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5. Place Things Near Where They’re Used
Once you’ve grouped your items, plan to place them in cabinets or drawers close to where their function is performed.
In the pantry, place the foods that you use most often in the easiest-to-reach places. (One possible exception: “If you think you eat too many snacks, put those up high so you don’t see them as often, and it’s more of a to-do to get them,” says Tori Cohen, an organizing and decluttering specialist in New York City.)
While you’re working out what to store in each cabinet or drawer, Duncan suggests placing temporary labels made of blue painters tape on the cabinet or drawer where each group is going. This will help you get a sense of how your storage plan is shaping up and simplify making adjustments as you go.
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The kitchen in this Minneapolis-area rambling ranch wasn’t cutting it for a home cook who loves to prepare meals for her family. Armed with inspiration images from designer Emily Pueringer’s portfolio as well as a favorite blogger’s kitchen with a very long island, she hired Pueringer herself to design the kitchen.
By combining the existing kitchen and adjacent dining room, the designer gave her clients a large kitchen with plenty of space for cooking, baking and gathering. The layout includes a long island down the center, a significant range alcove, a desk area for writing letters and separate fridge and freezer units. The new kitchen’s style evokes old-world European charm with ceiling beams, marble, hand-painted terra-cotta tiles and brass accents.
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7. Replace Cabinet Hardware
A subtle and simple way to give your kitchen a fresh look is to replace the cabinet handles and knobs. You can make a traditional kitchen feel a bit more contemporary by opting for a sleek, modern pull, for example, or a sterile-feeling kitchen feel warmer with brass or wood. If the new hardware has different dimensions than the old hardware, just add backplates to cover the previous holes. Whatever you choose should be durable, feel comfortable in your hand and be properly proportioned for your cabinetry (no dinky pulls for wide, heavy drawers, please!).
If you’re concerned about having to change out your plumbing fixtures, appliances and lighting to match your new hardware, rest assured that mixing those metal finishes is not only OK but recommended by many designers. When in doubt, stick to a single color and finish in each category. For example, designers often choose stainless steel and chrome for plumbing fixtures and appliances but opt for unlacquered brass for the cabinet hardware. That said, given how high-touch and visible a faucet is, if yours is just “meh,” consider upgrading it to a beautiful new model anyway.
How to Mix and Match Your Kitchen Cabinet Hardware
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After: Reedy stripped the kitchen back and stretched the footprint into the breakfast area, adding 120 square feet. An extra-long island features seating for six on one end and storage on the other. “The peninsula sort of boxed in whoever was entertaining,” Reedy says. “It also didn’t allow for gathering where everyone felt connected. The new island gives them seating all together and creates a walkway that didn’t exist before. They have a pool and grill just steps away outside, so now they also have a more direct path from the outdoors.”
The kitchen’s new palette allowed Reedy to combine the husband’s love of wood tones and limestone with the wife’s affection for bright and light finishes. “We found all of the ivory tones and midtone wood grain and pops of blue checked all the right boxes for both of them,” Reedy says. The island anchors the space in navy blue. The perimeter cabinets are maple in a semitransparent stain. The flooring is 15-by-30-inch limestone-look porcelain tiles in a matte finish. A white ceramic subway tile backsplash and polished marble-look quartz countertops brighten the room.
Backsplash: Cloe in white, 2½ by 8 inches, Bedrosians Tile and Stone; cabinetry: Artisan Maple Bellefonte five-piece in Mariner (island) and Sandbar with a semitransparent stain (perimeter), Wolf Home Products; floor tile: Riverstone in ivory, 15-by-30-inches, Castille, Floor & Decor; paint colors: Whitetail (walls and ceiling) and Navajo White (trim), Sherwin-Williams
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This Seattle-area family enjoyed daily casual meals and cooking together. But as the family grew to six, the kitchen seemed to be bursting at the seams. So the homeowners hired interior designer Harmony Weihs to figure out how to enlarge their kitchen, update other spaces and improve the flow throughout their home. Weihs proposed an addition that would double the size of the kitchen and extend the dining room a few feet to accommodate more family members when they gather.
