January 5, 2015

Dreaming of A White Kitchen…

We will just call this a 2 for 1 blog post.  I have been wanting for some time to blog about our kitchen remodel as well as our company so why not combine it into one?  Plus, in doing my Holiday Home Tour, I took lots of pictures of our kitchen and am dying to share them!  Sooo…  this post will be our kitchen/bath company meets our kitchen remodel meets our holiday home tour part three. Why don’t I just stop blabbering and get on with it…

 I would like to introduce you to our Kitchen and Bath Company, AKA our bread and butter, AKA our day job… A Polished Finish.  I am often asked if my husband is a builder or a remodeler or something of the like.  As I mentioned in my bio, my husband and I started dating at 14 and from there we did things a little backward.  We started college at 18, got married at 20, started our company at 21 and graduated at 23.  So let’s back up for a second… At 21 years old as sophomores in college, we started a granite counter-top company.  It wasn’t a family company.  We had never worked a day in the industry.  We had no experience in the kitchen and bath industry whatsoever.  With all of that combined, let’s just say that our college years were a bit crazy.  While our friends were enjoying their years of freedom, we were full-time students and full-time entrepreneurs.  My hubby had this crazy idea of being self-employed and he wanted to start his company right then and right there so together, that’s exactly what we did.  I will spare you the novel long story and just say “do not try this at home”.  I remember sitting in my architectural auto-cad classes with one window pulled up of the school project I was working on and the other my e-mail account answering client questions and working on advertising campaigns.  I also vividly remember balling my eyes out in our office one day begging my husband to sell all of his equipment and get a “normal job”.  Not one single day of it has been an easy road for us as business owners or as husband and wife but somehow and someway we made it through and now thirteen years later I am proud to say that we own one of the largest Kitchen and Bath companies in the Southeast.  With over 10,000 completed installations in everything from neighborhoods to celebrity homes to commercial spaces, we have done it all!  Since our initial years, we have expanded to full kitchen/bath remodeling, natural stone and quartz countertops, cabinetry and much more.  So, if you are in the Metro Atlanta area, make sure and check us out!  www.apolishedfinish.com

So, when it came time to do our kitchen remodel, I guess you could say that I knew who to call! 😉

Here is the BEFORE

Here is the AFTER

As you can see, our kitchen was a bit dark and a whole lot of brown when we purchased the home.  I had a vision of a crisp white kitchen with a pop of color.  You know me and my pops of color!  I chose a very neutral palette for the main cabinetry and a beautiful turquoise for the island.  All of the wall cabinets are finished in White Dove by Benjamin Moore and the cooktop cabinet as well as the vent hood are in Thundercloud Gray by Benjamin Moore.  Our island was a custom color I had created with an antiqued finish and the formula is listed below.

With over ten years experience in the industry, I knew that although I LOVED the look of marble countertops, it would not be an option for our kitchen.  Marble is not only very porous, it is also not near as scratch resistant, stain resistant or heat resistant as granite.  I chose Tiger White granite for the main counter-tops because of it’s beautiful grey veining on a relatively solid white background.  Although I would have chosen it for all of the counters, my husband was set on using Titanium granite for our island counter-top.  Up close, it has gorgeous natural mica specs that shimmer and sparkle.  He also created a stunning double laminated edge for all of the tops which gives it a super thick appearance and really shows off the beautiful nature of the stone.  Our main tops have a 1″ beveled edge and the island was done in a double ogee edging.

SHOP OUR KITCHEN:

Cabinets and Countertops- A Polished Finish

Appliances- Howard Payne

Cabinet Hardware and Island- A Polished Finish

Island Custom Color by Sherwin Williams (Brittany’s Blue):

CCE Color Cast          OZ       32       64      128

 L1 Blue                        —        43         1          1

Y3 Deep Gold                —         8          1          —

SHOP OUR KITCHEN:

XOXO, Brittany Hayes