Kitchen Project

Reply to: The movement is what you see. The color is what you see.There's a photo below with very bad seam placement, which should have been located at the middle of the sink. A case of a fearful fabricator, is my guess. As with ANY quartz, don't expect matches in veining on perimeter turns in a top. It won't happen. The only way to see a full slab, is to find a fabricator in your area who happens to have a full slab. As with any top, make certain the quality of your fabricator, inspect your slab before a cut and polish, insist on a laser template, be at home for that template, discuss all SEAM PLACEMENT in advance with that fabricator. .................those are the rules. Or you may end with a seam, a well done seam....somewhere you do not want it.

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Reply to: I plan lighting for all of my Kitchen designs because it is the most important detail to show off the finished Kitchen. I like to "layer" lighting using recessed can lights, under cabinet lights and lights above the cabinets for ambient light - all with dimmers to set the mood or bump-up for the real work! I like to locate the can lights around the perimeter of the counters at 25-26" out from the wall (straight above the front edge of the countertop) so they are casting light right over your hands as you work there. I would not place them more than 36" apart for the best coverage.This also casts some of the cone of light on the front of you new cabinets for a beautiful accent. I like using led lights as under cabinet light since they are much cooler also. the leds can work for the above cabinet lights also. These are not dimmable but work well with the spot lights if they are the same bright white color.

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Reply to: "I’m just not sure I want to lose the storage. It’s not a large kitchen!" If you plan your storage well, you'll be amazed at how much more you will be able to store in your new kitchen, especially if you're going from base cabinets to drawer bases. My kitchen footprint didn't change but my it lives larger than it did pre-remodel, even though I lost 4 upper cabinets, because my storage is heads and tails more functional than it was before. Have you done your kitchen tally and taken note of how much storage you need and where? I'm talking about getting down to drawer sizes for grouped items, not just a general idea. For instance, I knew that a drawer in a 33" base cabinet would provide 30" interior width and 20" interior depth (you'll need to check with your cab maker to know what this will be for your cabs). I marked various drawer widths with blue tape on my counters and set items inside the lines and adjusted my plan or my storage arrangements as necessary. I made notes and took photos of everything. It was a breeze to unpack my kitchen and put things away because I knew where everything was going to go. With very few exceptions in the 2 1/2 yrs since my remodel, everything is stored per my plan. What a change from when we built this house nearly 24 yrs ago. I didn't discover that the drawers to the right of my island cook top were too narrow to hold my pot lids as planned until after we moved in and that the narrow cabinet on the other side of the cook top was too narrow to be useful for my storage needs. Ditto for the narrow cabinet between my corner sink and DW. When I packed up the kitchen for the remodel, I found duplicate new items that I didn't realize I owned because they got buried and never saw the light of day again. But I digress. =) My plan: The result: This activity takes time but it pays off big time. And it clearly showed that I could eliminate uppers on my cook top wall and still have ample storage. btw, I still have space to spare. Do the above before making any final decisions. You may find that yes, you don't need to go with a microhood or it may confirm your suspicion that you don't have the room to spare but you won't know until you do your homework.

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