Well if you made it all the way down here I am so excited to share our new kitchen with you!!!! Thank you SO much for your patience while we finished it to have it photographed, we are so very in love with it. It’s wild to think that so many pieces in this kitchen were on what I call a “dream board” just 5 years ago. And it’s also wild that this picture in my head when designing this kitchen finally came to life, after second guessing my decisions almost every step of the way…I am so glad I stuck with my gut and went for what I wanted from the start, I hope you love it as much as we do! I am so sorry for the plethora of imagery but Heidi Lau did such an amazing job that I genuinely couldn’t cut it down any more than I did, trust me I went back and forth about 12 times with my assistant to narrow it down more…wasn’t happening!

We took possession of this new house in February 2017 and immediately started gutting it, I will be sharing a full before & after of every angle soon but for now I wanted to just show you all of the after ;). It is a drastic change let me tell you, we took down walls, closed in a window on one wall, put in a bigger window on another, ripped out the old flooring and added fresh, wide white oak hardwood flooring from Black Bear Flooring out of Ontario…well we literally ripped out everything down to the studs, a complete gut and transformation. We also added tongue & groove to the ceiling with Metrie products of course, Metrie is even incorporated into our kitchen as the crown pieces used for our upper cabinetry too. In our last house we used the knotty pine tongue & groove product by Metrie but this time we used MDF, this product can be used two days- on one side you have a panel of 2 & on the reverse you have a panel of 3, it was easier for Craig to install this time around and I do love the look more, it’s nice and clean. We also incorporated a beautiful set of Metrie glass doors from their Fashion Forward collection onto the kitchen but we will show you those once we are ready to reveal what is behind them!

I knew I wanted a Calacatta Gold stone going up the walls from our counters and even though this isn’t exactly the easiest process, I am so glad we did it. We picked this stone from Silestone by Cosentino from their Eternal colours collection in their suede finish (not polished), it’s a durable and gorgeous quartz that every one thinks is marble when they visit however we do not have the stress of caring for marble (we are beyond messy when cooking haha). I searched for SO long to find a quartz I loved when we decided against marble, I fell in love with this stone instantly! It makes such a great statement yet doesn’t take away from my favourite pieces in the kitchen…the La Cornue oven. This was a present to me from Craig, and to get this present I made the deal to let him pick the colour with me – he picked well I tell ya! This model is the CornuFe 110 and it comes in SO many beautiful colours. This baby cooks like a DREAM, it isn’t all good looks. I wanted the oven to be the only exposed appliance and we made the rest cabinet fronts. I’ve never been a fan of stainless steel appliances being exposed, because you see every darn finger print and I personally am no fan of wiping down a fridge every single day, are you? I know you parents out there have to be shaking your heads in agreeance (yes I know this isn’t actually a real word in English, but hey I am French after all lol). With two young kids that are quite respectful of my white kitchen, I sure do not have to wipe down this fridge every day. All of our cabinets were built by a local cabinet maker who helped me make my design a reality, down to the smallest storage detail. We have storage on 3 sides of the island, a hidden one where the stools are, a hidden one on the outside facing away from the kitchen and of course all of the ever so important pot drawers and pull outs across from the fridge & stove. We even had a custom floor to ceiling cabinet built for the side of the fridge to store all of our mail, keys etc…you know all of the items that end up living on the counters? I am notorious for leaving things on the counter and so is my husband so this was a great way to stop us. Now, for the corner upper section of our kitchen, I really didn’t want upper cabinets by the window – I always find those corner spaces awkward and I knew I wanted exposed shelves somewhere et voila! We had the company that made our butcher block island top build our exposed corner shelves as well to match – another LOVE. I love the warmth of the black walnut we chose, I walked into a stone showroom one day and their main island for viewing samples oddly enough was black walnut – I couldn’t stop staring at it, the showroom owner told me every one was always complimenting it. I had to have it in our kitchen, it adds such a great other natural earthy element into the kitchen and compliments the gold accents and greenery that is always flooding our home. You know I am a crazy plant lady lol. Our butcher block island top and matching shelves were custom made by the Canadian Butcher Block company out of Ontario, Tom the owner and his team are so amazing to work with and do exceptional work!

