Kitchen Details

Today I am breaking down all of my kitchen details for you! Keep reading to find out size, color, sources, etc. but first lets talk about some of the changes we made to our kitchen while building with Thomsen Homes. We built the 2160 2-story floor plan that includes a standard kitchen with upper/lower cabinets, an island, and a walk-in pantry. You can view the floor plan here and even take a virtual walk through (pretty cool, yeah?).

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We made a lot of changes to our kitchen while building, some of them resulting in upgrade charges; however, by eliminating our upper cabinets, we were able to offset some of those charges. The first change we made was adding a 6′ window above the kitchen sink. The standard window was pretty small (I think 2′) and our backyard view is too good to pass up so I have zero regrets adding a larger window. If anything, I regret not adding a 9′ window.

Next was cabinet changes. We excluded upper cabinets because I love the open look and knew we wanted to add shelving. Eliminating upper cabinets is a personal preference. You want to make sure that you have enough storage if you eliminate any cabinets. We added custom cabinets to our pantry, so I wasn’t worried about running short on storage. We also opted for drawers instead of doors, extended the cabinet height by the fridge to the 9′ ceiling. That leads us to the kitchen island. I knew we wanted something that allowed for 4 counter stools, so I researched square islands like a crazy lady. We opted for a square island with storage on the back and front of the island. I love that all our kids are able to sit here at once and have adequate space and elbow room. Our last island was a tight fit with 3 and there wasn’t a lot of wiggle room. Let’s just say there was some bickering about personal space that I knew I wanted to resolve.

Our Cafe by GE appliances are my absolute favorite addition to our kitchen. I’ll give a quick review on them, but will write a full review in the future. Long story short, we love them and have had no issues. We did opt for the matte white for the dishwasher and refrigerator and stainless with upgraded bronze knobs for the range. I love the mix of finishes and the warmth the stainless range brings to the space. My only complaint is that it’s not fingerprint resistant like the matte white finish so it shows ALL the fingerprints.

I could write for days about our kitchen upgrades so lets keep this short. Here’s a few other changes we made to the kitchen:

• Added 3 lights over the sink and 2 over the island. We opted for a bulb from our builder and replaced the lights after we moved in.
• Added an apron front fire-clay sink
• Added a quartz backsplash behind the range
• Added a transom window to the pantry
• Upgraded the pantry pocket door from 7′ to 8′ tall
• When building, we eliminated the wire shelves in our pantry, but added in custom cabinets after we moved in.
• Added a custom hood over the range – this was made by our cabinet company and is the same material as our cabinets.
• Added a pull-out trash can/recycle bin in our kitchen and pantry

As for the size of our kitchen, the back wall is roughly 14′ long and on the sink side, the cabinets are 12 1/2′, and our island is 52″ x 52″. The pantry is 5’9″x5’6″ and the cabinets are 21″ deep. We opted for more shallow cabinets (most cabinets are 25″ deep) to allow for more walk-in space.

Here’s a breakdown of the colors and details:

• Wall color is SW Pure White
• Cabinet color is custom but very close to SW Shiitake
• Countertops are Rolling Fog quartz
• Flooring is Pinnacle Peak laminate in the color mushroom

Here’s a quick reminder of what our kitchen looked like when we first moved in (don’t mind the grainy iPhone picture). We’ve made a lot of changes in 10 short months and so many happy memories. I can’t wait to spend the holiday season here.

So what do you think, would you eliminate upper cabinets? How do you feel about the greige color? If I missed any details, please let me know!

Sources