My neighbor called me this morning to discuss backsplashes, she is in the design process of remodeling her kitchen. Once she figures out exactly what she wants they will start their renovation. While we don’t have the same taste we do like similar things and like to bounce ideas off each other. It got me thinking about my own kitchen! I revisited my “favorite kitchens” folder this morning and I still love these kitchens and my new favorite kitchen Gwyneth Paltrow’s gray kitchen so beautiful (see below).
Cabinets: I love white kitchens, gray kitchens and cinnamon color craftsman style cabinet kitchens. I fell in love with the idea of greige or gray cabinets years ago on the old Martha Stewart tv show, where she filmed at Turkey Hill. It was this kitchen that changed my mind on painted cabinets (painting them anything but white that is). While to me the kitchen always looked like gray or a greige color according to her website the kitchen cabinets are actually painted a green color. This kitchen was renovated in the late 90’s, so for 10+ years I have loved the thoughts of painting kitchen cabinets like this.
While I love white cabinets, I haven’t seen many kitchens that have white cabinets with white appliances that look fabulous (if you have links to any let me know!). My appliances are white and only a few years old so I won’t be changing those out. For the last year or so I have been seriously considering painting my oak cabinets gray, the thing that was holding me back is my kitchen is open to the living room (the living room is open to the dining room) and right now the living and dining rooms are painted in SW Softer Tan with ivory wainscot. I don’t think the gray in the kitchen would look 100% with the wall color in these other two rooms, but lately I’ve had the itch to repaint my living and dining rooms in a greige color (after repainting my bedrooms and staircase last year to a greige I have been on this greige/gray kick).
My cabinets are 9″ below the ceiling, I was talking to one of my co-workers (I work for a home improvement company) we discussed the possibility of building the cabinets up to the ceiling and replacing the door and drawer fronts. By adding a short box on top of my cabinets it would give me a little more storage for things that don’t get used often and make the cabinets look taller. This wouldn’t be that difficult to do. We discussed having the upper cabinets with four doors on each cabinet two short upper doors and two lower doors or just having two very long doors. I did a mock up of this using graphic software, right now I’m leaning towards just one longer door as opposed to a short door at the top.
Long doors
Short upper doors
Backsplashes: My favorites are. White subway tiles, these are so classic and timeless, marble subway tiles and/or slab, again timeless and classic. Matchstick stone and/or stone/glass, love the modern look of these. Solid slab of glass with a painted back, again super cool modern look. I haven’t decided 100% which of the above backsplashes I would go with but for now it’s been narrowed down to these.
Counter tops: While I like granite I was never on the granite bandwagon, I have always preferred marble or soapstone to granite. But knowing marble scratches and stains easily I could never go with it no matter how much I love it. The staining wouldn’t be a problem for me, it would be the scratching that would destroy these for me. I am lazy and never ever pull out a cutting board when I chop food, I like to chop directly on the counter top, I don’t know why but I would rather chop directly on the counter top and then disinfect the counter vs using a cutting board, crazy I know since it’s more work! So that lead me on a quest of finding the perfect counter top. For me I would go with quartz. I love Bianca quartzite and white quartz. Another option would be formica in the bianca or calacatta patterns. The only way I would buy formica though would be if it were 50% + cheaper then quartz. And last but not least would be soapstone.
Below are some photos of my dream kitchens and things I love. 🙂 Guess I have my neighbor to thank for getting the kitchen redesign stuck in my head now!
I have loved this kitchen for about 3 years with the gray cabinets, farm sink and marble you can see more of Cote De Texas’ kitchen here
One of my favorite white kitchens ever! Love the soap stone counters and the glass cabinets and who wouldn’t want that window? You can see more from this kitchen here
Gwyneth Paltrow’s kitchen, cabinets painted in Galveston Gray by Benjamin Moore, look at those door locks! And mirror at the top of the backsplash! This kitchen is awesome!
Martha Stewart Feildstone cabinets
Backsplashes
I love this matchstick backsplash from the Social Home blog!
Marble subway tile backsplash so stunning!
Mimi white subway tile
Glass sheet backsplash
Beadboard backsplash
Counter tops
Bianca Quartzite you can see more from this kitchen here I love these counters!!
Caesarstone Quartz – Blizzard
Formica – Bianca
Formica – Calacatta
So for now I’m leaning towards gray cabinets, quartz counters and a matchstick backsplash! Of course I want self closing drawer slides too! Now about that budget……….
Update: I painted my kitchen cabinets greige and couldn’t be happier!
