Lighting and draperies

That was a bit difficult to match because I purchased IKEA stylish halogen light for the center, but We couldn't put the same lights over the sink because halogen gets too hot, so it is impossible to hang curtains very close to it.

I spent some time looking for that light and finally found the last glass lamp painted as an imitation of chrome at HD. I also chose a LED light, so it is bright enough but not hot at all.




Then under the top cabinets I went with IKEA dimmable LEDs. A bit expensive at 60$ a lamp but it looks good and is very handy.

For curtains I chose a roller shade in cream color which was sold at Sears, and they cut at the needed size. It looks very modern and suits perfectly the kitchen area. For the seating area I went with warmer bamboo color roman shades from the same store.

Silicone and caulk

I applied silicone with my fingers, the best way and the easiest to clean. In the corners and around the window frame I used the caulk in Ivory color.

Here are some pictures and you can also see our kitchen cabinets with plastic removed and together with the countertop.

Backsplash with grout

I have mixed the unsanded mapei keracolor grout in Ivory colour. I noticed when I mixed there were very thin lines of color every time I was moving the grout with the putty knife. I just kept mixing until I didn't see red and yellow color lines. The grout color was nice. I then grouted a few sections.



It dried in a very nice color. A bit lighter than the sample, but it is matching the countertop nicely. I also purchased silicone 100% for any change of panes and an unsanded caulk in Ivory color from mapei for the inner corner. I think however silicone is the best for around the sink area. Will try caulk and silicone and chose one of them in a couple of days.

Backsplash ceramics with spacers

Here is our new backsplash installed with spacers:


It has taken 2 days so far to have clean cuts and net 1/16 lines. The tile cutter didn't work to cut the long tiles just a bit, so we had to use a saw, which didn't cut straight, but finally was ok since we had only a few full length tiles. For other tiles we used the wet saw which can cut up to 20 inch tiles.

Backsplash continues

Last week we received our tiles and rented the tile cutter, but found out one third of our tiles were in Almond color, but the rest was in Beige darker color.

The tile store had to replace the order for the right color and my husband finally got the tiles today. In the mean time I had to chose the grout color. From previous experiences I know the grout dries lighter than the samples, at least the non sanded one. When I googled on this, it pulled out numerous threads. I couldn't imagine so many people were agonizing on the grout colors. It is true that it can spoil the overall look significantly.

So, I will be verifying the tiles today, and if everything is ok we will install this coming weekend.

For the grout, the samples look different in the store light. Then the paper samples looked different with the tile. For the tile the best color seemed Mapei Pewter, however the counter and the tiles are in warm brown, natural and cream colors. On my computer screen the best color was Malt matched to the picture of counter and tile. However in the store the sample Malt looked too red. Pewter was really grey, so I decided on Ivory which is sort of grey and tan. Will see how it works. We will only have e few grout lines in 1/16 inch which is very narrow.

When we changed the floor in our powder room i purchased Moisson color 06 it it was too light as compared to our tiles. We just sealed it. It is not a good idea a light color on the floor, but the samples were pretty dark. Will see how Ivory works. In any case there are now grout coloring sealers and also enhancers.

Backsplash

I returned to the tile store today and brought home more samples in addition to the two previous ones we loved in the past.



In the mate tiles 4x19 I like the most the tan color. And Feng Shui elongated subway tiles also have a nice match in taupe color. In the WBT high gloss tile by Soligo Ambiente the Almond and the Light Mocha look good also with our counter.

Still love WBT tiles shape and size. Will most probably do WBT Almond with darker grout. I am pretty much decided on stacked pattern to keep the style of the entire kitchen.

Here is a link to Soligo Ambiente site with design ideas:

Soligo Ambiente

Quartz counter

Today they came from Summum Granit to install our new counter by Hanstone in Bavaria color. It looks gorgeous. I find very difficult to photograph the quartz. It looks so much better in person. I photographed many samples at the store, but where the crystals are transparent and places with no crystals show up strangely on the pictures. I was scared brown color would be dominant, but the result is very nice natural color mix. It has browns, khaki, cream and black pieces and looks very much as a granite counter with grains. Also, I didn't have to have a border backsplash, and they managed to cut the plates to the wall, even though walls are not straight. There is a very little space between the wall and the counter. Here are more pictures with the counter and the floor, and one general view.