kitchens Archives - Emily A. Clark

Our Black Honed Granite Kitchen Countertops

Oct262017

When planning our recent kitchen renovation, I knew I wanted to go in a different direction from the granite countertops we had in our last house. I was forever wiping them down, only to see more streaks. I also wanted something that was low maintenance and to stay away from anything that felt really trendy. (This renovation is for the long haul.) I know you’re thinking I studied different materials for hours and looked at a billion samples. In reality, our kitchen designer brought over the honed black granite sample from her own kitchen, said it was easy to maintain and I committed.

Now that I’ve lived with them for over a year, I can say that I’m really happy with my choice. With all of the other design details going on in our kitchen, I think the simplicity of the countertops and flat finish works well. And low maintenance? For sure. I really don’t have to worry about spills or what may sit on them for too long. For everyday cleaning, I’ve been using Method daily granite cleaner. The granite installer told me to stay away from Windex, 409, etc., and also suggested I clean them with a water/denatured alcohol mixture. (I do this every now and then but not on a regular basis.)

I do occasionally notice that there will be some ring marks left that you can see in the right lighting. (Look closely at the photo above, and you can see one.) I put a call out on this Instagram post and got a lot of good cleaning suggestions, in case you’re looking for some as well. By the way, some of the rings that were bothering me before are barely noticeable now. . .

So, overall, I’m going to give honed black granite two thumbs up, especially for an extra busy countertop. It may also help that there are few hours in a day when I can actually see the surface of mine. . . ;)

Anybody else have experience with honed granite? What are your thoughts?

See the full kitchen reveal post (with sources) here.

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Our Kitchen Layout (Before & After)

Jun202017

After sharing most of the “after” pictures of our kitchen remodel, I wanted to follow up with a post to show you how we changed the actual layout.

As with most traditional 30-year-old houses, ours had a formal dining room (attached to the kitchen). Before the renovation, we had been using ours as a sitting/piano room.In our previous houses, we’ve either never used the dining room or turned it into a home office. I didn’t see us turning into a formal dining kind of family anytime soon, and we need all the kitchen space we can get. We knew from the start that the wall that separated the two rooms was coming out to make one large space.

renovation, week 1

I initially had my heart set on a sink in front of the row of windows at the end of our kitchen that overlooks the backyard. The designer we worked with helped me walk through a day (in my mind) of how that would work logistically. She helped me see that it would create a really busy traffic pattern in my main workspace, resulting in lots of frustration and probable yelling. :)

That’s when the idea of the of the sink in the island (and FIVE bar stools, please) came into play. This has worked out really well. I’m able to stand behind the island and get the kids what they need and then clean up all from one spot. There’s a dishwasher on each side of the sink. (No regrets there.)

Behind the island is our range, open shelving and lower cabinet storage. This is where the stove–and all of our countertop space–was before.

MLS photo

soon after we moved in

renovation, week 1

Again, I’m staying in mostly the same area when I’m unloading the dishwashers. It’s nice to just be able to turn around and place most of what we use every day on the open shelves.

I remember some of you being concerned about the refrigerator being on the other side of the island. To tell you the truth, there wasn’t a lot of options since we were working with a fairly long space. But it hasn’t bothered me at all to walk around the end of the island to get what I need. (If that’s my worst problem. . . ) And I’m especially good at telling the kids to get off their stools and get me what I need. ;) Before the renovation, the stove was in this space.

MLS listing photo

after we moved in

We also removed the pantry closet right beside of it (behind the shelving unit) which ate up a lot of floor space.

Yes, I love the huge fridge/freezer. An appliance post coming soon. . .

We opted for two pull-out pantries that are both in “the green section” of our kitchen. I keep our food in one and dishes/serving pieces in the far one by the front window. And, as I’ve mentioned before, the addition of comfortable chairs has made this area my favorite spot in the house. (This area is what was previously the dining room/black sitting room.)

MLS photo

the front room before we started renovation

On the opposite end of the kitchen (by the back door), we kept our dining table. I had originally envisioned a built-in window seat, but in the end decided that’s not where I wanted to use our budget. (It would’ve required reworking the windows.) I’m glad, because we use the table way less than we do the island.

MLS photo

Anything I missed? Let me know. :)

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In case you missed our kitchen reveal, you can find that post (and sources for everything) here.

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Our Green and White Kitchen Renovation

Jun82017

More than a year after starting the renovation, I’m finally sharing our completed green and white kitchen. The renovation process itself took about ten weeks, but between eating and cleaning (and eating again), it has taken me a while to get the finishing touches just right.

This is what the kitchen looked like before we moved in:

And, this is the kitchen right before we started the renovation. (We had the cabinets painted white when we moved in, thinking we might hold out longer than we actually did on remodeling.)

Our completed renovation:

I’ll do a follow up post in the next week or so to show you more of the before and after layouts. (We knocked out a wall so that the old kitchen and front dining room all became one room.) I’ll also fill you in on the appliances, how the kitchen is working for us after a year, etc. But, for now, here are the “after” pictures:

The two big items on my wishlist for this space were two dishwashers (the best decision ever!) and a really pretty hood (we had it custom made). That was definitely my splurge for the space, but I think it was totally worth it. I’m sure my husband agrees. ;)

I also really love having open shelving. I feel like it makes it so much easier to just turn around from the dishwashers and put the dishes away. For the most part, I just keep our everyday dishes here. We added L-brackets from the hardware store on the edges of the shelves to dress them up a little. (I brush-painted them gold.)

That’s me heating up my coffee for the seventh time. (Every morning.) I was on the fence about the microwave drawer but it has worked out really well. I do like that it’s tucked out of the way.

I knew I wanted some color in this kitchen and my first thought was to put it on the island. Our kitchen designer suggested putting the color on the end section of cabinetry instead. I like how it breaks up the long room into different areas. The tall green cabinets both house pull-out pantries and we added the chairs so it would feel like a small “keeping room.” It’s my favorite and most-used spot in the house.

We ended up with a short wall that was really too narrow of a pass-through behind the bar stools to add any kind of function. I took advantage of this blank space and hung a gallery of white frames with some of my favorite color photographs of the kids. (It’s always the topic of conversation anytime someone visits our home.) I was also able to work in the library sconces I’d always wanted.

I continued the green theme on the other side of the kitchen by wallpapering the wall behind our table. I found a green paint (Deep Jungle by Benjamin Moore) that almost matched my wallpaper sample exactly.

This is the same table I have guests sign.

I hope you enjoyed the little walk-through of our new space. Let me know if you have more questions about it that you’d like to see addressed in a future post.