Metamorphasis Monday: New Kitchen Tile & Faucet

Susan of Between Naps on the Porch, is hosting her 66th Metamorphosis Monday, today and she has an awesome new "Picture" linking tool that she is using to link everyones blog posts this week...so be sure to hop on over and check it out...cool beans :D

My post for this week's Metamorphosis Monday is actually a continuation of last week's post for tiling back-splashes...last week I showed you the bathroom and this week it's the kitchen...

Back in January, when we first started moving into our Love Shack, I had gone shopping at IKEA and really loved their rail systems and couldn't wait to put them up!

 
We made the final move in March, un-packed and found a spot for everything in the kitchen.  As you can see in the above photo, I was using the new rails to 1.) hold those items that we used every day out where they would be handy, as well as, 2.) help keep things up off the counters for fast cleaning.

Then...after actually living here for a few months...we decided to have the back-splashes tiled. However, upon getting estimates from the contractors, we soon learned that the "rails" were going to cost more than they were worth keeping.  That is...because the tile installers would have to either hand-cut tiles to fit around the rails or we could take them down and put them back up by drilling holes in the new tiles...NOT...

So now that we have the back-splashes all finished...I simply love how it looks without the rails!  Like I said...sometimes you have to live it before you can be sure if it is going to work for you or not...and the rails just looked too cluttered and I still had stuff on the counters...too funny!

 
In the above photo, you can see that we even had the wall next to the dishwasher tiled.  I love it so much...this wall was constantly being splashed as you loaded and unloaded the dishwasher...and now it is so easy to simply wipe off the tile!

Here you can see how we had originally placed the hanging spice rack next to the stove...

...AND then once we moved in...I placed the toaster, bread box and butter here as well.  The spice jars were filled and measuring spoons and other cooking utensils were hung from the additional rail hooks.

The walls behind this stove area were the worse for wear and they really needed the tiled back-splash because of all the grease and other cooking spatters that dotted the drywall.  I also prefer to have my pot-holders handing on magnetic hooks here on the side of the refrigerator and I moved the toaster because I didn't want to set the pot-holders on fire!

Previously I had hung my pot-holders on a rail on the right side of the stove...and the only other use that I could find for the rail was to hold a couple of cutting boards...I have way too many cooking utensils to even think about handing them on the rail like they showed in the IKEA showrooms...

See how clean this wall looks now...we had the tile installers put the tile all the way out to the edge of the counter/wall area...more protection from food splashing and it makes the space visually look bigger because it runs behind the stove and your eyes are not longer stopping or breaking there.

So you know what happens when your change/fix/improve one thing in a room...you see all the other things that you need to change/fix/improve...oh yeah!  Here it was the kitchen faucet...it was the original contractor's cheap install with a tap for hot and a tap for cold and a low faucet that you could barely put a pot under to fill or rinse when washing...

...so now we have a lovely, all-in-one faucet. with a single hot/cold tap that is high enough to fill a pot or to rinse a big pan...but not too tall (I do not care for the new look of the commercial faucets that some designers are putting in kitchens), and with the sprayer built right into the faucet/tap.  Then the old spayer hole is "plugged" with a new dish soap dispenser...just the best :D

 
Originally I loved having my mugs handy for morning tea or afternoon coffee and taking down the rails meant having to reconfigure things in the cupboards...appliances like my blender and food processor now had to be brought oout to make room for the mugs and spices.  But I was okay with that as well because it gave me the excuse to sew appliance covers...remember those?

 
I'm making a few in a lovely black and cream toile...which looks so lovely with my red accents...oh la la!  Just like my bathroom here at the Love Shack! 

Comments

[Carl Hancock Marketing Godalming]

The tiles do look great and certainly make for easier cleaning. Drilling holes in tiles though is not that tricky and could give you the best of both worlds. That said, your kitchen's far nicer than mine, so perhaps I shouldn't be giving out advice!!

[plumbing]

I commend you how you give much effort to turn your kitchen up into another level. The tiles are so good and neat. Your new faucet looks great and compliments your kitchen design. Everything is perfectly in placed. You really did a great job!

[Spice Rack]

Great Kitchen you've got there but I would prefer using a magnetic spice rack for this kitchen to make it look more classy and stylish. Nice post!

[Bonnie]

what a great transformation! the tiles are cute. I don't know why i never thought of it before, but my wall next to my dishwasher is also not tiled and I am going to do it! Luckily I can tile myself, so I am going to tackle that project sometime. like you said....you do one thing and then you see something else that needs improvement...but maybe this is the start to redoing my laundry room {yip, still haven't tackled anything in it!} thanks for the inspiration!

[Mitchell]

I likes the tile...

[Flory Mariñas-Simbulan]

That's more like it Roberta! nice and neat:)
hugs, Flory