My Dream Kitchen

Jan 20, 2022 by Hannah Sunderani

My Dream Kitchen

Hiya friends! I am so excited to be sharing my dream kitchen renovation! Undertaking a kitchen renovation is a big project, and as a recipe developer I had a lot of dream kitchen ideas.

From kitchen appliances, to countertops and backsplash, there are so many decisions to make when it comes to renovating a kitchen!

For me, I was looking for a space that was timeless, elegant and minimalist in style. We worked with Tiffany Leigh Design to bring our vision to life and the end result is better than I could have imagined.

We were able to create my dream kitchen in what we believed was an awkward space. Now, it’s an ideal place for cooking, entertaining, and developing delicious recipes that you find here on Two Spoons.

So, let me share some of our dream kitchen ideas that allowed our vision to come true!

My Dream Kitchen Renovation

Building your dream kitchen is a big undertaking in both cost and time. In total, our kitchen renovation took about 8 weeks to renovate.

The space was completely transformed from an awkward galley style kitchen to a spacious kitchen that now feels like the heart of the home.

Thinking through your dream kitchen design

When we started planning out our dream kitchen renovation, we put a lot of thought into how we wanted to use the space.

Here’s some important questions we asked, that you might also want to consider:

1. How do you like to use your kitchen? How do you like to cook?
2. Where do you spend most of the time in the kitchen?
3. How would you like your kitchen appliances to function? Which do you use most?
4. Do you like to entertain? (Would introducing an island be helpful for this?)
5. Do you like to eat in the kitchen? (Would introducing an eating area be helpful for this? Or will an island suffice?)
6. Functionality and family – Who are you sharing the space with? Do you have any kids? What elements would be beneficial for them? What about wear are tear?

So, now that I’ve provided a few questions to consider when building your dream home, let me share some of our decisions that transformed our space into the dream kitchen you see today.

Our Dream Kitchen Mood Board

This kitchen mood board was created by Tiffany Leigh Design, and really showcased the look and feel we wanted to achieve: timeless, elegant, minimalist and zen.

We chose clean, light and bright colours, bringing in warm tones through natural oak wood and gold accents.

Once we achieved our overall look and feel through a mood board, we were able to start selecting pieces to bring the vision to life. All the while keeping in mind the questions listed above to build our perfect space.

Dream Kitchen Ideas

Small Kitchen Appliances

As I mentioned above, our kitchen prior to renovation was quite small. The space where most of the action happened was in the galley kitchen area when you first walk into the room. This means that there was a small space to fit a lot of kitchen appliances. So we had to be strategic!

We therefore wanted to make most out of our appliance choices, and have it fit the space aesthetically without overwhelming it.

In fact, choosing which kitchen appliances was definitely the most important decision for us. As you may have guessed; I love to cook! So it was important for me to select appliances that I knew could endure lots of use and provide the functionality I’m looking for.

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The before:

Where to buy Kitchen Appliances

When picking kitchen appliances, it was helpful to speak with professionals who were well educated in the topic to help us make the best choices. How are we supposed to know the ins and outs of every kitchen appliance on the market?!

We are based in the Greater Toronto Area, and so we turned to the experts at Tasco Appliances to speak through our kitchen needs.

Tasco specializes in high-quality, well-made appliances and the team was incredibly helpful in getting us the right appliances for our space, which met our cooking needs. (If you’re in the GTA then I highly recommend speaking to one of their representatives and visiting their showrooms).

Our must-have dream kitchen appliances:

Here is a list of the following appliances we selected:

You’ll notice this list doesn’t include our wall oven and that’s because we used the pre-existing one, as it was only 2 years old. I absolutely love our wall-oven which is made by Bosch.

Cooktop Station

The cooktop station is one of my favourite areas of the kitchen – it really brings the wow factor! Prior to our renovation, our stove top was on the opposite wall beside the dishwasher.

Tiffany Leigh Design had the wonderful idea of creating a “cooktop station” designed specifically for this area.

We absolutely loved this idea as it framed the cooktop so beautifully, instead of being an afterthought. It’s one of my favourite parts of our redesign.

The before:

We chose a gas cooktop by Jenn-Air and I absolutely love the sleek, minimalist style and functionality of this appliance. It showcases beautiful iron grates and elegant brass burners.

