A Kitchen Design For Client #makingtheburbscool
This mid-century home, before here, has a great layout already. No walls were moved. It’s kind of a sprawling rambling house, in the best dreamy way. Well maybe dreamy for me in Berlin dreaming about space. LOL.
I’ll start with before and work through to the install of rugs on Friday. *WARNING unstyled progress pictures ahead*
The kitchen felt scrunched up into one end of the room. I guess they used the other end as a breakfast space and maybe a hutch or console. Who knows. Our client’s did not want space for a table in the kitchen as the dining table is literally steps from the kitchen.
Our client’s wish was to keep as much of the original house in tact as possible. Going off of that request I still did sketches of what I recommended for completely reworking the kitchen. I always recommend what’s best while keeping in mind my client’s original wishes. I can see clearly how someone will live in and use a house and I will always give my best recommendation based on that. In this case, and most cases, the client agrees and we move forward with my idea. In this case we did so while also keeping as many of the original cabinets as possible.
All of that said, those closets really had to go. What a giant waste of space. One was probably a pantry and another a coat closet. The island is also silly tiny. Given space we couldn’t make it deeper but we made it longer.
Here are the plans:
The first thing that had to go was the pantries. The original island couldn’t be longer because those doors completely cut into the space. We kept all of the appliances in place but had toyed around with the ovens & refrigerator changing places. I actually prefer that layout in terms of kitchen function. But we were able to save more cabinets by keeping the appliances in the original location.
I added a secondary area with open shelves above for a sort of beverage/ serving area. Our client’s entertain often and this is a perfect spot to set up drinks and appetizers while keeping guests away from the work going on in the kitchen.
Extending the island provides a casual eating spot or a place for someone to sit while the other person cooks.
Making room for other people in the kitchen is important.
Kitchens are social places, everyone seems to end up there.
The new pantry cabinets provide a ton of storage that the original pantry closet didn’t. Plus we were able to add electrical and have a coffee station hidden away in there.
I removed all of the cabinets over the cooktop and designed a super simple range hood. This gives a sort of focal point to the kitchen. A place to breath. Anytime I can do away with upper cabinets I do it. Being purposeful with your kitchen and the space you need gives you room to breath.
Here’s the progress….
Look at how open the space is without the pantry cabinets! An no island. So much beautiful space.
At this point the new slab cabinet fronts are on. The range wall is all new cabinets but the rest of the kitchen is using the original cabinet boxes.
Here’s the other side with the new beverage/ serving center. I prefer drawers to cabinets in kitchens. Well almost anywhere really. There is nothing chic about being on your knees digging in the back of a cabinet. Drawers always. I don’t need them behind doors either, drawers aren’t an eyesore. Ease is what I’m designing for in a kitchen. I want your kitchen to make your life easier when you’re preparing meals and hosting friends.
The new pantry set up functions 100% better than before while taking up less space. There’s room for storing large kitchen items and plenty of space for food. I designed the insides to be extra functional and easy to organize too.
See how just having a simple hood on this wall opens the space up? Sure it could be crammed with upper cabinets but no need. There’s enough storage already. Making room for beauty is important too. Below the cooktop are cabinet doors, even though I said I prefer drawers. I was matching the existing in this case…. There are always exceptions to rules. And that is why it’s ideal to hire a designer for this process.
Also please always build your refrigerators in. One of my biggest pet peeves is seeing a beautiful kitchen with a refrigerator just sitting next to the cabinets.
The extra depth in the corner was always there. I honestly didn’t know how to make it better so I didn’t address it. Adding a “garage door” would draw attention to it and we don’t want that. Getting rid of it seemed like a waste. The counter material is also the backsplash so it wraps completely around and makes it feel clean now. And that’s the best I could do there.
The island is here! The island could only be 24” max depth. That’s the typical depth of the lower cabinets in kitchens. That means that the functional cabinets can only be on one side. In here are the basic storage and the garbage receptacles. To keep the back of the island from being plain I designed the ribbing. Super easy treatment that looks amazing. (Spoiler: the pendant over the island also repeats the ribbing and the home has paneling throughout the replicates the same motif.)
Here’s a peek at the pantry insides. Incredibly functional. No one wants a pantry with items hiding in the back going bad. Pull outs solve that.
The paint is here! Now is the stage that you can start seeing our vision.
With the floors being such a warm Saltillo tile the original wood stain was just too much. The green is the perfect complement but having a kitchen in all the green we chose would be too much. By having the uppers white the entire space feels more open and bright.
When selecting paint colors remember to consider how they look from other rooms in the house. It doesn’t need to match but it needs to coordinate. The colors, if done well, can pull you from one room to another.
I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again, don’t paint the insides of your cabinets. Leave it stained, lightly stained. It wears 100% better than paint. With as much wear as the inside of a cabinet takes the paint just doesn’t hold up as well. And yes I’ve painted the inside of cabinets & it came out beautifully. But, there’s the exception again, it wasn’t just everyday paint. It was especially hard wearing and applied by a professional.
The End.
I’ll share the professional styled shots once I have them done. Message me if you want to discuss your project and how we can help.