Another job to be proud of!

I just received an email from another wonderful couple with whom I worked on designing their kitchen remodel. This is a couple that had put off doing the remodel due to some financial crunching (back at the beginning of all this economic madness), but eventually decided to go for it. I love that they were doing most of the work themselves and using friends and family to aid as much as possible. Another way to save money, they were sourcing a lot of their "new" stuff (appliances, sink, etc.) from craigslist. These are my kind of people!

They live in an old home over in Como, and wanted to keep the character of the house in tact while opening up the space to make it more functional. We worked for a long time on several different plans, changing one only to go back to another, combining lots of things from different plans to make one, and eventually we hit one almost on the mark. To say the least, I was ready for them to just take over by the end! But, it looks as though the end result is close to my final drawings, and it is quite a stunning kitchen. First, pictures of the new kitchen, followed by some smaller pic's of the original.

The blue walls in the dining room really add a fun element to this house, and I'm hoping they'll carry it into the kitchen.I don't see any way of pulling in another color without it looking choppy. If they wanted to go with a new color altogether, I would love to see a warm and cheery yellow in here! (or a warm, rusty orange. or a deep, chocolaty brown. okay, the options are endless)

Not sure what's going on with the hood, specifically the panel above it. I think it's an angle thing, but... Regardless, this is a wonderful little cooking alcove now, and a huge upgrade from what they had before!
_______________________________________________________________________
The old kitchen. Pretty drab, and not very functional. All of the appliances and fixtures were miles from one another, and there was very little usable counter space. Not to mention, the floor was hideous. I think it was some makeshift, quickie fix to cover the sub floor. Thank goodness they included new maple, to tie in with the rest of the house, in their remodel plan!

*****************************************************************************************
I've been invited to their home to share in the glory of their new kitchen, and to discuss how the remodel went. I'm so excited to learn about their process, what they've learned about remodeling (and about themselves!), and how their new kitchen is working for them. It's an honor to be asked to come back, so I have a feeling they're pretty excited about it!!