Tamara's almost completed kitchen
Wed, 20 Jan 2010Tamara wrote us the other day, explaining how she recently quit her job with the Canadian federal government (I am beyond envious), moved to southern Ontario with her Aussie boyfriend, bought an 85-year-old house in a historic neighbourhood, and started a small catering/personal chef business from scratch. Yeah, I'd say she's been a tad busy lately. She wanted to share with us some photos of her kitchen reno that was necessary in order to use it as the base production and prep space for their business. Here is a before photo:
Gotta love 80's kitchens. BLEH. The kitchen is just about done but there are some finishing touches Tamara is looking for help with:
"We still have a few things to do in the kitchen, like installing a range hood and figuring out the best option for a backsplash. Maybe your readers could offer a suggestion? Adam, being a professional chef, is all about stainless steel EVERYTHING, but I'm leaning toward grey/white glass tiles to keep things a little less..clinical. But, I can't decide how far to take them along the wall..any ideas?
We haven't done anything to the old lighting, but since we operate our small business out of our kitchen we have to make sure the lighting meets health and safety requirements.. It's proven to be difficult to find something non-hideous that does the job!
We're also hoping to find some bar stools for the island overhang (I'm obsessed with old industrial drafting stools, so I've been keeping my eye on eBay for those), and an area rug for under the table to warm things up a bit and define that part of the kitchen.
If your readers have any suggestions to complete the kitchen, we'd live to hear them!"
Now for the "after photos"...
Love the teal wall and the open shelving - I bet ALOT of fantastic food is going to fly out of this totally functional kitchen!
I have to call it a night shortly (it's Tuesday night as I prep this post) but here are a couple of my ideas. This jute rug (or something similar in jute) I think would look great under your dining table, or if you crave more colour I'd go for something bold to equal the boldness of your teal wall like this one or this one from Ikea. I completely agree about industrial drafting stools. I wouldn't bother with a backsplash - unless you want an easy surface to clean by the counter around your sink, in which case I would just get a piece of plexi cut to fit that would go 2 or 3 feet up that wall.
So folks, if you've got ideas for Tamara to finish up her kitchen please leave them in the comments.
