Favorite Room Feature: The Enchanted Home

Tina over at The Enchanted Home catalogues the journey of building her family's dream home. Tina has absolutely exquisite taste and a total eye for design. Not to mention, she is one of the most gracious bloggers we have ever encountered. Tina is going to share the progress of her dream kitchen with you S+S readers. We love it and we know you will too!

Hi I am so pleased and honored that the wonderfully talented duo of Sadie and Stella asked me to participate in their fantastic favorite room feature! The idea is to discuss a room that has been designed/ decorated and how it came to be. I was really hoping my entire room would be completed by this time but we are getting close! In any case, I will share with you what has happened thus far and how it came to be and hopefully when its totally done I can come back and show you the final result! 

As some of you know, we are building our dream house. Yes, we feel incredibly lucky but its been a very long long process.......three and a half years and counting! Of course, loving to entertain and cook, the kitchen was of utmost importance and I told my husband this is where I expected to have free reign to fulfill my kitchen fantasies. Lucky for me, he in due time obliged (not without an argument or disagreement or two) but we worked it out! The kitchen is very large and has a separate butlers pantry and breakfast room. The house is a french chateau styled home and I wanted it to feel like an updated old/new chateau kitchen. The things absolutely on my non negotiable wish list were:

• Antiqued or reclaimed beams
• Reclaimed limestone floors in big random sizes from France
• A big black European range
• Creamy colored cabinets on the perimeter with a light glaze
• Tons of white Calcutta gold marble on all the countertops
• A big black island with white marble
• Double farmhouse sinks
• Two lanterns hanging over the island
• Black butlers pantry with lots of glass
• Limestone hood for above the range

See I am not picky at all, am I? OK, so I said this could be my birthday, anniversary, mothers day AND Christmas gifts for a few years....soooo worth it. So here are a few visuals of the materials that inspired me and then a few pictures of my kitchen in progress. 

FLOORS FROM PARIS CERAMICS...these are reclaimed limestone floors from the Burgoyne region of France..I truly am in love with them and actually got teary eyed when they were being installed. I loved them THAT much! (also waited about 4 months for them so we are like family)

ANTIQUED BEAMS DONE MY OUR MASTER WOODWORKER, DON AND BOB We have the worlds most talented woodworkers doing all the woodwork in our house. They made many many beams for our family room, breakfast room and kitchen and did all the wood paneling throughout the house. Paul Bunyon has nothing on these guys!! Then Rocco our finisher extraordinaire, comes and spends a few weeks antiquing and staining and glazing them!

MY ILVE BLACK RANGE I knew from the day that we bought this property, that my dream kitchen had to have a black enameled European range. I love the look, so after much looking, investigating, and pleading I found my dream range, the Ilve Majestic.....may I present her to you.....ta da!

LANTERNS, Since the island is so long (12 feet) we will have a pair of lanterns flanking it. I haven't had a lot of spare time but was hoping to find a pair of antique lanterns, just the first ones shown here. Otherwise, I will buy new ones and attempt to "antique" them myself or have someone who actually knows what they are doing do it for me, but this is the look!

CALCUTTA GOLD MARBLE  This stuff makes me weak at the knees! Whats more gorgeous than a great big slab of white perfect veiney marble? Love it! I had my heart set on this particular stone from day 1. Unfortunately, its at a major premium so we really had to do our homework and sharpen our negotiating skills, My husband and I has been able to swallow many pills throughout this journey but this one was a hard pill for us to both swallow....that said, I know this will be like the gift that keeps on giving!

OIL RUBBED BRONZE HARDWARE Since upon looking for hardware, I became totally overwhelmed very fast, I have ordered several samples to try and once I get to give them a "test run" I will then make my final decisions! Here are some contenders.....

LIMESTONE RANGE HOOD. How could I create this beautiful European inspired kitchen and not include a stone range hood! I am so excited to see it get put up, but that in itself is a full day process. We just got it yesterday, but it was exciting to take a peek! Here is what it looks like:

So now that I have showed you some inspiration....here are some pictures since its humble beginnings. Unfortunately the kitchen is not done but its about 70% there.....we had to put on "cardboard countertops" and cheesy cheap faucets to meet our inspection requirements with the building inspector coming tomorrow but those lovely cardboard creations will be replaced with gorgeous white marble! The kitchen people are putting on the layers of the kitchen, but you are getting an idea here. By the time I got to the house, it was getting dark and our electricity officially gets connected tomorrow so a few pics are a little dark.  I also included pictures of the butlers pantry, still in its infancy in terms of installation but its going to be fabulous, I can tell. So, you have to use your imagination here a bit people, and I promise I will be following up with lots of "after" pictures when its totally done!

Looking from mud room into kitchen

Our island or the "continent" as its affectionately called by some of the guys working at the house

Love the dental crown detailing......

Going from the kitchen into the family room

We have lots of glass fronted doors

A closer up of the details..... 

The refrigerator wall

The oil rubbed bronze hinges I hemmed and hawed over

The dual sinks, pardon the cardboard counters and hideous faucet!

Looking from the family room in

Our breakfast room 

The butlers at its most basic, imagine with all the moldings, white marble,etc...

Another section, it has 2 L sections of cabinets

Entering from the mud room

Mudroom and back stair going into the kitchen

Family room/hutch wall going into family room

Beams....

And there's the hood just awaiting its new home!

So that's what we have thus far! As most of you know, every Thursday, I post house updates and I imagine by next Thurs. I will be showing you a nearly completed kitchen and butlers (the countertops won't be in for a few weeks though) Thank you so much Lindsay and Lindsay for having me. It was so great to be here and share with you my kitchen in progress!

Wishing everyone an enchanted day!