Gray + White Kitchen Remodel (Centsational Girl)

Grandma’s kitchen remodel is complete! Okay it took a few extra months beyond our projected completion date due to various delays, but I’m proud to share it with you today!

This small attached home is a duet in a retirement community and will go on the market in a few weeks. Since the remodel was on behalf of her estate and solely for resale, I purposefully chose a neutral palette mixing warm wood tones with cool chrome fixtures, gray cabinets, and a marble look countertop.

I wanted it feel modern and fresh but have traditional touches too, see the original design plan here. This is a 55 community so the style I went with was transitional, elegant, and classic. I styled it with a few dishes and decorative objects for both the real estate listing and to show it off at its best.

Here’s a reminder of the kitchen before we remodeled it. It had cream painted cabinets that had yellowed over time, even yellower plastic pulls, and the wall oven was separate from a lowered countertop. The cabinets were sticking from layers of paint, the linoleum floor was very dated as were the tan laminate countertops. We thought about salvaging the hood, the fridge, etc, but the project ended up being a total gut job down to the drywall since we needed to upgrade all the electrical and lighting anyway.

Here it is complete with new everything.

The cabinets come with a story, back in November I chose Kraftmaid in Chai but the paint color was backordered until January so I switched to Martha’s Sharkey Gray but those cabinets took ten weeks which turned out to be good because then we had that soffit ceiling fiasco in late January and Martha’s uppers didn’t come in the shorter size so we canceled that order and went with Thomasville in the Cottage style in the Sterling color which arrived in late March and were installed in early April.

The cabinets were worth the wait because they are absolutely beautiful, the finish is so smooth, the construction is sturdy, and inside the cabinets and pantry are wood pull out drawers (forgot to take a pic!). I chose a chimney hood instead of a stainless steel hood in the same paint color as the cabinets.

I chose white appliances because I’ve always liked them and they feel very clean to me, and also I felt stainless appliances would be too much gray given that both the uppers and lowers are gray. If I’d gone with white uppers (a trendier look) then I probably would have chosen stainless appliances, but since this kitchen is more transitional in style, I chose white appliances for contrast, so the gray and white combo is the reverse of a white kitchen with stainless steel appliances. The white appliances tie in with the flecks of white in the backsplash, the white that is present in the marble look countertops, and the crisp white sink and ceiling.

The wood floating shelves are from Kraftmaid, we never changed that part of the original order. They were a pain to install but I so love the stained wood which ties in with the dark floor, also the medley of glass cabinets and open shelving allows for both storage and attractive display.

The floors are vinyl and so good! They are Trafficmaster Allure, but I forget which style of wood so I have to track down the order, I’ll update later today.

The backsplash is a glass and shell medley by Jeffrey Court, it’s a mix of pearlescent tiles in brown and white with flecks of gray and cream in them too, it pulls all the tones together and the shell tiles have an iridescent reflection in daylight, very pretty!

The countertops are Formica Carrara Bianco in the Ideal Edge. It amazes me how far laminate countertops have come! You can get the look of marble for sooooo much less plus they’re low maintenance and easy to clean.

The key to a more modern application is to make sure there is no lip or backsplash like you see on the old installations. Laminate looks so more like stone when the backsplash tile meets the solid surface where their vertical and horizontal planes meet in the corner.

Formica is having a contest now – you can enter your space for a chance to win a $10,000 makeover – details here.

The Delta faucet with spray is polished chrome with a contemporary arch, the faucet swivels from side to side, the sink is cast iron Kohler from Home Depot.

Oh that hardware! I love it so much I plan to use it in the Las Vegas kitchen remodel too. The pulls are stunning and so solid, very heavy in your hand, and beautiful jewelry on the Shaker style cabinets, mimicking their square shape. Each pull and knob come with back plates which add that little something extra.

We saved money on this project by keeping the same footprint and leaving the appliances in the same spot. (There are no gas lines available in this planned community so we had to stick with electric.) We used wood look vinyl flooring instead of tile or wood and a free standing range instead of slide in range, we also took advantage of 10% off coupons and weekend appliance deals from Home Depot.

One of the big changes we deemed important was removing the full wall on the right and creating a pony wall and peninsula to provide an extra eating surface and open up space to adjacent family room that was previously closed off. We also upgraded all the lighting by swapping the old florescent box light for recessed cans, under cabinet lighting, and new sconces.

Now there’s a view into the kitchen and guests or residents can have a conversation with the cook when previously there was just a wall.

I did not include a microwave but there is a small empty wall as you enter the kitchen where a cart and microwave can live if the future homeowner wants it.

And a few more Before and Afters …

Many of the sources are listed above but here they are again: Thomasville in Cottage style, Sterling color / Formica Carrara Bianco countertops / wood floating shelves are Kraftmaid cabinetry/ Delta chrome faucet with spray / Jeffrey Court glass and shell backsplash / chrome pulls and knobs / pendants above peninsula / refrigerator / dishwasher / range / rug: Martha Stewart from HomeGoods.

Let me know if you have any questions and I’ll answer them in the comments!

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