Kitchen Backsplash

We've been having a really tough time trying to find a backsplash that we love for behind the stove.

In my mind, I had wanted a natural looking stone back there.  I wanted it to look like a hearth.  We looked at SO many options at the home stores, tile stores, even fireplace stores- but  couldn't find the right one.  They were either too brown in color, or too thick in depth, or the rocks were stacked too symmetrically, or cut too thin.

Since the list of outstanding "to do" items is finally getting shorter, we knew we needed to make a decision.

That's when we found this:

We both decided it's perfect!  The color is just right to go with the gray cabinets and countertops!

Mike was able to install it himself that afternoon- so it also saved us the time, cost and mess of having the masonry guy in.

I also noticed that the pattern goes nicely with our new curtains!

I should really take a new "After" shot during the day... you can see it was night when I took this one, compared to the daytime "Before" photo!  

Maybe when I take the final "Before & After" of the whole kitchen... we have the electricians coming this week to finish in-cabinet lighting and swap some of the switch assignments.

Kitchen Cabinets Almost Complete!

A few days after the kitchen countertops went in, the cabinet guy came back to complete the section over the stove.

I love the little mantle shelf above the stove... can't wait to put platters & decorating things up there!
The three doors in the center open, but the hood is located behind them, so that's not actually storage space.  But the four narrow doors on the side DO have a bunch of storage- they are really deep, so hold tons of stuff!

The stove actually just BARELY squeezed in there!  The installation guy came and couldn't believe it was such a tight fit- but they got it in there! Whew!

Next the granite guy is coming back to put the little backsplash pieces in place in the squares on the sides.  We still haven't picked out the backsplash for the wall behind the stove. We want a stone look, but haven't found the right one yet.

The cabinet guy will be back... the two drawers to the left of the stove had minor dings.  I don't think I would have even noticed, but the cabinet guy noticed during installation and ordered new drawer fronts.  Once they come in he'll be back to replace those and to finish putting the knobs on the rest of them.

PS- This was all in early November (can't believe how far behind I am on writing up these posts!  But there's been very little progress since then, so it's giving me a chance to catch up!)   The good news is that the gas got connected to the stove the Monday before Thanksgiving- so we were able to cook the turkey- hooray!