The BIG details of the kitchen

Although many decisions of our kitchen remodel were pretty efficient—our little Peanut’s birth came closer every day—we tried to make decisions with intention. There’s a story to most everything in the kitchen; here’s the details of some of the big decisions:

Choosing a countertop : We love the look of cement and slate countertops, so were impressed to find something similar with quartz from an Ohio-based company, Granex. Of all places, we found this countertop at Ikea Pittsburgh. To support local business, Ikea teamed with Granex up to fabricate two colors—a grey/green and a white—exclusively for the Ikea Pittsburgh. Although the standard cost is $70 per square foot, the special Ikea colors can be purchased through Ikea for a very competitive price ($50 per square with any edging and a sink cut included).

countertop instillation day

Thoughts on sustainability: Although we checked out some cool sustainable materials like recycled paper pulp from NW companies Paper Stone and Richlite, we decided it wouldn’t be sustainable if the next homeowner of our house just tore out our choice. We love the paper counters, but it just didn't seem to fit with with this particular house. People like stone counters, and they are durable too. Although the quartz was not mined in this region, it was shipped in pieces (rather than a block), mixed with resin, and fabricated in our neighboring state of Ohio. Because the countertops are made this way, the appearance is uniform; so, any leftover pieces from cuts made for our kitchen can be used in someone else’s. This seems more sustainable than what’s typically done with granite, wastefully cutting based on a favorite part of the slab. 

Choosing cabinets: Speed and economics contributed to our decision to go with Ikea for cabinets. You can theoretically get your cabinets in a single trip, verses waiting months for custom cabinetry. I’m not sure anyone can beat the price for the quality, and the soft-close hardware helps the doors close like butter. Although there’s limited choices in door style, you can use Ikea’s boxes and customize the fronts…perhaps on our next remodel… 

Thoughts on sustainability: Although some call them the International Walmart, Ikea has both social and environmental standards. We sought cabinets without formaldehyde, a known carcinogen that’s a binding material used in wood based materials and textiles. Aside from going completely custom, Ikea seemed a good choice with formaldehyde free surface coatings.

Our floor and butcher block countertop were from Freemer’s molding, a company based out of neighboring Brockway, Pennsylvania. Family-owned, the company manages the timber, cuts, and produces their product in-house. They’re flooring is economically competitive to big box stores, and their butcher block was less expensive (about $15 per square foot) than Ikea’s made-in-Romania oak block; the classic, regional, Boos butcherblocks average over $30 per square foot. Both are red oak, a classic Appalachian wood. 

They fabricated our butcher block island out of red oak to match the floor we chose to tie in with the rest of the house. (The rest of the house is red oak stained in Walnut, so we have a future sand and oil project…) We sealed both with pure Tung Oil, purchased from neighboring Pennsylvania business, the Real Milk Paint Company. The finish is natural and healthy; you can literally eat off it without fears of toxic ingestion of petroleum distillates or other additives.

Tung oilin' the island in the sunshine (sounds like a Jimmy Buffet song)

That gives you an overview of some of the big details of the kitchen remodel - smaller details to come…