The Marigold Potager – A Zone 3 Prairie Garden

Updated – Originally posted on May 3rd, 2023.

I have had so many of you ask about the details, brands, colours and companies used in our (almost) award-winning kitchen design and renovation. Will try to address all your questions here.

When we moved to this new-to-us house 2.5 years ago, we thought we would be able to handle the kitchen as it was, at least for a while. To live with it while figured out what we liked and wanted for this wee kitchen, before jumping into a big renovation.

Turns out that it just did not function well for us at all, we could not make the old kitchen layout work for us, not even in the short term.

If you’re like hubby and I, you spend hours talking about how to best lay out the new kitchen, where to put what, how to fit in a pantry and more storage. When you know what you want and need, but not how to make it happen. That is when a really good home improvement company comes in.

We checked out a few different companies for quotes and ideas. The one we went with (KCB Cabinets & Renovations in Red Deer) was such a good fit, from the designer, planner, and the tradesmen… we highly recommended this 5 star company.

Our kitchen is on the small side, is a u-shape with a small island in the middle. We had to keep the same footprint as there was no way to make it bigger.

The Before…

• The old kitchen was sorely lacking in storage space. There was no pantry type cabinet for cereal boxes, canned goods, kraft dinner, baking supplies except one lazy Susan type corner cabinet. I am very tiny, under 5 feet tall, so could only reach the bottom shelf of the upper cabinets, which meant all plates, cups, glasses, cereals, foods, had to be on that bottoms shelf.
• The desk took up valuable space, ended up being a dumping zone.
• The microwave was up too high (for me). See it above the built in oven.
• The stove top on the island was a hazard! We were forever accidently turning on burners when we put groceries, or whatnot, on the island.
• Lack of countertop space.
• It was so dark in there! I was so sad in this room. The lights were directional so did not brighten the kitchen, they shone down onto the countertop and sink. The orange wood soaked up the rest of what little light there was. I thought we had bought a dungeon!
• We really liked the wall oven but needed storage more, and let’s face it, I am just used to a range rather than a cooktop.
• Oh, see that cute narrow window in the back? That was kind of cool but we could not find a way to keep it in the new design. That also meant repairing the stucco outside. Don’t let that kind of stuff stop you. It is totally doable!

The new kitchen is bright, practical, very pretty, and has loads of storage. Being under 5 feet tall, I need most of my storage space to be down low where I can access it. Other than the bottom shelf on the uppers, the rest of the the shelves are out of my reach… to make things even more interesting, I have a balance disorder so cannot do stools either.

The Details…

The Cabinets – are from Columbia (the company, not the country) in a simple shaker style. The uppers are Maple HDF painted in B/M Cloud White. The lowers and island are Knotty Alder, with a black glaze. We put in tons of drawers as they are great for pretty much everything.

The Lights – are all glass so they look a bit more farmhouse-y, and spread light all around the room. We also put in pot lights so no more dungeon! These pendant lights came in a set of three from Wayfair so we put two over the island and one in the kitchen nook. I chose black fittings instead of gold as I wanted to mix the metals. This light is similar with a mix of gold and black fittings. Gorgeous.

The nook lighting is the same as the two over the island. The lights came in a set of three so it all worked out perfectly.

The Sink & Faucet – are my most favourite things in the kitchen, maybe my favourite things in the entire house. I have had a farmhouse sink before, but this one with the fluted front is so pretty, and very well thought out. Here is the link to the exact same one.

Both bowls (sinks) have a grid to protect the sink and your dishes, and these great basket strainers that catch all the bits. They lift out so you can easily empty them into your compost pail.

I love this sink so much, I can’t even tell you. It is so pretty and that somehow makes it more enjoyable to do dishes. I am forever wiping it, rinsing it, keeping it looking pretty.

It is super easy to keep clean, as well. A must for me. I use regular dish soap and these scratch free, safe scrubbies (You can get them from Homesense for a much better price) for daily cleaning.

