Francois Renovates: The Owner’s Suite Kitchen Progress

It’s been about a month since we began renovation on our 1934 Tudor duplex. Read more about the duplex here! A majority of the work has been concentrated in renovating the 1st floor owner’s suite kitchen, but we’ve also been tackling a less involved upstairs renter’s suite kitchen renovation as well as small updates to bring this frozen-in-time 1934 Tudor into the 21st century. Oh and did I mention we’re also up against a deadline to be out of our current apartment by Sept 30th? {Gulp} No pressure at all, right?

In reworking the owner’s suite kitchen we went round and round on whether to open up the North kitchen wall to create one GIANT kitchen/dining/living space, but in doing so, we’d adsorb the coveted 3rd bedroom.  We’re we willing to lose the 3rd bedroom that was a must-have item during our house hunt?

Then there was the duplex component to consider; down the road if we decide to move on, and rent out the owner’s suite, a 3 bedroom apartment will surely rent for more than a 2 bedroom. In the end, with short term goals of starting our family here and long term rent-ability goals in mind, keeping the 3 bedrooms proved more important to us than expanding the kitchen. So we decided not to move walls, and instead rework the function and finishes in the existing space.

1st Floor Owner’s Suite Kitchen Goals:

1. Rework the layout of the kitchen’s major work zones so they function better as a whole, allow for multiple simultaneous cooks, provide more counter space.
2. Update the look and feel of the space through bright and crisp finishes while still paying homage to the time period of the home.
3. Bring the space into the 20th century with smarter, more efficient technology: additional lighting, electrical, heating, ventilation and plumbing.

When beginning to design the space, I started with a ton of visual research on Pinterest. Find my “Maison” board here. One of the spaces that really spoke to me, was the kitchen home to Day Kornbluth, the VP of merchandising at One Kings Lane. I LOVE her mix of metals, the balance of warm and cool, the overall modern, yet timeless aesthetic and the centered range and hood on a fully tiled wall. So I took a lot of inspiration from this space when selecting finishes for our kitchen.

And now to the progress shots…apologies for the blurry, poorly lit photos which are only insult to injury on the gutted kitchen.

Here’s the kitchen just after the cabinets had been removed back in August. Gross, right? Yep! Since then we’ve been doing a ton of work like removing the lath and plaster, insulating, dry-walling, adding outlets/switches/circuits, moving utilities–all the boring stuff that makes you feel like you’re sprinting in place because it’s still ugly, i.e. unfinished. I just keep telling myself that it has to get worse (aesthetically) before it can get better. But then the cabinets go in, and you start to feel like, okay there is hope afterall!

The opposite wall to the long torn up wall, just had a fridge and a stove plopped side-by-side without counterspace, so that’s something we’re definitely addressing.

The marble countertops and appliances go in this week, so more progress shots to come!

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