When we closed on our house in Larkspur, we knew the kitchen was coming with us in name only. The bones were fine — good light, decent layout, a view of the hills if you stood at the right angle — but everything else felt like it had been installed in 1994 and quietly given up somewhere around 2008. Dark oak cabinets that swallowed the natural light. Laminate countertops with a soft spot near the sink that we tried not to think about. A faucet that dripped. Hardware that had lost whatever finish it once had.
We bought the house anyway, because Marin and because we knew what it could be. Demo started three weeks ago. We're in it now.
This is the first post in what I'm planning as a running diary of the whole project — kitchen first, primary bathroom next. I'll document what we chose, what it costs, what we'd do differently, and link everything we bought. No fluff, no staging, no pretending the process is prettier than it is.
Why the kitchen couldn't wait
Three things broke it for us, and honestly they broke fast once we moved in.
The first was the darkness. The cabinets ran floor to ceiling on two walls in a finish that had gone from honey oak to something closer to mud. Even on a bright Marin morning with the fog burned off, the kitchen felt like a cave. We cooked in it for two weeks and kept turning lights on at noon.
The second was quality. The laminate countertop near the sink had a soft spot that got softer. A cabinet door hinge pulled out of the particle board on our second week. The drawer slides were the kind that don't close all the way and rattle when you walk past. None of it was catastrophic. All of it was constant.
The third was that we'd bought a house that needed to become ours, and this room didn't feel like anything yet. That sounds vague but if you've bought a house that needs work, you know exactly what it means.
So we demoed. The cabinets came out in a weekend. The counters followed. The backsplash tile — small, beige, completely inoffensive — got chipped off in an afternoon. We're standing in the middle of it now, which is its own particular kind of exciting.
What we're building instead
The direction we kept coming back to was warm California organic. Not farmhouse, not Scandinavian minimal, not the gray-everything aesthetic that's been everywhere for a decade. We wanted something that felt like it belonged here — cream and wood and a little terracotta, materials that look better with age, nothing that will feel dated in five years because it was never really trendy to begin with.
Practically, that translates to shaker-style cabinets in a warm white running to the ceiling, unlacquered brass hardware that will patina over time, countertops in a honed quartzite that has the movement of marble without the anxiety, a fireclay farmhouse sink in matte white, zellige-style backsplash tile with that handmade variation in the glaze, and white oak open shelving on the window wall.
Replace with:
<img src="../images/kitchen-moodboard.jpg" alt="Kitchen mood board" />
"We wanted something that felt like it belonged here — materials that look better with age, nothing that will feel dated in five years."
The splurge we're not apologizing for
We bought a Wolf 48" induction range.
I'm going to write a full post about this decision because it deserves one — the research alone took three months and more spreadsheet tabs than I'd like to admit. But the short version: we cooked on a tired electric range for the first two weeks here and it confirmed what we already suspected, which is that the range is the center of the kitchen and if you're going to spend money anywhere, spend it there.
The 48" is larger than most home kitchens use, and it raised eyebrows when we told our contractor. But the layout supports it, the hood we're installing is scaled to match, and induction was non-negotiable for us — faster, cleaner, no gas line to worry about, and the surface stays flat which matters more than it sounds when you have the countertop of your dreams next to it.
It arrives in three weeks. I will photograph every inch of the installation.
Everything we've chosen — all linked
Here's every product decision we've locked in. I update this list as things arrive and get installed, so bookmark this page and come back. Everything is linked to exactly where we bought it.
Appliances
Cabinets + hardware
Sink + faucet
Countertops + tile
Flooring
Lighting
What this is going to cost
We're in the $60K–$100K range for the kitchen total — appliances are a significant chunk of that when you go Wolf. I'll publish a full line-item breakdown once we're done: every contractor quote, every material cost, final number vs. what we budgeted.
The bathroom project starts in roughly 8 weeks. That post is coming.
Follow along
I'm updating this post as products arrive and get installed — so the "link coming soon" items above will fill in over the next few weeks. Bookmark this page or save the Pinterest pin to come back to it.
Next post: demo day breakdown, what our contractor found inside the walls (there's always something), and first look at cabinets going in.