My readers and friends know that on July 24, 2017, we had a serious house fire. The fire started in the garage and was extinguished fairly quickly but the smoke damage was extensive. While the exterior was saved, the entire interior had to be gutted and completely rebuilt. This was a long, painful, and agonizing process but the pay-off was huge. I thought I would do a series of posts on the rebuilt and explain the choices we made in the remodel.
First, we bought our house in 2013 and lived in it for four years before the fire. In retrospect, this was good because we learned what did and did not work about our house. Therefore the changes we made were very practical and informed by how we lived in the house. A few quick details about our home. It was built in the late 1960s and is a typical raised ranch; it was fully renovated before we bought it. We loved our home pre-fire and found it very comfortable and livable for our family of eight.
This is kind of a messy picture from the kitchen but does show the layout. It was designed in a U-shape. The appliances were a good size and I had plenty of room to cook and work. The eat-in kitchen area was not adequate for our family size and we often angled the table in odd ways to make it work. In March 2017, we removed the french doors in the eating area because they were drafty and always bumped into the table and replaced them with sliding glass doors.
When planning our kitchen we worked with Anson Fillerup Design to create the initial design. We decided to eliminate the wall between the kitchen and living room and put in a large beam to stabilize the area. Peter came to our home, took extensive measurements, and crafted a design that was aesthetically pleasing and practical. He has a genuine gift for visualizing spaces and transferring them to sketches that I could understand. We refined the design and analyzed the use of every single cupboard, shelf, and drawer with custom cabinet maker, Lisa Turner of Modern Cabinet Company based in Poughkeepsie, New York. They have their own factory and create the cabinets on site.
Our top needs for the kitchen were: adequate cabinet storage for cooking supplies and food, functional layout that accounted for our use of the space, and adequate space for a large table to seat our entire family. Additionally, I wanted the space to feel light and airy without being so large that it was overwhelming.
We had a major hiccup in our design when we realized that the refrigerator we ordered was too large for design. With a lot of thought, we flipped the island from a vertical orientation to horizontal and switched the refrigerator with one of the pantry cabinets.
I wanted grey painted cabinets and chose Benjamin Moore Pearl Grey for the color. I love it because it is quite light but is different from the typical white kitchen. I feel like this is a classic design that is fresh and modern. The island is painted Benjamin Moore Hale Navy (HC-154). I chose this before everyone and their dog started doing this, lol! We opted to put trim on the beam between the kitchen and living room. I like it because it visually separates the spaces while still keeping everything unified.
I did not want tile on the floor because I feel tile is hard on my back. The floor is hardwood and is stained red mahogany. The handles and pulls came from Home Depot.
We have a huge pantry area that makes my baker's heart sing.
All the appliances are GE Profile. The counters are quartz. We chose a concrete grey from Ikea for the grey cabinets and purchased them during the annual kitchen sale. We purchased the white quartz with grey veining from a local stone dealer in Cortlandt Manor, NY. We opted for quartz countertops because they are so durable and require absolutely no additional sealing and maintenance. I love how easy they are to clean and that actually look clean when I wipe them down.
The island light comes from Wayfair. I love the low profile of the light! The island chairs come from Ikea. They are sturdy, attractive, and easy to clean. The island has a stand for my KitchenAid mixer and comes out to counter height. We have racks for bakeware. We also have two large deep drawers where we put kitchen appliances. The other side of the island has a small bookcase for my cookbooks.
We have a deep single bowl sink from Kraus. I don't remember where we ordered the faucets from. The faucet on the left is for filtered drinking water (with an RO filtering system) because we use well water. We have a trash compactor that we love as it reduces the volume of our trash significantly and is easy to use.
The backsplash is a classic white subway tile. We used that because we had a surplus of tile from the bathroom and I thought it worked well with the kitchen.
I love my kitchen. It is a dream to use for baking and cooking and a dream to clean. We have deep dish drawers right by the dishwasher which makes putting away the dishes so easy and fast.
