Kitchen Updates

This post has been a long time coming! For years, we have wanted to update our kitchen countertops. We finally decided to go for it. I’ve always loved honed granite and soapstone. Our kitchen is all white – walls & cabinets. So, I felt like it called for a black countertop for contrast. We browsed the granite yard and found exactly what we wanted. It’s negresso black granite, honed with white veining, and oh so pretty.

The butler’s pantry is the first thing you see when you enter our kitchen. It doesn’t make many blog appearances. It’s long and narrow and somewhat difficult to photograph. Truth be told, the cabinets were pretty crappy. They were old site-built cabinets from yesteryear. We jumped at the chance to replace them once we decided to upgrade the countertops. The top cabinets are still the old ones, but I don’t mind.

Of course, new cabinets call for new hardware. The base cabinets are 36″. We opted for 10″ chrome pulls from Emtek, and I love how substantial they are! Big drawers call for big pulls!

Another splurge was this dual-zone fridge. Before, we were using a garage refrigerator for overflow. Having access to adult beverages in the kitchen is mighty nice. The top holds beer or white wine, and the bottom holds red wine. You can read all about it here. I love how it looks in our butler’s pantry, and it is so handy!

It took a bit of sweet-talking, but I finally convinced R that a white single bowl sink would be beautiful. Now he can’t imagine it any other way. After searching sinks for what seemed like an eternity, we chose this one.

It’s a fireclay which I wasn’t familiar with at all. It came with a metal strainer that’s is handy for letting dishes dry. It also provides protection from scratches. I love having a single bowl and the white fireclay is so easy to clean. I use baking soda, rinse, and wipe it dry. Thanks for stopping by!