under the magnolia tree

We are about to start our first major remodel!  It's so exciting and daunting at the same time.  We're doing the kitchen, the powder room, and the mudroom.  The cabinets will be here by the end of the month so the big demolition will take place soon before that!  I wish I could give credit to all of these photographs I'm posting but I can't remember the source since I tagged them almost a year ago.  (I think most of them are from House Beautiful.)  Our new kitchen certainly won't be like these but I like to look at them for inspiration.  Most of these I tagged because of the marble countertops which I've been heavily persuaded  by many to rethink.  I'm not sure I'm giving up completely because I really love the look.

We are thinking the countertops will be soapstone but maybe using marble on one section and as a backsplash to the range.  We're looking to make the kitchen really fit into our 1930s colonial so the cabinets will be white.  I had no idea what it was that I liked so much about these cabinets in the photographs until we met with a kitchen designer who told us they were inset cabinets and very expensive.  After much consideration, we gave up on inset cabinets and instead, beefed up our budget on appliances.

This kitchen is amazing as you can hardly tell that's the kitchen sink. 

And a mirror above the stove, the light fixtures and the island that's a circle... I really love how unconventional this is.

This kitchen is one of my favorites because of it's simplicity.  It's a small galley kitchen but so well done.

I tagged this kitchen because of the green floors.  It's not going to happen in our kitchen but I would love to do it!  I also loved the farmhouse sink but have recently changed my mind on that.  We're opting for a single basin undermount.  I wanted a stainless steel sink because I'm too hard on a sink and don't want to have to worry about chipping it.  The farmhouse sink looks beautiful here.

We are so lucky that my brother-in-law is our general contractor and doing this project for us much quicker than if we'd gone with anyone else.  I'll be posting updates as we go along.  It's going to be fun to watch the transformation.  Walls are coming down, doors and windows are getting moved, new floors, paint, wallpaper, and lighting... it's a big job, can't wait to get started!!!