One Room Challenge Week 4 | Construction Nears Completion

I can’t believe I’m saying this, but after nearly four months of construction, the end is JUST around the corner. This past week was a big one for us as we saw our countertops get installed, and then everything else just seemed to fall into place: the sink, fixtures, microwave and workable surface area were all just THERE overnight and after living without a kitchen for so long it feels SO GOOD.

Speaking of countertops, we decided to go with a trusted local family shop called ES Marble & Granite and they worked through some of our ideas with us over the past few months until we found something that would be both practical AND beautiful. You know those little marble shelves that rest on the top of high backsplashes that are all the rage right now? Well, I desperately wanted one for our kitchen, but it turns out that neither our wallet, nor the extra hours of construction that were needed to make it a reality were on board. So, we decided to keep the high backsplash and lose the shelf.

Another area that we spent some time exploring was MATERIAL. If you haven’t realized this about me yet, I will spell it out for you now: I A-M N-O-T P-R-A-C-T-I-C-A-L. So, of course the aesthetic-obsessed part of me wanted marble countertops. You just can’t beat that worn-in, timeless matte look of marble and I wanted to embrace all the chips and stains and have that splash of marble in my kitchen transport me back to Italy, where all the wine rings and colander stains are just part of what make their spaces endearing.

But, apparently, not everyone in my home is into red wine stains… and the blueberry stains from children being reckless … and the hot pan rings from the mama being too lazy, so we decided on a quartzite material that would mimic the look of Calacatta marble… and I have to admit I feel like we’re living with the best of both worlds. We have those charmingly irregular veins that are strikingly dramatic in tone, yet the entire surface is as hardy as granite. And leaving the high backsplash but losing the shelf allowed us to really appreciate the statement that the marble is by allowing the eye to follow it throughout the room from all angles.

Consider the countertop decision-making process my first lesson in embracing flexibility.

So after those countertops went in, we had our sink, faucet, and soap dispenser installed and that moment actually brought me to tears. No more walking up the stairs to wash hands, bowls, and glasses .. and after four months this mama right here just broke the F down. HALLELUJAH. This is said with the utmost understanding that having fresh, running water in my home at all is a COMPLETE luxury and I often wanted to punch myself for complaining about the lack of water on our ground floor (again, the luxury of having two floors). POOR ME.

But onward we go to finally getting to install those beautiful brushed gold Moen fixtures from Build.com They went in, I DIED. We had decided to go with a black quartz sink to pick up on all of the other black details throughout the kitchen and the way these gold fixtures popped next to the black undermount sink just made my heart sing. I wanted to keep the entire sink area as sleek as possible, so I loved the minimalistic design on the Moen faucet and soap dispenser, but I also loved how it double-functioned with a pull down sprayer. I spent hours upon hours upon hours searching for the perfect faucet, and I am so glad I found this one. It is one of the focal points on the kitchen and it’s looking PRETTTTY damn sexy. We can’t wait to install the matching pot filler!

Two more major developments happened this week, but I am just going to talk about one of them: the installation of our super-duper kick-a$$ hardware. This was another element of the kitchen that I spent WAY too many hours researching and agonizing over. I love how modern and sleek brass pulls look but they are so, well, EXPECTED. Everyone and their mother has been slapping brass pulls on their cabinets for the last five years and I wanted to do something that was equally modern, but a bit more UNexpected.

I reached out to my friend Krystal at Pepe and Carols and we went through many different options – she was even so kind as to send me lots of different samples in the mail. Now, before I say anything else I just need you to know that Pepe and Carols does not make ANYTHING that doesn’t make me swoon, but I was envisioning sort of a combination of the pulls she was sending me. I relayed my vision to her, and shortly after she mocked up the pull I was dreaming of, sent it over, and queue lots of drool pouring out of my mouth. I loved how they followed the geometric lines of the rest of the kitchen, but still had a softness to them. The black and brass dual-toned look picked up all of the brass and black elements in the kitchen perfectly – and she even added brass spacers on the side to give them that eclectic vibe I was shooting for. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU Krystal for making the pulls of my dreams for me!

Other fun details were completed this week, but I am going to save that discussion for next week’s post because they aren’t exactly complete yet. This upcoming week we will see our floors get finished, our HALLMAN RANGE ARRIVE (GAH!), and our reclaimed wood will arrive just in time to be hurriedly installed before REVEAL coming up in two short weeks!

As always, be sure to visit the One Room Challenge to check out all of the other amazing spaces that are being transformed over this six week-long ORC season. So many of them are inspiring me to dive right on into our next project (which means they are INSANELY cool because I would have to be INSANE to do such a thing).

Cheers to the end being near!