i love this kitchen. head to raenovate to check out even more before photos of it.

http://www.raenovate.com/2010/04/upper-west-side-galley-kitchen.html

Aesthetically, this is one of the best kitchen renovations I've seen. Talk about increasing the value of your home. Great job!

From a cooks stand point, the work triangle looks a bit awkward. Moving the gas/plumbing lines would probably have been rather expensive though. Still, I love looking at it.

Wow! Fab-u-lous! I love the tiles, and how the striations in the lower cabinets and the countertops work so well together. Lovely! I also like how you just painted that pole in the corner white and it just sort of disappears. We have a pole like that in our basement and I keep wondering what I can do to make it less obvious.

Perhaps it's a faux pas, but I'd love to know the budget for projects like these....

I'm lusting after the tilework & countertops--
- and the layout works for me: its much more open and there's tons of counterspace.

gorgeous!!

super nice, but seeing the home of Philip Glass' partner after the Sandy Chilewich post and the unnamed owner of the 2000 sf Greenwich Village post the other day makes me think AT is getting away from its roots of normal people and normal places, sort of how the Sartorialist blog went south when it started shooting Vogue editors every other day.

Stunning. I love it when a design element is not only beautiful (marble and reflective wall tiles) but also functional (reflects more light into the room). The height of those upper cabinets also helps in that regard. Smart.

Well done.

I especially appreciate the small details: the counter depth refrigerator, the higher cabinets, the lack of counter top back splash (and the turned outlet), the under-mounting of the sink, etc.

WOW. Love. Beautiful. Gorgeous. Stunning.
Love the textures...the tile, wood, stainless, marble....
put together so beautifully.

I think modernguy makes a good point from a cooking standpoint....
but it is still stunning. I'd live with it!

May I inquire as to the resource for the tile?

Does anyone know how the homeowner access the upper cabinets? (They look really high.)

Also: yes, budget please! Or at least a ballpark.

And I concur about the work triangle, but oh well.

In conclusion: GORGEOUS!

Beautiful! I love the choice of wood and that tile is gorgeous.

Awesome!! Gorgeous. Love how it transformed!!

There's nothing about this I don't like and I especially love the tile - subtle but still interesting.

ZOWEE. Love this kitchen: It's elegant and efficient.

I really do appreciate the efforts taken to expand and diversify the offerings on AT. Let's see more of this kind of design.

Thanks!

@travislessness --

Would it make you feel better to know that the cabinets in the kitchen are IKEA Solar?

Inspiration comes from lots of places - there's just as much material for good ideas in mid-to-high-end homes as there might be at the low-end.

I thought this kitchen was incredible at first and then I saw the before picture and I was blown away. Every detail just works. The bertola chairs are a great fit for this look. The grain of the countertop meshes perfectly with the grain in the cabinets.

The only slightly concerning thing is whether those top cabinets are too high.

I am a normal person and I can look at my normal kitchen any darn day of the week. I enjoy seeing all ranges of design and I want to see what exists outside my small circle, fancy or unfancy it is all inspiring!

And this kitchen is utterly fabulous!! I love that tile so much I want to marry it.

Penguin can't marry the tile because it's already engaged to me.

The other quirk I see is the counter area. I would never sit there because I'd go nuts gazing at that blank wall (however lovely it is.) I wonder how the overall feel would be altered if there was a wall pot rack?

I really like the hanging lights, too.

Wow! Love it! The new arrangement looks so much better and streamlined without the big fridge blocking the path.

It's absolutely gorgeous, but I also wonder about the high cabinets. How do you get a coffee cup or cereal bowl without a ladder? Or is the doorway in the back a pantry?

Absolutely one of my all-time AT kitchens; this is just beautiful. I love the wood, the tile, the neutral color scheme, and the fact that this is a very efficient kitchen. Fantastic renovation.

I agree that the cabinets are really high, and yes, it would be a problem to deal with that (aka live with that) because it's so inconvenient. But the alternative is that 99.9% of homes have a cabinet area that gets in the way of the space. Even if you have nothing on the countertop, the space is still crowded. I'm hoping at some point a brilliant architect or designer will find a solution . . .

