When our clients reached out to us in the Summer of 2023, they wanted new flooring, updated fireplace surrounds, a new front door, new door hardware and a coat of paint on their dated dark brown cabinets. They also had a future project of renovating their ensuite bathroom.
Our number one mission is to help our clients achieve their design goals. But as the Stones say, "You can't always get what you want. But if you try sometimes, you just might get what you need." When we left the meeting, Alyson and I felt a bit lost and uneasy about how to move forward. Then, as she does, Alyson became the voice of reason. Our clients are young and about to start a family - they needed an updated kitchen. The idea of putting a coat of paint on the cabinets just didn't feel right.
So we got busy coming up with a proposal with a strong recommendation to get those new floors but put the rest of their investment into the kitchen. We knew that the updated flooring would make a lot of those other issues, like the fireplace surrounds, feel much less important. Fortunately they agreed with our thinking and we got to work designing and costing out the project.
We have a plan!
Our clients are geologists and did not want engineered quartz. They wanted real stone. Super fun for us but this decision easily doubles the cost of the countertops and cuts into an already tight budget. Not deterred, we we moved forward with our plans for the cabinets.
BEFORE
The original kitchen (pictured above), was dark, dated, and very reminiscent of the era it was built. It was also very large at 300 square feet. With a limited budget, we endeavoured to use as many of the existing cabinets as possible to save costs. But we also wanted to give our clients a design that would meet their personal style. Working with a local cabinet maker, we created a design that replaced the doors and fronts, replaced cabinets that couldn't be salvaged, painted all panels and fillers, replaced the dated crown moulding and built a new white oak island. The new fronts are a simple shaker style with a bevel edge for easy cleaning.
The finishing touches
We loved the trips to natural stone sources with our clients but eventually they found their choice while shopping on their own. They selected two beautiful marble slabs from a quarry on Vancouver Island. The exterior slab is a more muted white with grey details and the featured island slab is a gorgeous stone with more intense grey details. All the slabs came from the same stone at the quarry.
We complemented the palette with a warm champagne bronze faucet and cabinet pulls. This finish complements the warmth of the white oak very nicely, creating a layered, pulled together look. The light fixture and bar stools were existing pieces from the clients.
The final touch was finding the perfect Northwest inspired tile for the backsplash. We scoured the city looking for the right tone of blue/grey to work with the gorgeous marble countertops. While it doesn't sound like a difficult find, the colour we were after was not in "fashion" and was very difficult to find. After a few false starts, we landed on the perfect tile which we opted to apply in a herringbone pattern. Our tile setter is top notch and the result is stunning!
As it turned out, we were right that a new kitchen would meet their changing needs. Midway through the project they announced they were pregnant with their first child. Fortunately we managed to finish the project right before the little one was due.
From our clients
"We reached out to Alter thinking we had a good idea of what we wanted for our kitchen refresh, but needed some help with picking colours, fixtures, etc. As it turns out we had a good idea of what we didn't like, but we really needed Mikki's help to pull together things that we did like. Mikki was great at listening our requests to include specific design elements in terms of both aesthetics and layout/practical things and thoughtfully incorporated them into her design. Mikki was also great at making suggestions that we never would have thought of, but we were super glad we ended up going with her suggestions.To give an example of Mikki's devotion to her craft - we were pretty picky about going with a natural stone counter, which then resulted in Mikki going to several tile places to find a tile that went with the colour and finish of the counter that still spoke to the "moody Pacific Northwest" vibe we were hoping to achieve. When we thought Mikki had found "the tile", we subsequently found out the tile was discontinued so Mikki once again visited all the tile places in the Lower Mainland to find the "perfect tile", which she did eventually find. :)
One last thing to mention is we were super happy with all the tradespeople Mikki recommended - they were all friendly, did quality work, and South Delta local. We'd happily work with Mikki or any of her preferred tradespeople again!"
Michaela & Ian
View the full project HERE
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