Kitchen planning and my top 10 counter top worthy toaster round up high/low

When we moved here to White Wood we had always planned to make some design changes to the kitchen...first let me say that our kitchen is a nice kitchen it is good quality and features a lot of good design, we have a quartz counter and good solid cabinets with nice drawers and pull outs, it is easily the best kitchen from a starting point that I have started with, it's not builder basic at all....but that being said it still isn't my vision of how I would like my kitchen to look, kitchens are so personal...

We do not have funds to make major changes and that isn't necessary...I just want to tweak things and my plans will likey just cost me some sweat equity...as low budget as they get.

We have currently updated the island base with shiplap base trim and paint as well we re-finished the wood reclaimed top...these changes made a huge difference to the look of the kitchen.

Making these changes seems to have toned down the orange that was so very dominant. Our next plans are to remove the modern range hood, it is a good range hood but it is much more modern than my personal style...so I will build a new wood hood cover with some shiplap and reclaimed wood and fan insert with the funds from selling this current range hood. I will also remove the cabinets flanking the range and relocate and use them into the laundry room. I will then replace them with the other closed cabinets that used to flank the sink and add more open shelving to the left of the window. 

The other cabinets are more narrow than the current cabinets so this will allow me more room to add in a wider more prominent range hood to create more of the feature look I am after, especially since out kitchen is so prominent in our great room I want it to be a really beautiful kitchen, a farmhouse style kitchen. 

I have been looking for inspiration for my new hood design, I love these two photos I found on Pinterest, there is almost too much inspiration on pinterest. 

LINK to Pinterest 

Link to pinterest 

There has been a lot of talk around the blogger/instagram world about pretty toasters... and since we keep our toaster out all the time I was feeling we needed an upgrade...I was really loving the Smeg toaster in white or cream but it was out of my price range...I went on the search for the perfect toaster for us...it was difficult to choose honestly...I wanted a four slice toaster as we had only had a 2 slice toaster before and with a family of four it takes forever to toast enough for all of us...

 I am going to rate this toaster 5 stars , it is not only pretty but works very well...I love the bagel setting. 

In my quest to find the perfect toaster for our open concept kitchen I found these ones and they were strong contenders as far as design... here is my round up of my top 10 favourites I found on Amazon... they range in price from $39.00-$500.00 

                                                 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 

                                            7 | 8 | 9 | 10

This Back to Basics toaster was my go to toaster for years and years, I have bought these for family  one Christmas because I loved them so much... I love breakfast food in general, it is my weakness, and this has been an amazing toaster, it boils eggs in three ways, makes poached eggs also, it's great... but its not the prettiest toaster and I have no space or time to be putting away a toaster, for me toasters get some counter real estate, this has always been a function over form thing but now that our kitchen is on display every day I wanted a good looking toaster that will obviously function well for our needs... so it got retired and replaced with the classic white and chrome cuisinart and a new egg cooker...but I would still highly recommend this toaster.

I purchased the elite egg poacher Back to Basics toaster margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> poacher to replace the egg feature of our old toaster, because these little cookers are amazing at perfectly cooking a medium boiled egg...this little guy can cook up to 7 boiled eggs, two poached eggs and one 3 egg omlete...

Back to the kitchen changes....these will take place in the spring, I am feeling very much in hibernation mode although I will likely tackle a small closet  re-do over the winter if I can find time.

* this post contains affiliate links , purchasing items using these links will not cost you anything extra, but simply helps me to cover cost associated with running this blog, for years I have been purchasing items from Amazon for my personal use and have always has great experiences.

Our major main floor makeover...

I am so thrilled to say we have finally completed our main floor makeover...it has been a long process that we started back in the spring....well actually it started last winter when we started to approach the local heritage committee as our house is a heritage protected property...we knew we wanted to make some changes to the wainscotting but we didn't know if we would be able to make these changes...but after meeting with the committee we realized how we all have the same goal and that is to preserve  and cherish this building.