Beyond the space planning, she helped the owners balance the light-filled kitchen they craved with the cozy cottage feel they love. Within the mostly white palette, she added copper accents, a large blue range, a limestone plaster vent hood, wood beams and honed countertops to create a more casual, European-inspired vibe in the room.
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After: Belldina replaced the window with a smaller one set higher up to allow her to enlarge the kitchen by 44 square feet, which helped increase storage and countertop surface.
A roomy new peninsula has seating for four and plenty of prep space on the stylish new Stellar quartzite countertops. “It ties in the colors of the kitchen, and it’s very warm and neutral and doesn’t compete with the range,” Belldina says.
Blue-gray tones in the stone complement custom slim Shaker-style cabinets painted a custom soft blue-gray. Belldina reworked the wall on the left, placing a paneled fridge where a reach-in pantry had been. Cabinets to the right of the fridge now store pantry items and a built-in coffee bar.
Improving the cabinet space allowed Belldina to remove all the upper cabinets on the sink and range walls and run 5-by-5-inch creamy white zellige-style tiles countertop to ceiling. “We wanted to make the space feel more open and airy, so your eye moves around the room,” she says. “We also brought it up to the ceiling because it made the whole space feel larger.”
Stained white oak shelves and range hood detail, mango wood stools with woven banana leaf seats and refinished red oak flooring add warmth. The kitchen has new recessed LED ceiling lights, which were digitally removed from these photos by the photographer to help highlight other design details.
Stools: Largo counter stool, Russet Mango, Four Hands; backsplash tiles: WOW design EU; wall paint: Chantilly Lace, Benjamin Moore
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High drama. Julie Cavanaugh, founder and principal designer at Design Matters — which operates across five studio showrooms in Northern California; Jackson, Wyoming; and Park City, Utah — will often use a statement backsplash to dial up the drama. “The owner of this smaller ranch-style house in San Jose loves high style and lots of glam,” Cavanaugh says. “For this backsplash, we combined glass tile in multiple sizes and elaborate natural stone. We did a riff on the idea of ‘soldier’ tile, which is a single row of vertical tile at the countertop and a second tile or material above it.
“As this project required us to amp up the glam, we turned the soldier tile horizontally to allow for a few more inches of the beautiful plume-styled stonework to take center stage,” she says. “Introducing a little bit of glass tile at the countertop line also helps with spills and cleanup, as they are not directly on the marble.”
This article was originally published by a www.houzz.com . Read the Original article here. .
High drama. Julie Cavanaugh, founder and principal designer at Design Matters — which operates across five studio showrooms in Northern California; Jackson, Wyoming; and Park City, Utah — will often use a statement backsplash to dial up the drama. “The owner of this smaller ranch-style house in San Jose loves high style and lots of glam,” Cavanaugh says. “For this backsplash, we combined glass tile in multiple sizes and elaborate natural stone. We did a riff on the idea of ‘soldier’ tile, which is a single row of vertical tile at the countertop and a second tile or material above it.
“As this project required us to amp up the glam, we turned the soldier tile horizontally to allow for a few more inches of the beautiful plume-styled stonework to take center stage,” she says. “Introducing a little bit of glass tile at the countertop line also helps with spills and cleanup, as they are not directly on the marble.”
This article was originally published by a www.houzz.com . Read the Original article here. .
When planning a lighting scheme for a client’s kitchen, I like to think about cake. Let me explain. On my birthday, a red velvet cake always comes my way, and it includes four layers plus a cherry and icing on top. Just like that cake, a well-lit kitchen should also have multiple layers for different lighting needs. I call these light layers “doing,” “knowing,” “feeling” and “changing.” The last layer is decorative.
