Details:

Ikea Tidaholm cupboards, professionally sprayed in Cloud White with alot of customization. Unfortunately, these have since been discontinued.

AEG Electrolux 36" freestanding stove. Bought for less then half price because someone bought it, used it once and returned it because they decided they wanted gas. We don't have gas and recently put in Geo Thermal heating/air conditioning. Wasn't in the budget to bring in propane. Stove was so reasonable that if we decide to do so later we can.

Liebherr 30" freestanding refrigerator. Purchased for half price because it had a dent dent in the bottom half. Bought a new door so it was good as new, until they delivered it and dented the top half. They replaced the door. Neither will be installed until house is complete (just in case).

Ikea farmhouse sink and dishwasher. I'm actually very pleased that it works as well as it does.

Perrin and Rohl Aquatine faucet in polished nickel.

Island and Jam cupboard - Special Order from Camlen Furniture in Quebec. Purchased with hand planed top in pine and may or not replace with marble. Will live with it for a while.

10" random length pine floors. All hand finished and dinged and finshed with Waterlox. This alone took us several weeks. We love the finish.

Honed Absolute Black granite. Bought the kitchen at Ikea's 20% off sale. Rather then cash back you get Ikea gift certificates. Used these and another $1300.

Faber Inca Pro hood

Light fixture- Sescolite, Burlington, Ontario

Finished kitchen, $19 thousand including all the small stuff.

I would like to thank the GW community. I found you when most decisions had already been made but early enough to make some positive changes based on the vast amount of information shared on this site. I didn't ask for much advise but I can assure you that I read everything written on the subjects that I researched on this site and then some. I do not have the incredible knowledge that so many of you do who share so willingly to those who ask but have from time to time tried to help out on the very few subjects I know a little about. I have taken much more than I have been able to give. I am grateful to have had a place that I could frequent with people who share the same desire to have a kitchen of their dreams no matter their budget. And to those who think their day will never come, keep the faith. I never thought that I would get here. After seeing so many unbelievable kitchens, big and small, elaborate and understated, new and updated thanks for looking at mine.

Samllish kitchen - 11' x 16'

Before:

Dh and I were squashed both working in the corner between the sink and stove. Had to climb over the island to get to the fridge. no where to sit. Dated!!!

Details of new Kitchen

Cabinets custom built by Atr Cabinetry out of Nappanee Indiana (they ship country wide). They're a mix of maple and Cherry with walnut accents. A shameless plug for them - they were FANTASTIC to work for, nothing was impossible and I don't have a single filler or wasted inch in the entire kitchen!

*All new custom cabinets (slab doors) in 3 finishes (maple, cherry and walnut) with mortise-and-tenon cabinet frames and French dovetailed, hand-fitted drawers and catalyzed hand wiped finishes. All cabinet backs are 1/2" and all shelves are 3/4"
*Custom color finishes to match (eyes downcast) laminate chips whose colors I liked together
*Boxes are all maple and the inside stain is the same as all the other maple even where the doors are cherry
*Nearly all drawers in the base cabinets except for corner units, under the sinks and trash. Drawer depths were 100% customizable to fit the contents. (HD could not accommodate this)
*Panels for the fridge, freezer and two dishwashers
*Two way trash pullout accessible from both sides of the island (HD could not accommodate this)
*Pullout pantry tower with toe kick release
*Angled pantry cabinet with two doors
*Angled base cabinet and angled upper display cabinet
*Angled corner cabinet
*30" deep cabinets in the base and ALL the space is usable as custom made drawers go all the way back
*15" deep upper cabinets
*Spice drawer with "hidden drawers" above to maintain line of drawers visually
*Bread drawer with Plexiglas cover
*Glass inset doors on some of the uppers with glass shelves in those cabinets
*Wine glass rack in upper cabinet
*4 Toe kick drawers
*Custom-made can storage drawers
*Soft close Blum blumotion drawer guides on every drawer
*Soft close on all the doors
*5 Custom cherry/walnut intarsia doors
*2 Magic Corner II units
*2 tilt outs under sink
*Tray storage above ovens deep enough to hold trays in double depth
*two hidden cutting boards that pop out - one next to the fridge and one above the microwave
*Instead of a cabinet filler, I also have a small area where I store a step stool. The door from the trash cabinet was made wider to cover this storage area.
*3 cm granite – Marona Cohiba - gorgeous, with floating bar and custom stainless steel corbels
*Plugmold which we installed on angled trim
*GE Monogram all refrigerator and all freezer - changing to Miele within a month
*Plumbing to move freezer water line
*De Dietrich induction cooktop from Salon Blue Ridge (fantastic to work with)
*Miele Double ovens with tray cabinet above
*Futurofuturo hood with 900 cfm,
*Relocated every appliance except fridge. Put separate freezer in butler’s pantry
*Relocated cleanup sink and installed prep sink,
*Ran water supply and drain for a prep sink,
*Built out a butler’s pantry into the garage space

