An Almost Kitchen

We’re nearly there. Three of the curved bits are delayed: The tall curved door and two pieces of the curved skirting. The Zimbabwean brushed granite is installed. It has a lovely matte, textured feel.

The people for the backsplash are coming later this week. I’m very satisfied with the quality. The insides of the cabinets have the same finish as the outsides. The sides of the drawers have glass inserts to let light in.

The cabinets under the sink have a special coating to protect it in the event of a leak. The appliances are great, except we still haven’t figured out how to use the dishwasher. The tapas table was a bit too tall, but Mike fixed that by sawing the feet. The lighting is excellent.

In all, I love it- I will however note it wasn’t that easy to get what we wanted. We visited all the big kitchen makers. Something I noticed early on was that most of the designers at the showrooms were men, and men who had little to no experience in actually using a kitchen.

What they’re pushing are shiny, easily scratched surfaces; And look over practicality. Instead of asking you how many people live in your home or how you use your kitchen, they go straight to offering the absolutely most expensive options of everything.

The designer we were working with actually tried to convince me that more expensive handles were more important than the five burner hob I wanted. He’s obviously never cooked for ten people (and doesn’t own a wok.) I just wanted good solid handles. Not something made by NASA.

Anyway, in the end, it’s exactly what we wanted. There’s still some fine tuning to be done, but that’s for later. I haven’t made a final decision on artwork, although I do like the William Graham painting where it is above the cooker.