The knobs are discreet in silver, set with a flush design instead of having them displayed along the front, which I love.

I’ve included a link to the exact Jenn-Air gas cooktop in our kitchen appliance list featured above.

Kitchen Paint Colours

Selecting paint colours is one of my favourite parts of a renovation!

For our kitchen paint colours, we chose colours to achieve a timeless, elegant, and zen vibe. We decided to create an all white kitchen to achieve this.

Both the wall paint colour and the kitchen cabinets are painted in Simply White by Benjamin Moore. We love the clean look of the white cabinetry. It helps to accentuate pops of warm colours like the open wood shelving and gold knobs and pulls.

As for our pre-existing kitchen island, we chose a muted green tone called Croquet by Benjamin Moore. It really draws the eye to the kitchen island as the heart of the space.

The before:

Kitchen Countertop and Backsplash Ideas

Kitchen backsplash ideas with white cabinets

For backsplash and countertops, we tied in elements that complemented the pre-existing white marble countertop on the kitchen island.

To do so, we picked a timeless natural stone in white brick from Nanda Tiles. I love these tiles because they are made to look “imperfect,” which gives the kitchen a more nostalgic and old-world feel.

For the countertops, we were careful to select something that complemented the pre-existing marble countertop on the kitchen island without competing. We chose a neutral white countertop in quartz: Pure White by Caesar Stone. I absolutely love the sleek, minimalist feel of this countertop.

Marble vs. Quartz

As I mentioned, our pre-existing kitchen island had a marble countertop. However, we chose quartz on the remaining kitchen countertops instead.

Quartz is more robust than marble, and less prone to etching and staining. Although my marble countertop on the kitchen island is beautiful, I find it limits my desire to use it for prep because I’m worried about it etching, which happens so easily!

Here’s a good article about marble vs. quartz countertops, in case you’re still on the fence of which to choose for your kitchen.

Kitchen Sink and Faucet

The kitchen sink and faucet is another very special area of the kitchen.

I really wanted my kitchen sink to sit under the window, to look into the backyard when cleaning dishes. (Our kitchen sink was tucked in the corner on the left-hand side prior to renovation – see photo below).

We chose an undermount single bowl farm house kitchen sink by Kohler. I absolutely love this sink not only because it’s visually beautiful, but because it’s big enough to fit large pots and pans for cleaning. It’s also not too deep which means it’s comfortable on my lower back.

The before:

As for the faucets, we went with a deckmount bridge faucet by Kallista in unlaquered brass. It’s absolutely beautiful and really gives an elegant, old-world feel to the kitchen.

However, unlaquered brass is not easy to clean! It requires you to use brass cleaning products to get them to shine again, which is not as eco-friendly as the typical cleaning products that I prefer. (This might be something to consider if you’re thinking of an unlaquered brass faucet).

Here’s a great article on how to care for unlacquered brass faucets, which I turned to when learning how to care for our faucets.

The Pantry Wall

Finally, our pantry wall on the opposite end of the kitchen is certainly an eye-catcher and really ties in nicely to the rest of the kitchen.

This area used to feel very separate from the kitchen as it’s so far away from all the action, but bringing in elements like the open wood shelving, and white kitchen cabinetry really helped to unite the space.

The before:

Also, adding the coffee station to this space was important to us because my husband loves coffee! It makes it an area that’s now used daily, instead of just being a display wall.

The pantry wall offers a lot of storage space for pantry ingredients and kitchen gadgets too. This is especially helpful because we decided to forgo heavy cabinetry in the galley area of the kitchen to keep it light and spacious.

So there we have it! Our dream kitchen renovation, which is truly better than what I’d dreamed of!

This kitchen wouldn’t have come together without the incredible work of our talented designer Tiffany Leigh Design, and the functionality wouldn’t have come together without the expert advice from Tasco Appliances.

In the end, we were able to create a space that is timeless, elegant, and earthy. The kitchen has truly become the heart of the home; perfect for cooking and entertaining.

I hope this blog post is helpful in guiding you along your dream kitchen renovation.

Of course, if there’s anything I missed, or if there’s anything else you’d like to know about our dream kitchen renovation then please leave a comment below. I’ll be sure to answer it.

Enjoy crafting your perfect dream kitchen renovation. I hope you love yours as much as we love ours.

Warmest,

Hannah