 Painting the very damaged v-groove wainscotting was what we were hoping, this would allows us to conceal the damage and discolorations in the wood and in fact most buildings of this age would have had pine painted trim work...The wood work had been recently stripped by the previous owner.. they had stripped away a faux finish that was meant to remain...but it worked in our favour since this faux finish was removed there was no longer a reason to prevent us from painting the wood work...and painting is always revers able. We were also cleared to replace a pine flat stock trim with a more appropriate baseboard...we were ready to go...

I was so pleased to have Metrie on board to sponsor this major makeover....it was amazing the difference adding the right trim and a bright and light color made to this home. Metrie is a trim company with a real grasp of current trends and classic profiles...they truly have it all and this being my first experience using Metrie products, I think it is safe to say I am hooked...there is a huge difference in quality of design and materials...keep in mind I have been working with trim for 14 years so I have sampled many different types of trim...and I am thoroughly impressed with Metrie's products.

Even though our trim was going to be painted I felt it was important to use wood trim...adding MDF to 140 year old wainscotting wasn't a right option for me....I love working with poplar it actually stains beautifully and it paints so perfectly...during this project I made a switch to my mitre saw blade...what a difference switching to a proper trim blade makes...I switched to an 80 blade, there is a big difference, this blade cuts through trim like butter.

 this is the profile I chose, it is a 7.25" poplar Scene II from the  French curves collection

You can really see what I mean by irregularity, it was so blotchy....and there was a trim piece missing from under the chair rail...this needed replacing.

We were also preparing for our new custom windows at the same time...the clock was ticking...but just painting all this trim work was a huge undertaking...I caulked in between each and every v-groove board...my husband Todd helped out and painted a lot of the window trim and all of the baseboards...so grateful.

We felt that everything the same tone of orange was very overwhelming and not my favourite shade....you never like everything about a new house...right?

I think the wood floors look so much better now...I painted the risers white last minute, it is simply white...my husband thought I was crazy but it was 100% the right choice, it ties all the trim together and makes the room feel wider.

I knew I had to address the newly added half walls, they were stark fresh drywall and they felt jarring...I clad them with v-groove to help them blend in with the perimeter walls.

Filling in the gap beneath the chair rail with this classic panel moulding felt clean and completed the trim...

I also tweeked the kitchen during this renovation...I flipped the island top and finished the rough sawn side and stained it with a custom color...added open shelving and more tile, oh and I stained the grout grey to make the tile more prominent.

Each corner had a filler strip which made mitering the trim impossible so I used a baseboard corner, I love this detail, I am so glad I needed this solution. 

I wish I could thoroughly describe how happy this transformation makes me...beautiful trim makes my heart happy...

I clad the wall with v-groove panel moulding and a cap I custom made from flat stock 1x10"with routered edges...it turned out sublime....it is no longer a corner I hide...coffee corner is what I call this spot and now it looks like it has always been a part of this room.

 I also tackled the entry during this renovation, I opted to create an open concept closet...it works so much better than the sliding mirrored doors...I recently added two pieces of this panel moulding to the header of the closet casing...it makes a big difference, design is all about the details.

We also replaced the front door...this has been a big undertaking...

You can see why I just couldn't live with this wainscotting the way it was....

I primed and painted and painted some more...

We also extended the entry tile to create a larger more balanced space...

French curves scene II

 One last detail I cooked up were these reclaimed wood headers for the two doors on the main floor...I wanted something unique and that followed along with that old house feeling...it was a risk but I think it was a successful result....I upgraded the small flat stock with a much larger flat stock and installed these reclaimed pieces...so easy.

I think it is a cohesive mix...

It's actually quite amazing to look back at where we started...

I want to send a big thank you to Metrie for providing all the beautiful panel moulding and baseboard trim...you've got to check out their new line Option M....

*disclaimer this is a sponsored post but all the opinions are my own and are truthful...