I am in love with this space now. I actually enjoy being in the kitchen and preparing meals for my family. I even don't mind washing dishes with a view like that! We were able to add so much storage and work space without making the room feel smaller. The single-basin cast iron sink may be my favorite piece of the whole renovation. That star mosaic backsplash is a close second.
We ordered the cabinets through Surplus Warehouse and were able to pick the size (42" tall cabinets) and color (Norris Gray) for a semi-custom look. We have been so happy with the quality of these cabinets for the price. They are solid wood construction with dove tail joints and have soft close drawers and doors. The finish is beautiful and I love that I didn't have to do it myself! The only downside to box cabinets in a house this old is that the walls and floors are not flat at all, so we had to do a lot of leveling and shimming to get everything even.
The countertops are quartz that we ordered through Home Depot. I love the color and quality of them, but beware that we waited 6 weeks after purchasing before they were finally installed. There was a lot of eating out in those weeks! The backsplash is made of porcelain tile and comes in sheets for easier installation. A couple of guys who work for Connor were able to glue and grout it in an afternoon. We went with a charcoal grout to make the tiles really pop. The wall color is "Santa's Beard" by Valspar. I decided to go with white in here to combat the darkness of the cabinets. It really brightened up the space and draws your eyes straight up to the 10' ceilings.
When we first planned this renovation we had intended to replace the vinyl floors with a new luxury vinyl. It wasn't until we removed the old floors (4 layers!) that we discovered the original heart pine wood. They were covered in black tar and glue, but we crossed our fingers that they could be refinished. Luckily, a family friends owns a flooring company, and he was able to sand them down and stain them dark walnut. The finished product is so much better than I could have hoped, and only cost a fraction of vinyl. We decided to stain them dark because we plan to refinish the rest of the house in the same color over the next few months.
Lastly, we bought a new set of appliances. You'll notice we don't have a dishwasher. This was a decision we made based on our preference, but there would have been plenty of room to include one if we had wanted it. We ordered the stove and microwave through Lowe's on Black Friday at the lowest prices of the year. We were able to snag the refrigerator at Sears Outlet for half price (it has a few dings and scratches), which meant getting a much nicer one than we had originally budgeted for.