Cobblestone Kitchen Overview
Living at the Cobblestone is becoming more of a reality every second - which is quite hard to believe! After two years of demoing and working on mechanicals it doesn't seem real that it’s time to pivot and start focusing on finishes… But here we are! I wanted to go over the kitchen design in detail as I have been pouring my heart into this plan for the last two years. I’ve been imagining our family eating dinner here, making Sunday breakfasts, having game nights, and so much more. It’s actually really emotional to know this is all coming to fruition sooner than later, I’m getting misty as I write this!
To start, I wanted to go over the basis for the kitchen design and noting that the plan is based on a feeling more than any one inspiration image. I have saved each of these images not because of any one design element (although they are pretty similar) but more so because I can imagine actually being in these rooms and how warm and cozy they make me feel. I want our home to feel like a giant warm hug, a place that will welcome us home no matter the circumstances, where we feel safe and secure.
Studio Laloc's Kitchen | Website Devol Kitchens Carlay Page Kitchen
I’ve always loved historic homes and while the original kitchen here was not historic by any means (that one’s in the basement), I definitely want the kitchen we create to feel as though it has always been with the house. At least since the advent of indoor plumbing ha! I am going with inset cabinetry with a simple shaker door, and flat panels on the drawers. We’ve had shaker cabinets before and I loathe cleaning them, so that guided us towards the flat panels on the drawers. Most of the kitchen will be drawers so my cleaning routine will be that much easier! As far as the color goes, this kitchen has windows facing North, East, and West so it gets a whole variety of lighting. But because the stone walls are so thick, our windows are quite deep which does change the lighting to a more shadowed light. Only occasionally throughout the day is there ever direct sunlight, it usually bounces off the deep window trim and comes through more muted. We are 95% sure we are going with Farrow and Ball Old White. I’ve loved this color before we even owned the Cobblestone. It’s just one of those colors that has always caught my eye and once I researched certain images I discovered the common thread throughout was Old White! We have a sample pot and I have tested it on a piece of watercolor paper that I’ve carried with me on every trip to the Cobblestone recently and love it.
We are forgoing upper cabinetry simply because our house is plaster on stone walls. We don't have the ability to safely secure any upper cabinetry to the walls without either building out the walls, which we did below for the base cabinets, or suspending them from the joists above. I do like the look of no uppers, but definitely enjoy storage more! Previously, there were upper cabinets, but they were secured directly to the wall - during demo we found bent nails and screws where they had tried to drive into a stone vs the mortar. The rocks are irregular so there's no telling where you might hit one! On top of that, any spots that they did hit mortar, the nails didn't come out cleanly and we have 3'' pockmarks that need to be repaired. Anyways, to compromise we are doing a cabinet that will rest on the counter and go to nearly ceiling height. For safety we will have this secured to the joists above. This will be our in-kitchen pantry, and hide away all the daily countertop appliances. Our dishes and serveware will be stored in a built in buffet/hutch style cabinet in the dining space.
Source - Willow Tree Interiors
The star of the kitchen will be the 36’’ Aga Elise Induction range. I knew once we put in the solar panels that the house would be completely electrified and no longer rely on any sort of gas burning appliances. I toyed with a plain old electric range, but after some research I really wanted to capitalize on the solar generated power and go with the most efficient type of cooking source we could. Enter induction. From a safety standpoint, I love that if the cooker is touched while on the heat cannot transfer to skin. Obviously if we touch a hot pot that's a different story. But the mother in me cannot pass up an extra level of safety! From a cleaning standpoint, I recently had the revelation that food cannot burn on the cooking surface either - hallelujah! And from a cooking standpoint, with traditional gas burning stoves, so much of the heat generated is lost to the area surrounding the stove, only a percentage actually goes into the pan/food itself. With induction it nearly all goes into the pan/food and therefore is crazy efficient. I think we’ve also subconsciously tried to make everything as efficient as possible now that we have solar/geothermal too.
Source - AGA
For the cabinet finishes I am going brass for all the hardware. Knobs, handles, and hinges. I am choosing unlacquered so I can watch the hardware age as we live there. It will be so sweet knowing the different variations on the hardware will have come solely from us going through our day to day, living in the home. I am choosing polished nickel for the bridge faucet. The metal is so warm and It will play very nicely with the cabinet hardware and the paint color. For the curtains, since we have this super unique lite pattern on the windows (the six over one) but in a ⅔ ratio, we will do a pleated linen cafe curtain where the windows meet. They are longer than a standard cafe curtain but I think it will work really well in the space. I am forgoing an apron front sink purely for convenience, they are beautiful, yes, but I really love having a pull out trash under the sink and they sit too low for that to happen. So we are doing an undermount white cast iron sink with a beautiful fabric skirt. The fabric I have picked reminds me so much of some of the old wall paper we found up in the trunk from the attic. The Rosemarie Collection No. 3 rug from the Chris Loves Julia x Loloi will finish everything off - the colors pair so perfectly with the brass hardware, the paint color, and the fabric skirt.
Since the kitchen is an eat-in kitchen, the lighting will connect seamlessly with the dining space. We decided on the pleated pendant lights, they are just the sweetest element. I always imagine them as a ballerina skirt. The natural color of the pendant will play perfectly with our bare plaster walls, and the brass will just tie everything together so nicely. We are keeping the joists exposed with the old plaster marks, but because this house is now functioning for the 21st century we can’t keep the floorboards above exposed… so to keep this look we are running all our electric/plumbing closer to the above floorboards allowing us to use boards reclaimed from the attic to mock the look of the actual floorboards. It’ll be time consuming and involve tons of measuring but I think this will really help tell the story of the Cobblestone. We are so excited to start ordering these pieces and can’t wait to share as it all comes together!