When Jake and I bought our midcentury/traditional hybrid house in Highland Park IL, we were ready for the move from Chicago’s Logan Square to a more suburban home. And we were ready for a project. We had already been through one kitchen renovation in Logan and wanted to try out a different style. Our city house was a traditional four square, so we outfitted it with white shaker cabinets and black granite on one side and an island complete with gray shaker cabinets with a thick custom cut piece of walnut butcher block. A topic for another post. This house had a different vibe altogether and was begging for a more modern aesthetic.

Photo: Realtor listing photos – before the renovation

I narrowed my kitchen renovation vision to include light wood cabinets, natural light stone countertops, black windows, and a mix of gold and black hardware. I wanted it to feel light and airy with the high contrast details that I love.

I spent several evenings digging deep on the internet for a cabinet maker to fabricate the specific rift sawn white oak cabinet fronts I had fallen in love with (rift cut meaning vertical grain pattern). Go figure, they’re pretty popular now, but at the time that we started our project, they weren’t readily available. Jake spent hours helping me sketch out how we’d reconfigure the space to accommodate all of our must haves.

I narrowed my search for a cabinet maker to 3 options – two local custom cabinet makers in Chicago and one nearby in Indiana. I got quotes from all 3 and narrowed it down to 2 based on price. One of the two cabinet makers quickly fell off my list because his design completely disregarded my specific requests. It was as if he never looked at my inspiration photos and renderings. But, it made it a lot easier to select the winning cabinet maker: Silver Birch.

We selected a quartzite (learn more about countertops here) called Statuary. For me, this countertop was the perfect solution. I really loved all the beautiful marbles in the showroom, but they weren’t practical for our family. And, honestly, I’ve been known to be kind of sloppy when prepping food too. The Statuary slabs that we picked had a simple enough pattern to be interesting but wasn’t overwhelming. It has a warm greige color surface and green, blue, and tan veining.

Photo: Quartzite countertop

 

Photo: Emtek edge pulls in satin brass

 

I knew I wanted hardware on our cabinets; in my opinion it adds character to the space. I went back to the same hardware manufacturer I selected in our Logan house, Emtek, because their products have a modern aesthetic and are durable. I picked the edge pull in satin brass and paired it with Emtek Keaton appliance pulls in the same color. I used the Edge pull in flat black for the china cabinet. 

I picked the Brizo Litze Single Handle Arc Spout kitchen faucet and paired it with aBlanco single bowl sink in anthracite (the same sink I bought in Logan I liked it so much!)

Photo: Brizo Litze Single handle Arc Spout

Photo: Emtek Keaton appliance pulls in satin brass

 

Looking at these renderings now, it’s amazing how closely they match the final product!  

Photo: Highland Park house kitchen renderings

Photo: Highland Park house kitchen – the real deal

As far as my desire to determine where to spend and where to save, truthfully, we decided not to save on a lot of this kitchen. The original homeowners had selected materials that were extremely well-made, and it shows. Their original 1965 fixtures are still in pristine condition. We wanted to match the quality and care that went into building this house years ago with well-made cabinets and accessories and are happy we did so.