"How do you get a coffee cup or cereal bowl without a ladder? Or is the doorway in the back a pantry?"

I'd imagine that it is a pantry...
...but they could also keep their dishes in the drawers as well and reserve the uppers for seldom-used items.

Also remember this is NYC, where many folks eat out most of the time.

Yes, this is NY, we don't all eat out most of the time, but space IS at a premium, so on upper cabinets go the things which aren't often used, so you buy a step ladder for them. This is a great apartment kitchen, modern, yet warm and beautiful. And God bless IKEA for the cabinets!!

It would have been really great to see if (or how) a step ladder was integrated into the design.

So we have a high/low kitchen, right? Cabinets=IKEA, Appliances=expensive, tile=freakin' awesome.

Stunning transformation! Love the counter and the tilework!

This is not a cheap renovation.

Luke's doing my apt now, can't wait until we are done and y'all can see...it's going to be stunning! So so so excited and the process has been lovely.

Great kitchen!! I was totally sold on getting a Liebherr refrigerator until I read a bunch of reviews that said there were problems with the durability of the plastic parts and the compressor (I think, or something that made the freezer alarm go off a lot). But I absolutely love the look, the size and the efficiency. How is yours holding up?

This was NOT a cheap renovation...but it is a beautiful one.

Beautiful and smart too...

Absolutely gorgeous, totally love the remodel.

A few answers to the many nice comments about my new kitchen. The upper cabinets are high but I insisted on this so that the kitchen would feel lighter and more spacious. I store everything my ten year old daughter and I need in the lower drawers and keep the heavy cooking appliances in the upper cabinets. We have a little metal step ladder I use when I need to pull down a blender, cuisinart etc.

Finding the right fridge to fit that space, for less than a gizziliion dollars, was truly the biggest challenge, Luke and I had a lot of laughs during that time. It was like finding the holy grail. Anyway the Liebherr is simply beautiful to look at but honestly very poor in keeping things cool. Kind of operates on the level of a hotel mini-bar.

Luke totally understood my aesthetic and needs when we first met and we completely agreed on the fabrics, the colors etc. It was a great collaboration. We are not working on the other rooms in my apartment. He is a great great desginer and has an immediate understanding of one's style and needs.

Wendy

Excuse the typo, we are NOW working on other rooms, not not!
Wendy

This is absolutely stunning. And though this is a high end design, the ideas from it could certainly be put into practice for anyone doing a kitchen makeover. I love the mix of marble, wood, and tile. Looks incredible... it reminds me of the Getty somehow.

as i was looking at this the other day, i was thinking they were ikea cabinets -- thanks to bepsf for outing that. but looking through it, i'm seeing a lot of smart decisions, not necessarily expensive ones (well, except obvious ones like the miele dishwasher which could be subbed with a nice bosch or LG model).

as far as a source for inspiration, (per the "expensive" comments) a kitchen very much like this could be done (materials only, mind you) for less than $20K -- especially if you stuck with ikea (and other big-boxes) as a main source and there wasn't a whole lot of fundamental structure that needed to be tweaked.

there's very little cabinetry and countertops, so those could be had for under $5K total (our kitchen is 2X the size and we spent less than $4K on cabinetry and $2.5K on countertops).

i'd imagine -- minus the appliances -- the tile-work was the most expensive part, but imagine this instead with subway tile instead of the more boutique tile. perhaps not as smashing, but still pretty nice... heck, even heath's modern-basics line comes in at an affordable price if you plan wisely.

kudos on the great work. i'm sure this will be an inspiration for many DIYers.

Love this, Gorgeous style!

but how on earth do you reach the upper cabinets?

nicely done, RedNeckModern!

this is by far one of the best and most beautiful kitchen renovations i've seen on AT. nice work and thank for the eye candy. this page gets bookmarked for sure!

Fabulous job! - LIGHTING FIXTURE, where does one find those undercabinet lighting fixture? I'm in the process of doing a mini reno and I've been searching for fixtures. Any chance someone knows where those can be found and if not I'd accept all suggestions.