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Catherine is a CPA-turned-creative entrepreneur. She is the founder of Beginning in the Middle. an interior designer, photographer, writer, and business schemer.  She loves being cozy at home, miniature everything, and has a not-so-secret dream of living on an island one day.
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Progress + Inspo: The Blonde Vic Kitchen

The Blonde Vic

Guys! We’re FINALLY making progress on the Vic renovation and have updates to share!  If you’ve missed our prior posts on this project, you can catch up here:

Since our last post, we’ve gotten a lot done.  Slowly.  All of the windows are replaced, all new HVAC, plumbing, electrical are roughed in, drywall is finished, the hardwood flooring in the kitchen is in, and we’ve started tiling a few of the bathrooms (!!). We’ll take you through all of it, starting with the kitchen.

This used to be the view when you walked in the front door.  The kitchen was straight ahead through the doorway.

This is what it looks like now, with the kitchen space opened up.

Here’s another view of the kitchen from the dining room, before we opened up the doorways.

Here’s what it looks like now.  Behind the pantry cabinets is a small powder room (previously, there were 2 staircases but no bathroom on the 1st floor).

Here’s one more view of the back wall of the kitchen, then…

And now.

From the first time we walked into the Vic, we envisioned going dark in the kitchen.  As much as we love light & bright kitchens, we felt drawn to something more moody and sophisticated in this home.

We love the simplicity of this Bloomsbury WC1 Kitchen by DeVOL.  It feels elegant but not trendy.  It also feels like it’s in an old house, doesn’t it?

Here’s more green from DeVOL.  The Peckham Rye Kitchen is a little too green for us, but it’s still inspiring.  We love the use of artwork to add color and vintage character to the space.

The bold window treatments in this kitchen are awesome.  Also, the ceiling details.  And brass.  And marble.  It was designed by Lisa Mende Design.

And last… the library ladder in the kitchen.  We have 10′ ceilings in here, so in addition to the ladder looking pretty, it’ll actually be useful when trying to reach those high cabinets.

Image result for library ladder kitchenRelated image

Here’s our latest rendering of the kitchen space.  This is round 4 since we first started this renovation in March!  As we spent more time in the house, our design direction shifted, and honestly, we’re happy it did.  We think we’re onto something that’ll stick with this one.

A really big source of inspo for our design is this 36″ range (48″ version here), which we found on sale for 50% off!

On the left side of the back wall, we’re going to add an appliance cabinet that will sit right on the countertop.  It will house the coffee maker, microwave, toaster oven, etc. so we don’t have anything sitting out and creating clutter.  We’re currently hunting down hinges that can allow the doors to retract while in use, like this via Better Homes and Gardens.

On cabinetry, we’re going to be partnering with Semihandmade, a company that makes custom doors for Ikea frames (genius, I know).  We have most of the frames installed and are customizing them to incorporate a 1×4 library ladder frame between the two tiers of cabinets.

We’re going with their DIY Shaker option so we can paint the doors whatever color we want, and then paint the ladder frame the same color.  We’re excited!!

We’ll be back soon with a tour of the rest of the first floor.  Check out more inspo on our Blonde Vic Pinterest board and on Insta (#theblondevic) in the meantime.

Have a wonderful week!

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  1. Kelsey G says:

    This is going to be absolutely STUNNING. So I guess it will just be like everything else you do 😉

  2. Eve says:

    Wow!!! You have such a gift for designing (and creating) such outstanding spaces! I love your blog!! Thank you for the inspiration. 🙂 I can’t wait to see all of the hard work and thoughtful planning come together. 🙂

  3. JoAnna says:

    So inspirational!! I can hardly wait to see your next post!!

  4. Kalen says:

    Love this design! I have been looking for a range as we plan to reno our kitchen..do you know the price of this range now?
    Thank you!

  5. Jess says:

    That range is AMAZING. I can’t wait to see how you pull it all together!

  6. Chrystal Kelley says:

    Can you share the grout color in the kitchen subway tile? Thank you!

  7. Hi- can you share the grout color in the kitchen subway tile ? Thank you !
    Chrystal

  8. Shayna Anderson says:

    I once saw in your Instagram stories that you made a slatted surface on your kitchen island. It got my attention because we’re attempting one ourselves, but still debating the best way to go about it. (Ours will be floor to ceiling) Didn’t see a full post about it. Any tips?

    • Catherine says:

      We used wooden dowels from Lowe’s and evenly spaced them on the front of the island. We attached them with a small nail gun to plywood. We’ll share more details soon — still wrapping up the project!

  9. […] result.  You can catch up on all of our different design changes here & see our final design here.  The biggest wish list items we knew we needed to incorporate […]

  10. […] can catch up on all of our different design changes here & see our final design here.  The biggest wish list items we knew we needed to incorporate […]

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About BEGINNING IN THE MIDDLE

Catherine & Bryan Williamson moved from NYC to Columbus, OH in 2013.  Beginning in the Middle is a journal of the couple's design and renovation projects, real estate investment and Airbnb hosting journey, travel, and other life happenings.

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I grew up in New Jersey and always had a dream of living in New York.  There was something about the energy of the city that drew me inOur journey started unexpectedly in 2012, when we decided to make a big move from New York to Columbus. The glamour of climbing the corporate ladder was wearing off, and we knew that renting an expensive small apartment and dealing with crowded subways everyday was not going to work forever. We wanted to start creating something for ourselves, and although we didn’t know exactly what that something was, we knew NYC wasn’t the place for it.

We decided on Columbus because Bryan grew up here, and we were intrigued by all of the development going on in the downtown area at the time. We drove through many of the neighborhoods and admired the boarded up old houses, most of which were built in the early 1900s, and started dreaming about the things we could do here.

I'm Catherine, and I'm the founder of Beginning in the Middle.

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