If you’ve followed me for years you know that gold is my accent of choice, it’s the only colour I wear in jewellery (gold or rose gold) and it of course had to be the accent of my kitchen, another decision I am so happy about. It wasn’t easy finding all of the items to have finishes that coordinated perfectly but I think we did a pretty good job, they all compliment each other well from the lights to the faucets and handles. Picking my hardware for the cabinets was actually so difficult, they are quite the investment believe it or not and I knew I wanted unique which of course signals dollar signs in Craig’s mind lol…well, I find the crystal & brass handles from Anthropologie and bought them during a 20% off sale…winning! SO many people were not as into them as I was when I asked for opinions, but being me I did it any way…they are a conversation starter and actually match the oven quite well, I am so glad I went for them. I’ve linked to them below if you are interested in shopping them!

As the sometimes naive renovator I am or can be, I of course failed to look into the cost of appliances pulls for cabinet front appliances…YIKES, those things are not joke in cost. But, we splurged – as someone once told us, “you can’t fly on one wing” LOL. This quote has helped me to get some more pricey pieces into our kitchen but it also a quote Craig is very sick of hearing I can promise you that haha!!! But I mean, this is the jewellery of the kitchen!!! Can I get an Amen!?! Our appliance pulls are one of Craig’s favourite pieces in the kitchen – they are solid brass and so well made, we ordered them from Classic Brass and they were so amazing to work with!!! They sent me about 12 samples before I finally made my darn mind up, at least for our next kitchen renovation they will be ready and aware of my indecisiveness haha. Here’s to hoping any ways! 😉 Ours are from their traditional collection and they had the perfect finish to suit our kitchen design, it was actually the last items to be installed and we even purchased knobs from them to match the appliances pulls. I am so happy they compliment the crystal ones so well.

Our lighting was an easy decision, I knew I wanted glass and brass pendants so that there was nothing blocking the line of sight into the kitchen – I had my eyes on the ones we picked from Mcgee & Co (Studio Mcgee) for awhile and they were the perfect size for our island. We have pot lights on dimmers in the tongue & groove ceiling and then the two pendants above the island so we have a good variety.

My pops of colour in the kitchen are generally greens but this time around I pulled from my yellow Kitchen Aid mixer and added in some lemon pillows to our Serena & Lily bar stools, I am loving this pop of colour in our kitchen and it suits the gold & copper items so well. Speaking of bar stools, what do you guys think of them? I am OBSESSED!!!! I wanted these so very badly and almost didn’t do it, almost. Did I say I am obsessed? Because I totally am lol. They are actually French bistro style stools, Paris bistro stools – French range, can you tell I am French? Bonjour!! They pulled in such another great element. I was honestly on the phone with a handful of some of my favourite designers helping me decide on ordering these stools or not, so thank you so much Lisa Canning, Amy Marcelli, Ashley Davidson and The Fox Group for pushing me to go for what I wanted from the start! We actually had ordered the navy ones but then found out they were backordered but the black and white were available immediately so we went for those instead and they are just what the kitchen needed to be complete. Enter sighs of content here, you can also shop them below!

I have quite a few vintage finds in my kitchen that I was able to style into the open shelves as well as a few of my favourite pretty cookbooks and it wouldn’t be my kitchen without a jar of coffee beans right? Ha! I love this canister sent to me by Bodum that matches my french press & copper cups! I am always finding vintage pieces to add and then I re arrange, I am also someone who needs some pieces out in the kitchen – is it weird that I don’t like my kitchen “too clean”? I love keeping out my Le Creuset kettle and utensil crock on display for pops of colours too. It’s easy for a white kitchen to become too white and it was important for me to have my personality and style show in the one room of the house where I spend most of my time, for example the hood range was looking to bare so I decided to add some vintage art from Maria of Dreamy White Lifestyle. If you do not follow her blog you will fall in love with her style and all of the lovely pieces she has in her shop, this lovely piece of art she sent me was a vintage find she stumbled upon in Provence, France.

All of our outfits from this post are from small shops here in Canada, both of the kids outfits are from my friend Trisha of Darling & Bandit {here} and my outfit is from my friend Karla of Sash Boutique {here}.

Any ways, it is crazy late here in Ontario and even though it’s a weekend my kiddos will not sleep in no matter how many stars I wish upon before my head hits my pillow lol! I hope you enjoyed this post as much as I enjoyed creating & sharing it with all of you – your support and encouragement in our home renos and on this blog mean the world to me! Bonne Nuit!