Mood Board: The Kitchen

We bought a fridge and stove this weekend! We initially liked this fridge, and this stove, which would've cost us over $3,000 before tax. We went to the scratch & dent appliance store on Brydges (right near Highbury) that a friend we met in Cuba owns with his dad. This place is huge and we were able to get an OUTSTANDING deal on a fridge and stove. They're essentially the same as the ones we liked from Home Depot, only they're Kitchenaid brand instead of GE. We were able to snag both fridge and stove for such a cheap price, I feel like we stole them!!! SO...for those frugalites like ourselves, that saves us just shy of $1,400!!! If you want to get even more specific...the retail for the models we ended up getting total around $4,200...so that means we saved $2, 500! So for all you haters out there, that more than paid for our trip to Cuba, so I'd say the trip was worth it! (although it was worth it to us before anyway haha)

So, now that we have decided on the floor (we're going with the cheaper, Black Beach glue down cork), we've bought our appliances (still looking for a dishwaser - we've decided to not get a drawer one, and just go with the regular one) and know the layout I figured it was time to put together a board for our kitchen.

Alrighty, so whatcha think? Is it what you thought it'd look like?

1. Since I got a Kitchenaid Artisan mixer in red as a shower gift, and I knew I wanted to display it on the countertops...red is a natural accent colour hehe. In terms of wall colours - I haven't quite been able to narrow it down to what I want to paint. I'm thinking something greyish and light. As for the flooring, we decided to go with the "black beach" tile over the "Gemwood." If you remember, Jason liked the Beach better, while I liked the Gem. I didn't like the other one better enough to justify spending the $1.50 more per square foot. So, in the spirit of saving more money (we didn't want the floor to get jealous of the appliances) we went with the just as nice looking, cheaper version. We also liked that it was a glue down tile better. (Plus in my pick testing, it seemed to stand up a little better.) So the grand total for the floor tiles will be around $600...which is music to my ears...and means we'll be saving another $1,000 from the cheapest cork I'd priced out before. So, before even getting in the house, we're already about $3,000 under budget.
2. Since we got a gas stove, we needed to get a range hood - which is ok, because we wanted one anyway! We like the look of the stainless ones, but past that, we haven't really narrowed it down to even which brand we like best. Good thing that's one of the last things we need to pick.
3. There are two windows in the kitchen. One small one above the sink, which is where we'll hang a "roman" shade type dealeo in a natural fibre. As for the larger window, which you can see is between the fridge and the table we'll probably do the same thing, since curtains wouldn't really be very practical.
4. On the wall above the sink, flanking the window I want to do open shelving to display some of the pretties I have - like cake stands, fun glasses, etc.
5. Ah, cupboards...I am wanting something basic. Just a flat front in white, I wouldn't have thought that would be so hard to find. But so far, it hasn't exactly been easy, and there's been a few arguments over what to get haha. What we can agree on though, is that they need to be white haha. As for hardware, we've narrowed it down to two different handles. The long stainless ones like from the mood board, or a smaller more "invisible" looking one
6. Like I've mentioned before, we are planning on doing a poured concrete countertop, in black. We're going to do a few tester pieces in a little while, so stay tuned for THAT haha.
7. I plan on hanging a big bold DIY pendant over the table. Either a geometric one like above, or a simpler string one.
8. We haven't decided if we're going to do a backsplash around the whole kitchen, or just behind the stove up to to the hood, regardless of how much of it we're doing, we're liking the white subway tiles.
9. As I have mentioned many times before, I REALLY wanted an apron front sink. And because Jason is awesome, he came through for me, and we were able to get one! We ended up going with a double sink; a) because they were cheaper than a single, and b) double sinks are a just more practical. As for the faucet, we both want a large goose neck with a pull down spray function. 
10. We plan on bringing in some red with four bar stools at the peninsula, and possibly the table or chairs at the eat in area.
11. Lastly, we'll bring in some more red, and fun with some tea towels. I already have some fun red ones, but it's time to get some more!

There ya have it! I can't WAIT until the 22nd, and we can get started with the demo...hopefully in a couple months, we have something that looks spectacular.