*2 Miele dishwashers (one was our old one which we repanelled and the new one is the Optima
*Sharp Microwave drawer,
*Kludi(prep) and eBay faucet (Cleanup)
*Blanco Sigranite sinks
*Water chiller and instant hot dispenser and tank
*Dual hot/cold water faucet

*4 built in soap dispensers Delta Brizo
*2 air switches
*Dual tapmaster works prep sink from both sides of island
*Tapmaster for clean up sink
*Recessed lighting as well as pucks in the upper cabinets,
Undercabinet lighting,
*Custom glass island light pendants,
*21 knobs and 60 pulls in stainless steel
*1 Soho Manhandle – a total splurge!!
*Moved and replaced the kitchen window
*Moved the sliding patio door and rebuilt the concrete step on the patio

Custom can storage (the two upper drawers are hidden behind the lower one so it lines up with all the other drawers)

Pot hanger

My absolute fav cabinet - the pullout pantry next to the ovens. It holds the Tupperware containers perfectly and when I pull it out I have EVERYTHING I need for baking right at my fingertips

Cab above the ovens. It's 30" deep and holds SOOOO much

Pot drawers

New Dishwasher

Corner unit closed and open

two way trash pullout

toe kick drawers

Cleanup area and fridge

We love our kitchen. It ended up costing 50% over our original budget and that figure will be going up with the purchase of the Miele Fridge and freezer units.

One surprise cost came about because the KD had the wrong measurements and we had to move the sliding door to accomodate the cabinets so MEASURE and then CHECK the blueprints!

I have comletely fallen in love with stiles' kitchen. If I had a beautiful craftsman home and all the money in the world to remodel, I would do a kitchen just like hers. I was all set to order cabs from MKFUSA online and we were going to have a cut-and-dry DIY project-- new inexpensive cabinets, new (but much nicer) laminate countertops, and new appliances. We were going to have recessed lighting installed as well. We only have 8' ceilings. We were also going to put in hardwood floors to carry in to the living room.

Here is a picture of stiles' kitchen:

But now I can't stop thinking about Stiles' kitchen! I'm wondering if there is a way I can get a similar look, but without the high-end price tag. What better place to come than here, where most of the savviest self-made kitchen designers/shoppers reside on the web? So tell me please--

-Are there any affordable countertops out there that replicate the look of lava stone?
-Deals on pretty bronze cabinet pulls?
-Amber pendant lights that don't cost $200 a pop?

You can see where I'm going with this.... Maybe it's simply impossible to get this look for my budget (which is only around 15K, by the way), and if so, then that's what I need to hear. I don't need my dream kitchen in this house-- we're military and won't be here forever. Plus our home will never be worth enough to put 50K into the kitchen. I'm also attaching a link to my post on here awhile back-- it gives my current kitchen layout, my new proposed kitchen layout, and some pictures of my white-on-white-on-white kitchen as it is today. Oh, and we've already scraped the popcorn finish off the ceilings.

It may be that all I need here is to be brought back down to earth. And that's fine. But if there's a way to get a similar look (without appearing cheap/cheesy), let me hear it! Thanks!!

Here is a link that might be useful: My original post with pictures