“Doing” lights help you perform manual tasks like prepping and cooking in the kitchen. “Knowing” lights help you navigate your way around a kitchen. “Feeling” lights make a kitchen feel inviting and comfortable. “Changing” lights help you adjust to the time of day and set a desired mood. And finally, the cherry and icing on top are all about adding decorative fixtures that let your personal style shine.
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Layer 1: Lights for Doing
Your kitchen lighting scheme should start with creating a functional workspace. Adding lights where you need them the most, such as above countertops, sinks and cooktops, will let you perform manual tasks in a bright and safe atmosphere. We need light to see what we’re doing, especially when using sharp knives and high-temperature burners. You want to protect your fingers, so getting this layer right is important. LED lights mounted underneath cabinets are also a great way to add functional lighting to your kitchen.
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Layer 2: Lights for Knowing
Designers call it “ambient light,” but it is really just a layer of light to help us know where we are and where we are going. Recessed “can” down lights are a great option because they light up the floor and bounce light off cabinet fronts to create a bright, well-lit space. Adding toe-kick lighting underneath cabinets and islands is also a great way to help prevent stubbing toes at night. Wall sconces are another way to provide ambient lighting that can help you better navigate your kitchen.
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Layer 3: Lights for Feeling
Showcase lights, also known as accent lights, all have one thing in common: They help a space feel more inviting and comfortable. Whether you use illuminated cabinets, chandeliers, sconces or pendants, showcase lights should be visible from wherever you stand or sit in the kitchen. That way you’ll get the benefit of this feel-good lighting at all times. Showcase lights might also help you perform functional tasks in the kitchen, but their main purpose is to draw attention and make a room feel complete.
Layer 4: Lights for Changing
As the sun changes location in the sky, lighting needs inside the kitchen change as well. During the day, natural light from windows might be all the lighting your kitchen requires. But at night, you’ll want your kitchen brighter for cooking meals and more dramatic for entertaining guests. Adding dimmers to your kitchen lighting is key for setting the mood.
Keep in mind that our eyes require more light as we age. So if you expect to stay in your home for awhile, you might want to add more lights than necessary now so you’ll have them later.
Cherry on Top: Decorative Light Fixtures
The fun part is choosing decorative fixtures that look at home in your kitchen, like these large pendants. Think carefully about your personal style and kitchen design and then determine whether the light fixtures you choose can add any of the other layers of light needed.
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Kitchen at a Glance
Who lives here: A couple with four kids
Location: Shelburne, Vermont
Size: 353 square feet (33 square meters)
Designers: Jillian Bartolo of Peregrine Design Build (lead designer) and Lauren Miles (interior design)
Bartolo removed a structural wall to absorb the former dining room into the new kitchen, increasing the layout by 155 square feet. “We ended up relocating the dining room across the house,” says Bartolo, who worked with Miles on selecting finishes.
A 4½ -by-10-foot island with a flat-sawn white oak countertop creates a warm and welcoming spot for the family to gather. “It was my recommendation to go with a 2-inch-thick top that’s dramatic and creates a focal point,” Bartolo says. “For the scale of the island that big, the thickness is appropriate.”
Custom Shaker-style wood cabinetry is painted a warm green (Shade-Grown by Sherwin-Williams). A 36-inch paneled built-in refrigerator column and 30-inch paneled freezer (back right) and paneled dishwasher to the left of the sink help maintain the warm and inviting look. The wood-and-green palette join engineered wide-plank European white oak flooring, hand-painted marble backsplash tiles and marble perimeter countertops for an inviting English country look and feel.
A pocket door next to the refrigerator leads to the renovated mudroom, which has slate tile flooring. To the right of that doorway, on the white wall, is another pocket door (not shown) that opens to a spacious butler’s pantry.
Backsplash: Willow in Walnut, Artisan Stone Tile, StoneImpressions; paint colors: Ivory White (ceiling and trim) and Tapestry Beige (walls), Benjamin Moore; cabinetry: Pomerantz Woodworking; flooring: Tresor collection, Provenza Floors
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