Updated: May 16, 2022 by Kris Jarrett

Countertops, Flooring, Lighting, & More: Sharing ALL of My Choices for Our New Kitchen!

We’re five weeks into our kitchen renovation and have taken this room down to the studs, jackhammered out the floor tile and the concrete slab in the eat-in area, put in a new wider window, rewired and replumbed the whole space (including fixing wacky findings like a working water spigot buried in our kitchen floor), added steel beams to resupport our sagging ceiling, spray foam insulated, muddled through two Nor’easters leaving us without power for days, and…. FINALLY we get to start putting this baby back together!

It might not look like much but #1 we are DONE with creating the incessant dust that’s been traveling all over our house on the daily (that’s huge!), #2 I’m pretty close to getting that washer and dryer back into place and hooked up (being without them for three weeks has been a challenge), and #3 I’m pumped to start putting everything back together and see my months of planning come to life! Ready to check out all of the pretties that are soon going into this space? (post includes affiliate links – full disclosure statement available {here})

Before we jump in, a huge thanks to the brands I’m partnering with on this renovation including MasterBrand, Monogram, Caesarstone, Blanco, and Serena & Lily. I researched all of my kitchen options to the nth degree and approached these brands after deciding they were the best fit for my space – the fact that they shared my vision for this kitchen remodel and were on board for collaborating is truly an honor. So with that, let’s kick things off with the big three – cabinets, countertops, and appliances:

Cabinets

I shared all of the details of my kitchen cabinets and design plan a few weeks back {here} but in case you missed it, I’m using MasterBrand Cabinets’ Diamond line in a simple Shaker style called “Montgomery”. My island cabinets are going to be a dark gray (“Moonstone”) and the rest of my cabinets will be white. Both the style of the cabinets and the colors that I chose will create the stylish yet clean-lined and timeless look that I love! And I’m just as excited about the features packed inside the cabinets as what’s on the outside – from the paper towel holder recessed above my pull-out trash can to the built-in vacuum and toekick drawer in my island, the iPad holder that swings down from an upper cabinet by my range, and the outlet tucked away in a drawer that will be perfect for a hidden charging station.

Appliances

I chose Monogram appliances for my kitchen and detailed the many reasons why in {this post} but the bottom line is that they’re the perfect combination of looks (their soon-to-be-mine range makes my heart skip a beat!) and functionality. A few of the features I’m most excited about include the built-in griddle and reversible burner grates of the range (for wok cooking), the drop-down tray and quick space shelf for flexible storage in the refrigerator, and the bottle jets in the dishwasher that are perfect for cleaning water bottles (which I will be SO glad to not have to hand wash anymore!). These beauties are scheduled to be delivered in just a little over a week and I seriously can’t wait!

Countertops

For years I had planned on going with marble countertops for my future kitchen renovation because they’re so incredibly gorgeous but after using them in the master bathroom renovation that we did in our old house, I quickly realized that they aren’t for me. With marble, marks and etchings occur over time and some people are totally fine with that but honestly it drove me a bit crazy. I didn’t want to have to baby my countertops and always be worried about my family doing something that might leave a permanent mark on them so I set out to find the best marble look-alike countertops in quartz to get the look that I love in a material that’s scratch & stain resistant and lower maintenance. These were my five final contenders including the one I decided to go with, Caesarstone’s Statuario Maximus:

Statuario Maximus has both light and dark gray veining in it that compliments my gray island cabinetry so beautifully. And looking at it side by side with true marble, I love it every bit as much so it’s a total win-win!

Flooring

I was all over the place when trying to figure out my flooring and considered several different options including tile, hardwoods, and engineered hardwood flooring. Our kitchen abuts both the dining room and the hallway by our home office which both have hardwood flooring that’s yellowed over time so I didn’t want to match it for our kitchen but did want to install something that complemented it. I ended up choosing Hallmark Floor’s Alta Vista flooring in Malibu which is a total stunner! There’s some variation in wood tone from piece to piece and it picks up just enough of the tones in our flooring abutting it to make it flow well even though it’s a totally different flooring look. My friend Sita Montgomery used this exact flooring in one of her recent design projects and I couldn’t love the look of it more (check out more images of Sita’s beautiful design project {here}):

Can you see why I’m totally smitten? We actually just got our floors installed right as I was wrapping up writing this post and I can’t help but give you all a little sneak peek:

Love! You can get more details about Hallmark’s Alta Vista flooring (including their other stain options) {here}.

