily.
The opening between the entry and living room also got new trim work (above), so it will all look really nice and finished.
Another exciting development is they began adding the tongue and groove beadboard to the walls as well as v-groove tongue and groove to the kitchen and dining room ceilings. I always appreciate the texture and character that classic painted wood paneling adds to a home. We’ve had wood walls (some painted, some not) in every home we’ve ever lived in and added more painted paneling to our last four homes, too.
Paneling is a classic look that feels like home to me. If you like this style, too, you would probably LOVE this book, it’s one of my favorite home design books (written by an architect so it’s just lovely all around). You can see my photos of the inside of the book in this post.
We have so little wall space in the kitchen and dining room so we decided that rather than chopping the space up even more with different wall colors or other wall treatments, we’d soften the whole look and install wood paneling on all of the exposed walls and ceilings in those rooms. Then we will paint them to match all the cabinets and trim.
Today or maybe next week they’ll add the crown molding around each room which will tie it all together and give it that seamless, cohesive look. There are still a few other architectural details to come that will really be lovely so I can’t wait to share them!
They will also begin painting prep Monday, so that means we’re really on the home stretch. Before we know it, we”ll have hardware and appliances, too! I’ll have lots more to share in my next update!
You can catch up on all our remodeling posts HERE.