For heavy duty cleaning, I used to use Barkeeper’s Friend, which works like a hot dang, but is very harsh. Do not breathe it in! It cleans all stains, marks, everything, so I keep it around. However, I have since found the Cleaning Scrub from Mint Cleaning followed by their Multi-Purpose Spray. It smells amazingly great and is better for both my breathing and the environment : )

This Faucet– is everything. What can I say? I love this faucet so much, it is just so beautiful. I knew what I wanted and went looking for it. I think I may have watched a bit too many ‘For The Love of Kitchens’ episodes (I have seen them all) from Devol Kitchens, but I sure do like British bespoke kitchens.

Why this faucet? I love the antique brass colour, the lovely tall gooseneck, the lever handles, and that swooping bridge from the faucet to the taps. It comes with a sprayer, too, you just cannot see it in this picture.

I’m going to tell you right now that it costs a lot. Like a lot more than I could ever have ever imagined spending on a faucet… but I had to have it. I sat on the purchase for weeks, hoping that it would go down in price. It did not. In fact, I near had a heart attack when it was listed as sold out for a moment! When it showed up again, I ordered it right away. Knew that there was nothing else that I wanted instead, no settling for second best.. To this day I have zero regrets. I love it to bits.

If you do not need yours to be a gooseneck, you can get a lovely traditional spouted antique brass faucet for a bit less. The gooseneck was an absolute must for me.

The Tiles – I have had so many questions about where to buy these lovely backsplash tiles. They come in this mix of varying shades of blue, are shiny, a bit wavy, so they have the look and feel of handmade. The tiles are the Fez collection by Tierrasol.

Before you ask… while I do not have the link to these exact pretty light blue tinted glass water carafes, these are very close, and they have lids!

*Disclaimer. As an affiliate, if you were to purchase an item(s) from the links, I will get a wee small amount of money to support my blog. It does not cost you any extra to purchase through my link than if you went to that item on your own. Many thanks for your support!

The countertops are quartz in a warm white with brown veining, called Casanova.

The Appliances

All of the appliances are (always) ultimately chosen by the mister, a professional chef. He loves to do scads of research to find just the right one, while I do not. He knows what I like and want, shops around at the local appliance stores and on-line, for weeks (and more weeks) so I don’t have to bother with any of it. He finds the ones he likes, shows me the contenders, we choose them together.

The Range – Finding a stove that we both like was a bit of a challenge, and finding one that we could actually get here in time was the hardest part of that battle. Hubby, the chef, wanted gas. I wanted induction. He got his pick as he cooks way more than I do. I wanted blue, green, or white. We found a blue one. Oh, you guys, it was so very pretty… but was a minimum of 9 to 12 months to get here, and even that was a best guess with a bit of wishful thinking thrown in. We could not order based on a maybe as we needed the measurements to put in the cabinet order.

We were ordering in 2022, a good 8 months before we needed it, and you may remember how hard it was to get appliances (and many other things) during and after the pandemic? At that time, there were no other blue or green ranges to be found, not in our price range at any rate.

After weeks of searching on line, we found this 36″Cafe All Gas Commercial Style Range. We would have loved an even bigger one but the kitchen is just not large enough to fit one in. How I would have loved that small extra oven on the side (being the baker in the family). I love the gold knobs and handle. Oh, and the stove has a griddle, too, that we use for pancake making. If you decide to get a large stove, you also need a large, strong hood vent, btw, so factor that into your costs. A regular hood vent will not cut it.

The Fridge – While I was less invested in the range, the fridge was/is a really big deal for me. I am super fussy about what I want in a fridge. It has to be easy to clean (that meant absolutely no stainless steel) and it has to be practical. My kind of practical – lots of room for vegetables. He found this one, the Samsung Bespoke Refrigerator with a white milk glass front. Perfect in every way.

• I love the white glass. It is super easy to keep clean, and it just looks so pretty. You can also get it with pale blue glass, which I also love… but not as much as this milky white. Psst, they had the pink glass on Scott’s Vacation House Rules!
• There are several door set ups that you can choose. The two upper doors on ours are the fridge (of course) and the two bottom ones are freezers. However, the bottom right door is a flex zone, can be either a fridge or a freezer with the press of a button. Super practical.
• It has two sizes of ice, both cubes and chips.
• It has a water jug and a water dispenser, with an easy to replace filter. I am not big on water and ice makers in fridges (I worry about all the things that can go wrong) but the mister really wanted it, so… compromise.

