So once the peninsula was completed, we thought we could just add on to the granite we already have. WRONG! Since our granite was 6 years old it was virtually impossible to match it. We were sent to a place in Farmingdale that has beautiful slabs of stone. Its amazing all the choices. It makes me reflect on the beauty and splendor the Lord has given us on Earth! I fell in love with a slab of Calcutta Manhattan marble that was already honed. Honed is a matte finish- which is a good idea since marble wears easily and if you missed a spot of juice it can etch its surface.

To save a little money, we purchased the one slab and our installer gave us a slab of carrera marble they had left over at their shop. We used the carrera on our desk. Here's how they came out:

We found counter height chairs at Pier 1. They are pretty, but very fragile!

We have been trying to figure out what kind of backsplash we wanted. This is what we came up with. I would like to put a mozaic over the stove area.

The majority of the backsplash is going to be subway tile. I wanted to add a little to it by having a strip of mozaic going thru the subway tile. Once we have ordered and installed the tile. I'll show you what it looks like!

Kim's Kitchen Remodel

Hi, Guys, this is Kim! I thought I would show a 'little' project my husband and I have been working on over the past year. A little over a year ago, my hubby and I were able to purchase a larger home in a wonderful neighborhood, not very far from our previous one. Anyway, our house was a new construction that sat for 6 years before we bought it. Its a story I'll leave for another post. One of the problems - if you could call it that- was the kitchen cabinets were a white washed maple. This gave them a pinkish appearance, not too appealing, but the bones were fairly good! I knew the guys at work could paint them to whatever color I needed (on their time- of course!). This photo shows you what the kitchen looked like before we had the floors sanded and stained to the color Jacobean from MinWax.

When we looked at the space, we wondered if an island in the middle would work. Then we quickly realized there wasn't enough space to move around an island. Hmmm- then the idea hit my hubby! Why not an peninsula?! That posed a few challenges of its own. First of all who made the cabinets? Can we still get them- they have been sitting after all for 6 years?! Quick examination of a drawer and a web search and we found the info we needed. We contacted a local company that sold them. I won't go into the details of our experience with them, but I will say it was not pleasant! After what felt like an enternity the cabinets arrived! But before we get into that, this summer I had the cabinets painted a soft white. Here's how they came out:

Once they were painted and returned to us, then an interesting challenge emerged. Piecing together the new cabinets, to create a peninsula. Once the puzzle was solved, my hubby had to retrofit our microwave. A purchase from ebay for a microwave trim kit and alot of cutting etc. My hubby got it into the cabinets. Here's a shot of that:

While he worked on the microwave, I searched tirelessly for the perfect hardware. Easy, right? Wrong! I finally landed on glass knobs from coolknobsandpulls.com. I saved so much on these! They were literally half the price of ones from Restoration Hardware! I did however, purchased my drawer pulls in varying sizes from Restoration Hardware.

Up next our counter adventure!

My sister, Jean Marie Lindbert, and I, Kim DeGraff, would like to create a blog about fun stuff that interests us. Hopefully it will interest and inspire all of you too!