The finishes we chose for our new build home
Picking the finishes in our home was probably my favorite part of the process. I obviously had a million and a half ideas about what I wanted the house to look like and, aided by Pinterest, sent a long list of things I wanted for the house to our sales rep at the building and development company. We talked through a lot of it, and there was some back and forth with various vendors, but we’re so excited to see all of these finishes come together.
In this post, I’m just laying out everything we chose. As the house moves along I’ll be posting mood boards and color scheme ideas for each room, and we won’t see how all of this really plays together in real life until the house is done. But I’ve got a couple mockups of the materials together below as well.
Our picks
This is the flat lay of most of our choices and links to each of them below:
Floors (main house) – COREtec Pro Plus XL Enhanced vinyl plank in Brussels Oak
Floors (bathrooms) – Mannington Adura Max vinyl tile in Baltic Stone, Storm
Kitchen and bath cabinets – Kemper Cabinets in Kleyborn, White
Island cabinets – Kemper Cabinets in Kleyborn, Maritime
Kitchen wall countertops – Silestone Quartz in Charcoal Soapstone Suede
Island countertop – Silestone Quartz in Calacatta Gold
*Bathroom countertops are a cultured marble made at a local vendor
We also decided to go with black stainless Kitchen Aid appliances. I upgraded our kitchen sink to be a porcelain apron front sink, and we also upgraded the kitchen faucet to be a Touch2O from Delta. Since we chose the matte black hardware and fixtures from our builder (pictured above) we also wanted to go with black fixtures and hardware in the bathrooms, which was an upgrade.
The looks
Here are some swatches of what the choices we made for these rooms. Stay tuned for moodboards of decor for each room in the future, but it was helpful for me to look at all these materials together. I think they’re going to look amazing together. Lots of contrast without being too bold will leave us with a perfect backdrop for our furniture and decor later on.
Upgraded vs. included
Some of our choices were upgrades and some (the floors) were actually less expensive than the standard features included in the builder estimate. Doing vinyl flooring throughout our entire house instead of hardwoods on the main floor and carpet in the bedrooms, which was the standard, ended up equalling out in price. That way, we were able to get super durable, beautiful floors in every room of our house. This caused a slight issue with the stairs however, because staining hardwood stair treads to match our vinyl floors was going to be pricey. We decided to have them painted with a durable epoxy paint that would be no additional charge, and we’ll be installing a runner on the stairs once we move in.
The appliances, sink, and some of the hardware were upgrades, which we paid up front (rather than being included in our mortgage loan.) There was no extra charge with our builder for doing two different colors of cabinets, and two different colors of countertops. This (as with all of this information) could vary between builders though.
What do you think of the finishes we chose? What upgrades would you pick for your home? Let me know in the comments below or get in touch here with any questions!
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