Any questions or comments?
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| The fire as seen from the road. |
First, we bought our house in 2013 and lived in it for four years before the fire. In retrospect, this was good because we learned what did and did not work about our house. Therefore the changes we made were very practical and informed by how we lived in the house. A few quick details about our home. It was built in the late 1960s and is a typical raised ranch; it was fully renovated before we bought it. We loved our home pre-fire and found it very comfortable and livable for our family of eight.
This is kind of a messy picture from the kitchen but does show the layout. It was designed in a U-shape. The appliances were a good size and I had plenty of room to cook and work. The eat-in kitchen area was not adequate for our family size and we often angled the table in odd ways to make it work. In March 2017, we removed the french doors in the eating area because they were drafty and always bumped into the table and replaced them with sliding glass doors.
 |
This is what the kitchen looked after the fire. |
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| After the entire house was gutted. This is the kitchen area. |
When planning our kitchen we worked with Anson Fillerup Design to create the initial design. We decided to eliminate the wall between the kitchen and living room and put in a large beam to stabilize the area. Peter came to our home, took extensive measurements, and crafted a design that was aesthetically pleasing and practical. He has a genuine gift for visualizing spaces and transferring them to sketches that I could understand. We refined the design and analyzed the use of every single cupboard, shelf, and drawer with custom cabinet maker, Lisa Turner of Modern Cabinet Company based in Poughkeepsie, New York. They have their own factory and create the cabinets on site.
Our top needs for the kitchen were: adequate cabinet storage for cooking supplies and food, functional layout that accounted for our use of the space, and adequate space for a large table to seat our entire family. Additionally, I wanted the space to feel light and airy without being so large that it was overwhelming.
 |
| The Final Design! |
We had a major hiccup in our design when we realized that the refrigerator we ordered was too large for design. With a lot of thought, we flipped the island from a vertical orientation to horizontal and switched the refrigerator with one of the pantry cabinets.
I wanted grey painted cabinets and chose Benjamin Moore Pearl Grey for the color. I love it because it is quite light but is different from the typical white kitchen. I feel like this is a classic design that is fresh and modern. The island is painted Benjamin Moore Hale Navy (HC-154). I chose this before everyone and their dog started doing this, lol! We opted to put trim on the beam between the kitchen and living room. I like it because it visually separates the spaces while still keeping everything unified.
I did not want tile on the floor because I feel tile is hard on my back. The floor is hardwood and is stained red mahogany. The handles and pulls came from Home Depot.
We have a huge pantry area that makes my baker's heart sing.
All the appliances are GE Profile. The counters are quartz. We chose a concrete grey from Ikea for the grey cabinets and purchased them during the annual kitchen sale. We purchased the white quartz with grey veining from a local stone dealer in Cortlandt Manor, NY. We opted for quartz countertops because they are so durable and require absolutely no additional sealing and maintenance. I love how easy they are to clean and that actually look clean when I wipe them down.
The island light comes from Wayfair. I love the low profile of the light! The island chairs come from Ikea. They are sturdy, attractive, and easy to clean. The island has a stand for my KitchenAid mixer and comes out to counter height. We have racks for bakeware. We also have two large deep drawers where we put kitchen appliances. The other side of the island has a small bookcase for my cookbooks.
We have a deep single bowl sink from Kraus. I don't remember where we ordered the faucets from. The faucet on the left is for filtered drinking water (with an RO filtering system) because we use well water. We have a trash compactor that we love as it reduces the volume of our trash significantly and is easy to use.
The backsplash is a classic white subway tile. We used that because we had a surplus of tile from the bathroom and I thought it worked well with the kitchen.
I love my kitchen. It is a dream to use for baking and cooking and a dream to clean. We have deep dish drawers right by the dishwasher which makes putting away the dishes so easy and fast.
Any questions or comments?
