Home DecorThe Kitchen Design Plan Basics August 6, 2015Designing a kitchen is such a complex process to me. As I’ve said, you want it to be functional, but they say the kitchen is the heart of the home. So for me, that means it should be the star of the design show! Nailing down a kitchen design plan for The Buffalo Bungalow has been much harder than I expected! For awhile now, I’ve been pretty sure about the major design elements in the room (though knowing me that could always change when it comes time to actually implement). But I’ve had a hard time nailing down the details. I’ve narrowed it down to two different directions I could go with the details and finishes in this room. All week, I’ve been putting pressure on myself to choose one to share today! The issue is I really like both and am just not sure which direction to take yet. So, I’m changing up the plans for this Kitchen Week a bit! I was supposed to share the complete mood board today and “The Statement Maker” tomorrow. Instead, I’m going to share the kitchen basics plan today and tomorrow, I’ll share the two options for details I’m considering layering on. Sound good? Okay, so here is the foundation and main elements of our kitchen design plan. I am so excited to see this kitchen start taking shape in the next few weeks! Now, let’s break down these design elements, shall we? One of you guessed that the tiled wall in yesterday’s elevation was brick and you were right! I’ve always loved old, exposed brick walls. Now with Old Mill Shaved Brick Tiles, you can get that look in your home. We’re planning to create an old, white-washed look with ours. The goal is more white than red, but uneven and aged sort of like you see above (probably even a little whiter). It won’t look like solid painted white, though. If you remember from our elevation, this will go on the stove wall. Cabinet color is one of the first things I figured out about this design. While I LOVE white kitchens and really thought I would always have white, I knew I wanted something different in this house. We’re really trying to use this house as an opportunity to try some different things than we did in our current design and see how we like them. One was dark kitchen cabinets. I had a lot of “dark” kitchens in my kitchen inspiration post on Monday. I was so drawn to them, especially the ones with dark on bottom, light on top like this image. {via} Since we aren’t doing upper cabinets at all and our brick wall will mostly be white, dark lower cabinets will give me this feel. I love black, but didn’t really want to go in that direction. I considered navy and I’m loving all of the navy kitchens out there, but I really wanted something different. If you remember from my whole house design plan, I am LOVING green these days. I really think green (in all shades) is my favorite color. So a dark, foresty green won out for cabinet color. I don’t have an actual paint color yet…I’m having trouble finding a chip that is exactly what I am picturing. I want dark green with a lot of black in it, so it’s definitely green, but almost a neutral green if that makes sense? Not too teal or too bright. If y’all have paint color suggestions, please send them my way! I’m going to get some samples and try out a few different options. A lot of you noticed all of the metallics in my inspiration post, mainly brass. I LOVE brass, but lately have fallen so in love with copper. I’m planning some copper accents in this design. I’m still tossing around exactly how they’ll be used. Definitely in a small way, but maybe in a major way. I think I’m going to have to see the brick and cabinets come together first to decide. I’m also going to use white and wood as seen in this picture with Emily Henderson. {via} We’re going to have wood beams overhead, but I’m thinking of bringing a little wood into the kitchen with the island. I’m still deciding exactly how I want to do that, though. I love the look of marble counters, but we’ve been told time and again that they aren’t as durable. They scratch, stain, and age. I actually don’t mind the aging, but with how our family functions, I know we need something a little more durable for us personally. I went through this process when designing our current kitchen. I searched and searched for the best marble-look with the lowest price tag! While there are some amazing quartzite options out there, they can really start to rack up the cost and for us, budget is a big concern. What you see in the mood board is Pretoria White Granite. It’s what we have in our current kitchen and WE LOVE IT. This was one thing we really wanted to do the same as our current house. We love the look and they’ve held up great. I realize that most would consider the rug to be a part of the details, but for me, rugs make a room. They’re one of the first things I find when I’m designing a room and this rug in particular was purchased quite awhile ago. Remember I purchased this rug before we even had the house and I posted about it here (along with my tips for finding affordable vintage beauties like this one). I fell in love with this vintage Persian and the red and peach color palette. I was already planning on dark green cabinets and the mix fit in perfectly with my vision for our house. It’s a 3 x 10 runner and will go in between the island and the stove wall. I cannot wait to roll out this beauty and use it! *** To follow our renovation journey every step of the way, make sure you subscribe to posts! They come straight to your inbox when posted. And you can catch up on any renovation updates you missed here:
