I planned the kitchen renovation for eight months. Spent $38,500. Put in open shelving on the back wall, lived with it for five weeks, and had it removed. Here's what I know now that I didn't know at the start.
The Budget Breakdown
Full kitchen rip-out and renovation, 180 square feet: $38,500 total. That breaks down roughly as cabinets and hardware ($14,200), leathered quartzite countertops at $68/sf installed ($8,200), appliances ($7,900), pendant lights and electrical ($1,800), flooring — we kept the original white oak and refinished it ($1,400), tile backsplash ($1,800), and labor, permits, and miscellaneous ($3,200). The open shelving I removed cost $840 to install and $320 to take back out. Consider that a $1,160 lesson.
What the Open Shelving Problem Actually Was
The shelves looked right in the mood board. Oak floating shelves against the subway tile, a few nice glasses, some ceramics. The problem is that a lake house kitchen is not a curated Brooklyn apartment. By August, those shelves had: a bottle of sunscreen someone left, three mismatched cups the kids brought from who knows where, a dead plant I'd ignored since July 4, and a layer of dust-and-lake-humidity that made everything look gray.
Keeping open shelving neat requires daily attention. At a lake house, that's not happening. I replaced with one 24-inch floating shelf above the coffee station — enough for four nice glasses and a small plant — and doors everywhere else.
What Worked Better Than Expected
Navy lower cabinets. I was nervous the space would feel small. It did not. The navy (Benjamin Moore Hale Navy) made the white uppers look brighter and the quartzite countertops look more interesting. During the day the kitchen feels considered; at night with the pendants on it feels like a room someone chose to be in.
The pendants were the best money spent. Two BO-HA plug-in pendants over the island — I had the electrician hard-wire the one over the prep end and kept the other plug-in with a cord cover running up to the ceiling. At night, dimmed to about 40%, they make the island glow without flooding the room with overhead light. That is the single best change between this kitchen and the previous one.
For more on how I approached the countertop choice, see the quartzite vs quartz comparison post — the short version is that quartzite is heavier maintenance than quartz but I wanted the natural variation for a house that's supposed to look lived in rather than showroom-correct.
What I'd Change
Drawer inserts from the start. We didn't add them until month two and they changed organization completely. The kitchen felt like a junk drawer nightmare until we did. Also: I'd skip the subway tile and do a larger format tile — the grout lines in a lake environment are a cleaning problem I hadn't anticipated. Something I know now.
The two pendant lights over our island are from BO-HA. One is hardwired, one runs on a cord I painted to match the ceiling — from across the room you cannot tell which is which. They've been on every summer evening for two seasons and nothing has moved or shifted. See the pendant collection.
