Kitchen Design Reveal

We are pretty much finalized with our kitchen design! We decided to go with a custom wood shop to make the cabinets. We ordered appliances, we chose countertops, and we picked out backsplash tile.

We decided to go with the custom cabinet makers because we didn’t want to compromise on the pantry door situation. Lexi prefers the look of the pantry doors being incorporated into the cabinetry, and Colin likes that doing this pulls the doors out a bit so they don’t cut into the walking space inside the pantry (he also prefers the look of them with the layout of the kitchen). We had to reconfigure the layout a bit to figure out how to make all the tall cabinets look best–this includes the pantry doors, the double oven cabinet, and the fridge enclosure. So here’s the new layout:

We moved the double oven cabinet so all the tall cabinets could be on the same wall. We also shifted the pantry opening and the fridge to the right a bit. Because of this, we took the cabinets that were on the right of the fridge and moved them over to the left so that everything could create a seamless L-shape kitchen instead of the pantry door breaking things up as it was originally. We still have the rangetop on the same wall, and the island still has the sink and dishwasher. We had lost our trash pullout cabinet in the shuffle of everything, but we actually ended up deciding to put two trash pullouts in. So there is one in the island and one in the perimeter. That may sound like a lot of trash cans, and it is, but when kids bring their friends around all the time trash accumulates quickly. Plus it's nicer for parties not having to empty the trash frequently during the party. 

The pantry is the same except for the door being shifted to the right. As a reminder, we are putting the beverage fridge, microwave, and ice maker in here. There will also be a sink and a single trash pullout cabinet because Colin’s coffee setup will be in here.

As for colors, we went back and forth quite a bit on what we wanted the cabinets to be. Our initial thoughts were a two-tone kitchen. This means we would have painted the island cabinets one color and the perimeter cabinets a different color. Another way this is done is by painting lower cabinets one color and upper cabinets a different color. We also discussed doing that. In the end, we were worried that we would get tired of having a two-tone kitchen and felt more comfortable doing a single, neutral color to keep the kitchen more timeless. As a compromise (because we do love a bit of color) we have decided to paint the pantry cabinets a different color than the kitchen cabinets.

For the kitchen we decided to go with White Oak that has a neutral stain on it. We could not get over the look of all the White Oak cabinetry we've been seeing online. We think it will fit perfectly in our design and will be timeless. The cabinet makers sent us a few different stain options, and we went with what they call Sierra Tan. We felt that it didn't take away much of the White Oak natural look, it just made it slightly richer. We think it is going to look beautiful with our floors!

The pantry cabinets will be Sherwin Williams Evergreen Fog. This is a soft, lighter green that we felt also fit in with the mid-century modern style without being too loud.

We wanted the backsplash tile to also be a neutral color. We are trying to stay neutral in most of these choices because those colors are not very easily changed. We can add pops of color in accessories throughout the kitchen that can be easily switched in and out as we please. When we were first shopping for tile, we found this mosaic that was made up of small 1”x3” tiles, and they could be laid in a straight stacked pattern, which is exactly the pattern we wanted. We loved the idea of the small tiles rather than a standard size subway tile. However, this particular tile was very expensive and out of our price range.

One day, Colin came across a photo of a beautiful kitchen on instagram. It had the neutral color cabinets similar to the color we chose, and the backsplash tile was a small, rectangular tile that was laid straight stacked. It looked amazing. We were able to find out what tiles they were so we ordered a sample. We ended up loving the sample in person, so we decided this would be the backsplash tile. It is a Dal-tile mosaic.

Finally, countertops. Again, we wanted a neutral counter in the kitchen. We will be putting the same top in the kitchen and the pantry, so it also has to work with both color cabinets. We were looking for a white counter with some subtle gold or beige veining. We looked at different quartz options, some granite, and some quartzite. In the end we picked out a quartz from MSI that is called Miraggio Gold.

We’re so excited to see this kitchen come together. We love the mid-century modern style, but we are also trying to keep things neutral and calming with our finishes. Now that things are really moving along inside the house, we have to start finalizing more of our design choices. So, we’ll be back with more design walk-throughs soon!