Lighting

The low ceilings in our kitchen (only about 7 ½ feet) played a big role in my kitchen lighting choices since I wanted pendants over my kitchen island that are open and airy to keep your eye moving around the room. I ended up choosing two of these Darlana pendants (size small) in gilded iron that are available {here} or {here}:

These beauties aren’t exactly cheap – I kept going back and forth about whether to take the plunge or go with one of these three less expensive but very similar pendants:

Since the 1st alternative option doesn’t come in gold, the size of the second one is too large for my space, and the third has a curved detail to the candlestick base that I didn’t like quite as much, in the end I decided to spend more to get exactly what I wanted and went with my original choice.

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While the Darlana pendants are the only light fixtures in the kitchen, my electrician installed the wiring for a pendant over our kitchen table in our nearby eat-in area too. I chose {this beautiful capiz pendant} that I’ve been eyeing forever:

I think it compliments my kitchen pendants so beautifully! And one last change – for the recessed lighting in my kitchen, my electrician switched out my old ginormous recessed lights for smaller new LED ones. And most importantly, he actually took the time to listen to my rant of how the LEDs I’ve tried so far are either too warm or too cool (do you guys think so too or is it just me?!) and he came up with a 3000 Kelvin option that is the Goldilocks of LEDs (not too warm or cool) so I’m totally loving that.

Sink

Our old kitchen had a teeny stainless sink that wasn’t big enough to wash things like cookie sheets so I was all about going big with the sink in our new kitchen. I decided on Blanco’s new Cerana II farmhouse sink available {here}. It’s a 33-incher which is about double the size of my old sink, is super durable, and has a reversible design with square corners on one end and rounded corners on the other so you can choose which style works best in your space.

Isn’t it beautiful! And I think it’s even big enough that I can start giving Hope her baths in here instead of bending over the bathtub which will be a nice change. You can check out more details about my future sink on Blanco’s site {here}

Faucet & Pot Filler

I’d love your advice on this one since I haven’t pulled the trigger on my faucet yet. I’ve fallen in love with {this Kohler bridge faucet} because it’s the perfect combination of classic and modern BUT I’m just not 100% sure about the two handle thing. My past kitchen faucets have always been single handle ones so I’m not sure whether switching to a two knob faucet is going to drive me a little nuts. For those of you who have tried a bridge faucet or other two-handled kitchen faucet, what do you think?

What I’m not questioning at all is my decision about a pot filler – I’m going with {this Kohler pot filler} that’s pretty much the cutest thing ever:

I’ve never had a pot filler and to be totally honest, I actually want it more for the way it looks than for the function of it. Just don’t tell my husband – he’s on a need to know basis for the purchase of that sucker. 🙂

Counterstools

I loved the bar seating we had in our old kitchen and can’t wait to have it back! Picking barstools was easy because I’ve been eyeing these beauties (the Riviera counter stools in Fog available {here}) for a long time – they ‘ll add warmth while also tying in the two cabinet colors – they couldn’t be more perfect!

Tile

Can you believe that I still haven’t made a final decision about my backsplash tile? I’m having the hardest time committing! I’m pretty sure that I’m going with a white subway tile for most of the backsplash – either a white ceramic or Thassos (pure white marble). But I’d like to add some decorative tile behind the range and there are so many pretty options – right now, Walker Zanger’s Villa D’Oro Granada is the front runner:

Beyond gorgeous and so me! I’m pretty sure this is “the one” but for some reason when I find exactly what I’m looking for right away, it seems too good to be true and I feel obligated to look a bit more just to be sure. #weirddesignhangup But you guys love it too, right?!

Accessories

And wrapping things up, we’ve got all of the fun accessories from the cabinet hardware, eat-in area artwork and pillows, kitchen hand towels, and all sorts of other goodies. I’m going to wait until the cabinets and countertops are in before making a lot of my final choices but these are a few of the accessories that I’m currently planning on:

I’m excited to keep this kitchen project moving along and see my design board come to life! It’s been so fun having you all to share my excitement with – thanks as always for following along and enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Update!!! My Kitchen Renovation is Done! Hop over to my kitchen reveal post {here} to see how it turned out!

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