Thursday, June 4, 2015

We Made Our Kitchen Cabinet Choice

 

Making Important Design Decisions
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Over a year ago I started a Next House pinboard, just for fun. I figured we would move someday,  we just did not know when. 

I thought it would be fun to explore what I might do in A NEXT HOUSE! Little did I know I would be accessing it this soon.


source: Torre Construction & Development  Glamorous kitchen with glossy white box beams, creamy white shaker kitchen cabinets & kitchen island with marble countertops, small sink in kitchen island, subway tiles backsplash, range hood, farmhouse sink, white valances with green ribbon trim and white roman shades with green ribbon trim.  decorpad.com
I am so glad I made that board because it really did help me zero in on some of the quick design choices I had to make for our new home. 

Pinterest, or saved clippings of what you truly love is a valuable resource when it comes time to zeroing in on a style, or color choice for your home.

If you line your images up you will see a pattern start to form, there will be repeats of colors and styles. This will be your clue to what direction you will be able to live with long term.

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I already shared our countertop choice. The reason I started with the counter top is it was the main star of that part of the room, and I knew that every other design choice would hinge on the style, and color of our counter top. 

Something to keep in mind when making design decisions….

…..I think it is a good idea to choose the least available element first. I knew I would be limited on my choices  for the counter top due to the color, and feel I wanted, and also I was limited by the builders offerings.

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Lyskamm, quartz by Arizona Tile.

So many people want to start with a paint color because it is a fast quick fix, but that is not the best approach in design. 

There are limitless colors of paint, or you can have a custom mix made, but something like a rug, or in my case, a counter top will be more limited in choices.

Quartz-Lyskamm-Install-464x464

As I wrote in my post about the counter top choice,  I needed something light and bright with a bit of movement due to the size of my kitchen island which is over 9ft long and almost 4 ft. in depth. 

At one point I considered a white on white, without movement until I saw the huge helipad of an island.

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This is a model of my kitchen, but my personal kitchen is going to look different. The layout is the same but the materials and paint color I chose are quite different.

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You can see how it looks into the great room, This is what I loved the most about the model we chose.

Let me show you some of the images from my  Pinterest board, “Next House board,” so you can get a pulse of the direction I tend to like.

Ideas for Kitchen! (Jennifer Worts Design.    Gorgeous kitchen design with white kitchen cabinets, marble tiles backsplash, glass pendants, espresso kitchen island, espresso upper doors inside whit cabinet, marble counter tops, chrome faucet and hardware and white leather stools.)

My heart almost stopped when I saw this kitchen. I know the island being a different color than the perimeter cabinet is a trend, and one that will not be here forever, however I really love this idea, and thought I would do just this very kitchen color combination going into the design meeting.

black and white kitchen with brass
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I went back, and forth in my mind on whether I wanted to take a risk doing something that would look dated in the near future, or just go for it.

Well my decision was made for me by my friend Mr. Budget. In order to have the island painted a different color was just going to be too costly, and our budget would not allow for that. 

We had priorities of MUST HAVES, and those had to  be met before a WANT. So in comes the all white kitchen!!!

black and white
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To be honest when I looked at my kitchen boards they were mostly all white kitchens. I had even debated on painting my  green cabinets to white in our last home when we did the reno, but after thinking long and hard, I knew for that particular home the green cabinets were perfect.

Now I had the opportunity to do something different for me and it still felt classic enough to have staying power even though I know white kitchens have been done to death it is still a favorite look of mine.

Ashley Goforth Design | Sunset
I toyed with the idea of black counters, and was drawn to images of such kitchens. I played with the idea for an entire day, looking and pinning kitchens with white cupboards and black counter tops. 

At the end of the day, I realized I tired of the all black counter tops for my own personal home. I still love them and think they make a gorgeous kitchen.

I am going to show you the image of my kitchen design once again so I can explain the changes that we made in the design.

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First visualize white walls and white cabinetry with the Quartz counter tops! Are you ready!

Let’s start with the back of the island. This was one of the main elements I wanted  changed. We will have panels that will go with the door fronts we chose, so it will be painted panels of wood.

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(this is the actual door front we chose)

The upper cabinets will not be in an up and down configuration and the space above the cabinets will be less.  Our ceiling height is 10 ft. The uppers will be 42in. instead of standard 32, they will also have a larger crown above them 7 in. instead of the smaller 3 1/2 in.

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( here it is in wood. I think you can see the detailing better in this image. It is simple and classic)

The two cupboards flanking the stove hood will have glass doors. I am really excited about these changes.

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We chose the standard simple mushroom nickel knobs and will change those out in the future according to the design direction I go.


I hope you can visualize for now! WE only have to wait 5 more months to see it all come to fruition.