After: A light filled, colorful, and open kitchen
The homeowners wanted an updated kitchen with a light and fun feel that would work well for a busy family.
The old kitchen was showing it’s age with dark wood cabinets, laminate countertops, and a vinyl floor, but the floor plan was also from another time where people preferred their kitchens to be separate from the rest of the house. Today we live much more in our kitchens and especially in a household with two energetic little boys, having the kitchen open to the dining and living room was a priority.
Before: Two doorways into the kitchen were eliminated and a large opening created between the kitchen and dining room
To accomplish this we had to remove not one, but two awkwardly placed doorways, creating a large opening between the kitchen and dining room. The two rooms now flow into each other and to keep that continuous feel we chose to extend the wood floors into the kitchen.
After: The kitchen is now open to the dining room
White countertops were an essential component in creating the light feel of the kitchen, and while we considered an engineered stone, ultimately the natural organic quality of real stone won out. Princess White Quartzite was chosen as a beautiful yet durable material; it has some movement of soft grey tones without appearing too busy and very subtle flecks of green and blue that work beautifully with the glass backsplash and island color.
Glass mosaic tile brings in a fun punch of bright green but also includes the caramel tones of the wood cabinets, the gray and white of the countertop, and bits of blue – pulling all the colors of the kitchen together.
With careful planning of the size and shape of a new island we were able to fit seating for four, even though this is not a very large kitchen. The island is a custom Aquamarine color providing a colorful break with the surrounding wood floor and Cherry cabinets.
Placing the microwave in the island cabinetry allowed us to clear off valuable counter space
In the end we accomplished what we had set out to: a light filled kitchen integrated into the rest of the house with lots of thoughtfully designed storage space and increased counter workspace. This is a fun family and they now have a kitchen that reflects that.