Our Old House: Ledgendary.

You've been hearing me talk about this marble ledge that runs the perimeter of our kitchen. I'm pleased to finally be here to share some preliminary photos with you.

This little ledge has been part of our kitchen design from the get-go. The idea behind it was two-fold: 1) Being that we have a small kitchen, this ledge would act as additional open storage for frequently used items and 2) Accommodating this roughly 6" deep ledge meant building the lower cabinets out an additional 6" from the wall making our lower cabinets uberly deep for even more storage convenience (30" deep vs the standard 24" deep).

The ledge is built out of two pieces of marble...an apron front and a top 'shelf' piece.

On the built-in-hutch-butler's-pantry whose cabinetry is the greenish gray color (Benjamin Moore Inner Balance), we decided to do a slab of white carrera marble as the counter.

Because we wanted this piece to feel different than the rest of the more functional part of the kitchen, we added an ogee edge to the marble counter to give it a more formal feel. When planning for the ledge, we decided to keep things consistent and so we ended up carrying the ogee edge along all of the marble surfaces, including the ledge. On the Butler's Pantry, the ledge also acts as the window sill...clever!

The ledge is still missing the final piece, which is the decorative wood brackets that will connect the ledge to the upper cabinetry. This will be the final detail of the kitchen that I believe will give it a really polished look. Imagine, in these two areas if you will, the decorative wood brackets extending from the underside of the cabinetry down to rest on the ledge:

There will be other brackets and more paneled details to fill up the wall space on the butler's pantry as well.

When I look at the kitchen, what pops to me is the number of layers in it. Layers of surface types, layers of lighting, layers of cabinetry, layers of color, layers of hardware. For it being such a small space, there really is a ton of interesting places for your eye to explore. I never could have come up with this kitchen...it's far too sophisticated for my pink and purple loving self. But I love it and feel glamorous just being in it. The brackets are slotted to be arriving next week. I can't WAIT to see them. Once they go in, I will paint the spaces between the brackets the trim color to make the drywall feel as though it's a paneled back to the continuing cabinetry. I shall leave you with a few last images of the ledge. You can notice that the marble slab backsplash also went in behind the stove. Until those brackets go in, I think it's looking rather random...but can't wait to see it as the finished product.