madelen christopher

I posted a picture of my husband “cooking” on my Facebook page and received tons of feedback about my kitchen.  Several people who knew we had renovated our kitchen reached out to inquire regarding who our contractor was and I said “US!!!”  So here are a few images  that capture our before, after and in-between.

The original cabinets were solid wood and custom built.  The fact that they were still in decent shape is a testament to their craftsmanship, but they were extremely dated.  Additionally, the flow wasn’t conducive to how I wanted to utilize my kitchen.  I wanted an open concept home where I could work in the kitchen and still keep an eye on my kids in the adjacent family room.

As you can see, we removed everything in the existing kitchen.  EVERYTHING.  In order to widen the entrance between the kitchen and the family room the supporting beams had to be re-braced.  The words “support and beam” always seem to scare people.  It is a fundamental structure that must be respected, but everything can be modified.

You may not like what it takes to do it, but it can be done.  Once we put the walls back together and mapped out our new electrical and lighting plan the real fun started.  Cabinets!

Then came my dream… Marble countertops.  In a later post I will discuss countertops.  Many people told me I was crazy to use white marble in a real kitchen; by real kitchen I mean a kitchen where cooking takes place in a house where children live.  As you can see, I disagree completely and I will tell you all about that later.

I loved marble countertops with large veins so much that I became obsessed with photos and information about them.  I had to sell my husband on marble, but in the end he agreed that nothing was as beautiful.  We made a pact to accept marble for what it is and live with the ups and downs that make it who she is.  I think my husband was thinking how much that sounded like being married to me.  Anyway…

And what the kitchen looks like in real life.  My pride (the kids of course.)