Brynne@TheGatheredHome says August 6, 2015 at 11:47 am I do have a paint color suggestion! Because that’s exactly the criteria I had in mind when I picked the dark green for our dining room – I wanted it to have a lot of charcoal in it, so it would be a neutral but still green – Martha Stewart “Chard” ended up being perfect and I still love it so much! (I will say, it’s a bit washed out in some of the photos on my blog due to the bright sunlight in that room.) Home Depot doesn’t have the MS paint chips any more, but hopefully it’s still in their system if you want to try a test pot! Reply
Lindsay says August 6, 2015 at 10:04 pm Brynne, this is AWESOME. Thank you so much for the recommendation. I will definitely take a look. I love your dining room, so maybe that’s my color! Reply
Austin says August 6, 2015 at 11:49 am Love the plans! What a unique idea to go with a deep green. Random question [maybe this should be obvious, but I’ve just missed it] – aside from the brick focal wall, what color will the other walls be? I know it’s a pretty open floor plan, but the wall with the sink, etc. Do you have a color picked out? (Should I just assume white? Ha ha) Reply
Lindsay says August 6, 2015 at 10:02 pm Hahahaha, Austin, this is hilarious. I didn’t even think to say that – mine are always white. And yes, they’ll be white in this case 🙂 This is obviously technically the same room as the living room, so it’ll all be white. Thanks so much for bringing that up! Reply
Amber Callahan says August 6, 2015 at 11:55 am Chrome green by Ben moore. Check out Black lacquer designs on houzz for a great kitchen example. Good luck Reply
Jess says August 6, 2015 at 12:07 pm I’m so excited about your cabinets! I’ve been loving dark cabinets and we’re going navy when we do our kitchen in the next couple of years (I’ve loved having white but they show every. single. thing!). You should look into Pine Grove by Clark + Kensington. It’s technically listed as a blue color but from what I’ve seen of it, it looks more like a dark green – it probably just depends on the lighting in your kitchen but might be worth a test! Reply
Genevieve says August 6, 2015 at 3:44 pm Hello! I love your kitchen design, I can’t wait to see it complete! Also, I second “pine grove” by C&K, I think it might be what you are looking for. Chris and Julia used it in their study, but the colour could read differently in your kitchen with all the natural light. http://www.chrislovesjulia.com/2015/03/studio-green-no-pine-grove-green-in-the-reading-room-yeah.html Reply
Lindsay says August 6, 2015 at 10:00 pm Genevieve, thank you so much for the suggestion. I LOVE that color! Will definitely add it to my sample list 🙂 Reply
Lindsay says August 6, 2015 at 10:02 pm Jess, I really appreciate that recommendation! I’ll take a look. And I agree with you on white. I love the look of it, but they get so dirty in our house. We are not clean freaks, though! Reply
Brittany @ white dog vintage says August 6, 2015 at 2:59 pm You for sure cannot go wrong with green in the kitchen (or anywhere, for that matter)! I recently painted the wood floors in my kitchen dark green, and it’s one of the things I love most in my house. It’s bound to look stunning with the copper, too! Reply
Robbie Zeller says August 7, 2015 at 12:18 am Lindsay, My fifth child is marrying in a couple of weeks and my husband and I wanted to refresh a dresser for their new apartment. We jumped on the Hale navy bandwagon with a desk a few months ago and was disappointed that it did not turn out like the paint swatch. I was talking with my dear friend who paints professionally and she told me that when you paint on wood the color rarely turns out dark enough and that when mixing extra black should be added to the original formula. We tried doing this with my son’s dresser and it turned out the most beautiful deep muted rich navy. Exactly what we we had wanted. Just passing along the extra black idea to deepen your green if you find that with wood cabinets. Forgive me if you already knew this tip! I am a novice:) Reply
Lindsay says August 7, 2015 at 7:53 am NO, I hadn’t thought of that, Robbie. Thank you so much for sharing! Reply
Corinna - A Designer At Home says August 8, 2015 at 5:50 pm I’m 99% sure you’re my spirit animal. Just saying. Keep on doing what you’re doing. I need to live vicariously through you 😉 Reply
Lindsey Stewart says August 18, 2015 at 11:18 am Loving the ideas for the kitchen so far. Another suggestion on paint – Avocado Peel by Martha Stewart. It is a very inky dark green-black depending on the light. http://www.thekitchn.com/a-gorgeous-greenblack-paint-color-for-the-kitchen-avocado-peel-by-martha-stewart-199332 shows how it can be almost black or a muted emerald. Reply