Comments on: “Look What I Did!” Contest Entry – Our Kitchen Windows

By: stephanie

stephanie — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 18:48:12 +0000

KT! Hey birthday girl! Thanks – both for stopping by and for the compliments. I should post a photo of our “real” house sometimes. We tend to only take photos when she’s looking her best. At the moment, there’s so much dog hair on the floor, you’d swear we had wall-to-wall carpeting instead of wood floors. Ahhh – summer!

Hope all is well at your new place – can’t wait to see photos!

By: Katie Hern

Katie Hern — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 18:37:53 +0000

God, Steph. You have such amazing taste. I love cruising around your site. Cheers, KT

By: stephanie

stephanie — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 18:43:08 +0000

HiBradley. Thank you very much! We’ve been very happy with the kitchen so far – especially the pantry closet which hides our ugly microwave from view!

After much deliberation, we went with Schuler cabinets from Loweâ€™s. http://www.schulercabinetry.com/

Schuler is a company based here in Oregon. They account for only about 5% of Loweâ€™s cabinet sales because they are their higher-end, semi-custom brand. They are a lot more expensive than their other brands but much more affordable than something truly high end like Crown Point. They are sturdily built and since they are semi-custom, they have a lot of odd sizes the larger brands donâ€™t offer, which is helpful in an old bungalow kitchen where youâ€™re trying to squeeze a lot into a teeny space.

(I believe Home Depot carries them too. In some markets, they go by another name – Medallion.)

Anyway, the doors are solid and the hinges and drawer hardware are really smooth – the drawers glide like a dream. We ordered a couple of doors without panels so I could insert art glass which matches our light fixtures. (The cabinet company charged $90 per panel for their glass, which wasnâ€™t all that great.) I went to a local stained glass supply store and they cut both panels for me for $23.)

We passed on the Schuler hardware and chose our own (from Emtek) to customize the cabinets a bit and make them look more at home here.

Schuler makes a Prairie style door in quartersawn oak that we we really liked, but ultimately, we decided to go with the same door style in cherry with a mahogany stain instead because the woodwoork in our house is so dark, the oak looked very washed out next to it.

I had been obsessed with inset doors, but ultimately, because of cost, we went with flush-mount. Not “authentic” but not bad. Iâ€™m overall Iâ€™m still very happy with the end result. I think we managed to respect the style of the house while not completely blowing our budget, which allowed us to also tackle the scary pink bathroom!!!

By: Bradley

Bradley — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 16:00:04 +0000

Where did you get the kitchen cabinets? (What kind?) Love them! Love the whole kitchen! Very efficient use of space.

By: stephanie

stephanie — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 04:46:07 +0000

Thanks Jason! It always makes us feel better when people say that instead of “you people are crazy!)

By: Jason

Jason — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 20:52:20 +0000

If I hadn’t seen the pictures to prove it, I would never have believed those weren’t the original windows. Great project!

By: stephanie

stephanie — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 01:51:35 +0000

Thanks – both for good luck wish and for understanding that sometimes you’ve just gotta do what you’ve gotta do, even if the rest of the world thinks you’re crazy for doing it!

Good luck with your door re-reframing project!

By: ourmoneypit

ourmoneypit — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 19:29:03 +0000

LOL…love the blog’s name. I personally think the notion of remodelling an entire kitchen around $40 worth of windows to be an entirely reasonable endeavour.

I myself am about to re-frame 6 doorways to accommodate 6 genuine 5-panel doors, circa 1912, obtained for Cdn$10 each. They’re 36 x 84 and the existing doors are 32 x 80. And our home is just a regular home with appropriate bones that we’re restyling into a Craftsman!

Your kitchen looks great, and I hope you win!