I design a lot of white kitchens these days. And I mean a lot! Now don't get me wrong, I love white cabinetry (my own kitchen is white), but sometimes it can get a little repetitive. So I am very excited to announce that I have a new client who specifically requested a non-white kitchen! She wants warm, rustic with lots of texture....picture knotty alder cabinets, hand-scraped wood floors, a hammered copper farmhouse sink, wood beams on the ceiling, and a heavily textured stone like slate for the backsplash. Just that little mental picture makes me happy! I've been scouring Pinterest and Houzz lately for inspiration photos and have come up with some really fun ones. Want to look with me? Here are some faves:
This first one is the image I keep coming back to. I love the two-toned cabinetry and the way the sink base feels like a repurposed piece of furniture. I also think the blue-gray painted cabinet pairs fabulously with the warm wood tones. I hope we get to do a similar paint color in this new kitchen project!
This next one...Oh My! Is there anything NOT to love here? The ceiling, that big, built-in china hutch with the arched top, the antique rug on the floor, the iron chandeliers over the island. I want to be here!
I also love the look of this open, farmhouse-style island. The chunky wood legs with exposed joinery are beautiful, and Wow!--that slab of wood on the top is so nice and thick! I want to hang our here and visit with the cook.
And of course, what farmhouse kitchen would be complete without a pair of sliding barn doors? I love that these are a bit different with the seedy, Baroque glass panels. What a great way to let light in, while obscuring a view that might sometimes be a bit messy. I know my kitchen isn't always company or camera-ready!
One particularly fun feature that my client has requested in an old-fashioned larder. (Think English farmhouse kitchen, like on Downton Abbey.) She wants a place to leave her coffee pot plugged in, all her mugs, her teas, her daily essentials...sort of like a mini-pantry right at your fingertips. I think it's brilliant and see this as being the most used part of the kitchen.
Also a bit old fashioned, but fun if you eat a lot of vegetables, are some properly vented produce bins. This storage method seems so much more appealing than the mass of random produce that I currently have in my fridge. It can be so hard to know what you have going on in there when you have so many items, wrapped in plastic bags, then jam-packed into those tiny bins. Here you can quickly assess what you have and what needs to be eaten. Granted, not everything can be stored without refrigeration, but if you had this, would you be more inclined to eat your veggies more regularly?
I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did and stay tuned for pictures as the project progresses!
