Butler's Pantry, Laundry and Kitchen Remodel

Millers Bridge, Tallahassee
  • Inset Cabinets from CWP
  • Butler’s Pantry and Storage
  • Large Island
  • Total Cost: $228,756

Designer: Brianna Browning

Mid Century Kitchen Remodel

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Butler’s Pantry and Kitchen Remodel Project Overview

“The layer cake”. That’s what the homeowner called this kitchen before the remodel. With several different heights and depths of cabinetry it really did look like a decorative cake. And the soon to be butler’s pantry was a mess, they had been putting off organizing it because they knew a remodel was on their agenda. 

This was a large project, a big kitchen with lots of cabinets and new flooring in the large butler’s pantry. We also updated the laundry room while we were there. 

Butler’s Pantry: Before vs After

Drag the slider to see the butler’s pantry transformation

Kitchen Before After

Drag the slider to see the kitchen transformation

Before / After Floorplan

Demo and Before Plan for kitchen and butler's pantry

Before Floor Plan

After plan for kitchen and Butler's Pantry

After Floor Plan

Some Improvements:

1. Larger island with better storage (removed raised counter)

2. Custom pantry storage in kitchen and butler’s pantry

3. No more ‘layer cake’ 

Our Favorite Updates

Every remodel has a few striking features that make it stand out from the crowd. In this kitchen there are a few but it’s the Butler’s Pantry that really stands out.

Custom Pantry Shelving

kitchen pantry left
Kitchen pantry center
Kitchen pantry right

Large Island and Storage Drawers

The island was large before but part of it was raised and it had glass doors on it the counterspace was limited and storage was terrible. 

Kitchen island before

Before: Raised counter with glass door (blah) 

Kitchen island after

After: Lots of space and large drawers for storage

Organizers

We don’t usually use too many organizers in a kitchen, preferring to stick with drawers to allow for more flexibilty. But this kitchen really lended itself to some specialty organizers. 

drawer organizer
Knife and Utensil Organizer
Slide out corner organizer

Inset Cabinets

We used full overlay cabients in the butler’s pantry but in the kitchen we used inset cabinets which provide a classic look. 

Inset cabinets

Tall Cabinets with Rollouts provide great storage. Just one 36″ Rollout provides as much storage as 6 feet of regular upper and lower cabients. 

Pictures from the Project

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Click the image above to scroll thru project photos

Timeline, Challenges and Solutions

Project Start

July 18th, 2022

Estimated Completion

September 14th, 2022

Actual Completion

September 29th, 2022

A mis-ordered cabinet caused a short delay in this project and we wound up finishing two weeks after our projected completion date. We also had a couple of surprises after demo. These also had a small impact on the project schedule.  In general though the project went quite smoothly and the clients were patient and real pleasure to work with. We actually already have them on the schedule for another project!

Because these clients already had a sub-zero fridge in their kitchen and wanted to keep it we had to order a combination of custom doors and a custom cabinet to go over the fridge. We made a small error and the cabinet arrived about 1/2 inch too big. Since our shrink ray was our for repairs we had to reorder the cabinet. 

During demo we discovered that there was no flooring under the island. Because the whole house has custom rough sawn plank floors we had to rely on the expertise of Bradley from Tallahassee Flooring to rescue us and as usually he did a wonderful job. 

The rest of the project ran on schedule. 

Project Costs

Initial Budget: $197,631.00

Fixed Price Proposal: $222,528.17

Change Orders: $6,228.16

Final Project Cost: $228,756.33

Cost Details

The initial Good-Better-Best budget for this project was $197,631.00 while the final total was $228,756.33.

This fixed price proposal for this project was a little over 10 percent more than the original estimate. One of the main reason was the decisons to switch from frameless cabinets to custom inset cabinets from CWP. Inset cabinets are beautiful but do carry a higher price tag both for the cabinets themselves and the install costs. We had also originally budget for a mid level quartz countertop but ultimately the chose a higher cost quartz. 

During the project the client requested some additional work be done that led to abotu $6800 in change orders. We added custom shelving in a closet off the butler’s pantry, painted some additonal doors, and modified the kitchen pantry shelving from it’s orginal design. 

Cost Breakdown

  • Installation Labor 42% 42%
  • Fixtures and Materials 45% 45%
  • Design and Project Management 9% 9%
  • Shipping and Sales Tax 4% 4%

Selections

Cabinets

The cabinets in the kitchen and butler’s pantry are made by Custom Wood Products. The kitchen and island cabinets have an inset door style and the butler’s pantry use a full overlay door.

Cabinet Pulls

The cabinet hardware in the kitchen is the Ascendra Collection from Top Knobs. In the Butler’s pantry the hardware is the Channing collection from Top Knobs.

Counters

The countertops in kitchen are Caesarstone Statuario Maximus

Tile

Backspalsh tile is Portmore White 4×4 from Tile Bar. The floor tile is Lost River Adrift Taupe from Florida tile

Lighting

The pendant lights above the kitchen island are the Eldridge Pendants in antique brass from Ballard Designs

The under cabinet lighting was done using light bars from Task Lighting.

Appliances

The gas range is the Smart Dual-Fuel Commercial-Style Range from Café Appliances.

Trade Partners

We’ve been developing relationships with quality trade partners for years. We tend to use the same subcontractors because we trust their work and have developed a great working relationship with them. This helps keep our projects running smoothly.

Demo: Great Southern Demolition

Plumbing: Capital Plumbing Contractors

Electric: Truevolt

Carpetry: CTR Custom Cabinet Built-Ins and Trim

Drywall: Hawkins Drywall

HVAC: Watts Cooling Heating and Plumbing

Tile: Tallahassee Tile Solutions

Painting: A Different Stroke By Kenneth

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