There are two ways to open this door. If you want the water, you open just the outer panel of the door. If you want open the door to access the fridge, you use a handle in the middle of the fridge, one that you cannot see in the photo. It is easier than it sounds, hahaha. I just don’t know if I am explaining it well.

I highly recommend this fridge. It is well organised, easy to keep clean both inside and out, has all sorts of special features that are so practical.

The Pantry – The pantry was an absolute must have for us. This double doored one was the biggest storage unit that we could fit into this tiny U-shaped kitchen. We now have almost as much space as we need.

We also had an extra pantry cabinet put in the upstairs laundry room (not a room so much as it is a hallway) for extra canned goods, cereal boxes, paper towels, and the like.

The Microwave – is a drawer type in the island. Great for us shorties and safe for kids, too. I’ve read some comments online saying that they would not like a drawer microwave as it is so low, but not one person has ever mentioned that when using ours (and my nephew is over 6 feet tall). It is just like any other kitchen drawer that one would have for cutlery, pots, tea towels, etc. It is a called a Sharp 24″ microwave drawer oven. Also super easy to clean!

The Dishwasher – we decided that we had to have a panel front dishwasher as nothing else would really look good with the other appliances. So we went with this Asko 50 series dishwasher. Besides looking good, it has all the bells and whistles (even has a light that comes on when you open it up), and does a really great job at cleaning the dishes. Is far better than the Bosch’s we had at the last two houses.

This Counter Top Cupboard – is one of my favourite features of this kitchen. I would have put in a bank of them if the kitchen was a bit larger. As a shortie, I can reach 3 of the shelves, hah, and the drawer in the bottom is great for my tea collection. The cabinet holds things like vases, pretty bowls, saucers that I use under plants or candles. All the nice little things that I use around the house to make it homey.

Drawer Pulls – I have been unable to find the name of these drawer pulls in my file, but they work so well with our design. I can ask the designer if someone is wanting to know, just let me know. They’re simple, antique gold, and have a great hand feel. Best of all, no grooves to have to keep clean. Are you sensing a theme? Simple and clean is what I like!

The layout for the appliances remained almost the same, besides the oven situation.

The sink and dishwasher are in the same place. The fridge moved a couple of feet this way, where the desk used to be, to make room for the pantry. There was no hood fan at all (eek!) so we had one put in, and that narrow off-center window had to go.

There are no corner cabinets in our u-shaped kitchen. None. Not up top and not in the lower cabinets. We chose to eliminate them altogether, despite all the newfangled gadgets and options we were shown.

I told the designer that my body is far too broken for me to be crawling around on the floor, trying to reach things that fell off the lazy Susan into the far, dark corners. Let alone try to keep them clean. I like simple, it is easier and makes far more sense (to me).

The lowers are all drawers so they are easy access, easy to clean, no crawling on the floor to find things at the back of the cabinets.

Our kitchen and bathroom reno is a finalist for best renovation of the year in the Central Alberta region excellence in housing awards (BILDCA), which is pretty awesome and exciting. We totally love our new kitchen but is nice to know that others do, too! Bath update coming up soon. That turned out super well, too.

Update, we’ve now been loving and living in our new kitchen for over a year and a half and still love it just as much as ever. All the things we hoped for happened. We have practical storage that we can reach and use, it is easy to keep clean, and it looks amazing. The sink is still my favourite thing and despite the cost of that faucet, I would do it all over again.

We placed second in the awards. While we did not win first place, both our kitchen and bathroom (coming soon) are featured on several pages of The Design / Build magazine, which is pretty awesome. Our bathroom is actually the centerfold! If you were to go into the KCB showroom, you’ll see pictures of both featured prominently on their wall and screen.

While all of that is really amazing and wonderful, the best thing about the renovation is that we get to enjoy this lovely, functional, easy to clean, kitchen on the daily ~ Tanja