From the Archives: Kitchen Renovation at The Cozy Cottage

When we moved into our house in 2015, we knew we wanted to renovate the kitchen. It was mostly gray laminate, dirty wallpaper and a ceiling that was falling apart. It wasn’t until 2021 that we could finally afford to renovate it and it went from being the ugliest part of our house to the most beautiful. The layout was fine and very functional since there already was a working triangle, a lot of countertop space and plenty of storage. We just had to turn it from ugly to pretty.

The kitchen at The Cozy Cottage after I painted it pink.

Inspiration and Moodboard

This laminate and wallpapered kitchen seemed like it was straight out of the 1980s. We wanted it to feel brighter, textured and bigger even if we weren’t changing the footprint or moving anything around. We also were hoping to uncover brick over the oven and mix vintage elements with contemporary design. I pulled inspiration from a lot of sources, including interior designers Crystal Sinclair and Jessica Davis.

Kitchen by Crystal Sinclair Designs / Photo by Sean Litchfield

Jessica Davis’ kitchen in a NJ home / Photo by Pablo Enriquez

Here is the kitchen moodboard:

Hiring an Architect and Interviewing Contractors

We started this process by interviewing contractors as well as hiring an architect to create a drawing for us that contractors could use to develop estimates and then use for the actual renovation. In total, we had nine contractors come through. Here’s what they almost all said: 1. You’re gutting this, right? 2. Your ceiling is falling down! The wallpaper is holding up your ceiling! 3. Wow, I have never seen a fireplace and oven sharing a chimney in a corner like that. 4. I couldn’t even begin to tell you what is behind that. 5. That is a tight space. You need to make more room there.

The more contractors who came in, the more estimates we could get and also get a feel of how they would be to work with. Another benefit of having all of these contractors in was getting to hear their opinions and advice, since they have a ton of expertise and we have none. Based on my research as well as advice contractors gave me, here are questions to ask a contractor before you hire them for a renovation:

Are you licensed? Do you have insurance?
Do your guys work on the payroll? Are they full-time contractors?
How many days are you on site?
How long is demo?
Can you recommend an architect, plumber, electrician?
Do you have a cabinet person? A countertop person?
Can you provide an itemized budget estimate?
When do all materials need to be chosen and in place?

We worked with architect David Obuchowski, a friend and neighbor, who we hired to do the architectural drawings. Contractors used these drawings to determine project estimates and laying out the work. We didn’t change the footprint of the kitchen or move plumbing or gas lines.

Cabinet Design

While all of this was happening – talking to contractors and working with the architect – we also started checking out cabinets because this renovation was during the pandemic when there were long-lead times with just about everything in construction.

I can’t say enough about Pamela Boone, kitchen designer at a Cabinets Direct USA near me. We have a complicated kitchen because of the tight space and corners and she was incredibly helpful and understanding and made SO MANY drawings for us while we decided between cabinet designs. I work in public relations and MasterBrand Cabinets is one of my agency’s clients. I knew we were going to use a line of cabinets from MasterBrand, so I went to check them out at Cabinets Direct and work with Pamela. Once the architectural drawings were done, we put down a deposit and someone from Cabinets Direct came and took their own measurements. After working with Pamela a little more, we settled on a cabinet line, color, door front, and design. The cabinet design was based off of all of this information as well as the design concept in the architectural renderings.

We chose flat front, modern cabinets from MasterBrand Cabinets in the Decora line in a dark, yet vibrant green from Sherwin-Williams called Cascades SW 7623. We already had the LG refrigerator, and just purchased a GE Cafe Series slide-in gas range. The overall design included white subway tiles on the walls in addition to the exposed brick and, on the floors, white hexagon tiles. The cabinet pulls were a mix of brass and brown leather. The idea was colorful modern with a classic touch so the kitchen doesn’t feel out of place in our 1903 cottage.

Countertops

The minute we saw the slab, we knew we wanted to splurge a little for a stunning countertop moment. There are so many surface materials to choose from but we landed on a quartz, a somewhat manmade material, and a quartzite, a naturally occurring stone. Both are durable and come with many color and veining options and variations, but quartzite requires a little more maintenance than quartz. You can read more about the two materials here.

The quartz was a soft white with lots of soft and slightly brown, brassy veining, and the quartzite we saw had a grayish white background and a lot of veining in a variety of colors, including a brassy brown, blues and greens, and even pinks. Based on price, we chose the quartzite, called Macaubas Fantasy Quartzite.

The Macaubas Fantasy Quartzite slab we saw in person.

Appliances

Since we already had a stainless steel refrigerator, we decided to go with stainless steel for the oven range and dishwasher (although the dishwasher is an integrated appliance so the finish doesn’t matter). We chose this Cafe Appliance slide-in gas oven range, which is stainless steel but has some brass hardware details. The brass hardware should go well with other elements in the kitchen. Stainless steel appliances seem to be a magnet for fingerprints and dog nose prints, based on our experience with the refrigerator, and yet can’t actually hold magnets. Both of these things are a pain, but we overall like the look of stainless steel and we wanted our two biggest appliances to match as much as possible. We also went with an 18-inch wide integrated dishwasher.

We chose a single bowl, undermount sink in stainless steel (this one by Ruvati). We knew we wanted undermount instead of drop-in because the countertop around the sink is easier to clean. We currently have a double-bowl sink, but the sink width we needed to order to fit our new cabinets is smaller than the one we currently have, so in the end we decided to go for one large, deep bowl. Our faucet is a little more of a showstopper, this one by Kraus.

We were able to expose brick in our kitchen.

The Final Reveal

Overall, the kitchen renovation took about 2.5 months (we had to wait about three weeks total for countertops, which was the biggest delay). In the end, we absolutely love how it turned out.