Eucalyptus Hill Reveal Part 02

It's time to reveal the sweet little breakfast nook and the new kitchen for our Eucalyptus Hill project! Last week, we covered the entry, living room, and dining room for these great clients, and we're excited to get into the details of the layout we collectively decided would work best for them as a couple moving into their golden years, with frequent visits from grandkids! Here's a quick peek into the main living and dining area from their new breakfast nook, which sits right behind their bar and built in dining storage cabinets. As I've said before, these clients are retired and spend the majority of their time together, so a quiet little place for coffee and a chat in the morning was important to include. The custom bench seats are great for the grandkids when they want to cozy up together for breakfast too! We also didn't want these clients having to move a table and dining chairs out of the way to access the storage under this banquette, so we opted for very long drawer pull outs that run the length of each side. This was the perfect place for holiday place settings, napkins, and some snacks as well! We've heard that they have enjoyed many cups of coffee and plenty of meals here together already, and we just love hearing that! To the left of the breakfast nook, we created a pantry for them that didn't exist at all before. This area was an open space that led to a hallway that connected these spaces to the bedrooms. We cut hallway access to the kitchen off from the bedrooms, but they gained an entire walk in pantry in exchange, so I think they won out in the end! These sliding doors with privacy glass keeps the footprint of the doors as minimal as possible, and allows for hiding of the inevitably not-so-perfectly-organized pantry items, and also gives the doors a lighter visual presence! This kitchen had just one small window before, which sits behind the new built in refrigerator in this photo above. Opening up another window to take in the view was a big priority. What did I tell you - fabulous view!! The rain has been a bit overwhelming at times, but the hills get this lush, green paradise that is just stunning! In order to have a big picture window, we wanted the sink to be directly in front of it, but that placement in this kitchen meant that we didn't have enough depth to put the dishwasher next to the sink, as we have done in every kitchen before. It now lives to the left of the sink on the perpendicular wall, and we made sure to tape it out and see how they'd be able to stand at the sink and still reach the dishwasher easily. We landed on wood valances above the windows to tie in with the range hood, which also hide rolling shades they use every night when the evening sun comes through. They also opted for a wall built in five-in-one oven that incorporates a microwave as well, so they don't have to bend down to access these appliances. With the refrigerator right across from the oven, these two taller built ins frame in the kitchen beautifully. We loved this marble mosaic tile so much for the backsplash, which incorporated the cabinet color and the touches of warm wood tone in the stone as well. We didn't want it to overwhelm the kitchen, so we used a subway tile in the same marble up the wall, separated by a bull nose pencil liner tile you can see a glimpse of in the photo below. We used it on the range hood as well, and the clients weren't sure about this during the design process, but absolutely love it now! Using the bull nose pencil liner tile is a more traditional style choice, and we carried that same style into rounded toe kicks below the cabinets as well. These Taj Mahal quartzite countertops have just the right amount of movement and color variation, as well as warmth, to add so much to this kitchen. Polished nickel cabinetry hardware and plumbing fixtures make for the perfect little sparkle in here as well! Stay tuned next week for the bathrooms and the space lovingly referred to as the 'Snug'!