As I said in my last post, the Kitchen is one element of the house that I am most excited about. We decided to keep the kitchen pretty simple. We didn’t want an all white kitchen, but something that was classic, timeless but with a bit of personality. Not to say anything is wrong with all white kitchens, just not our taste. Here are a few of the kitchens I drew inspiration from.

 

We decided to keep the doors clean by going with a shaker style cabinet. The colour we chose was Classic Grey by Benjamin Moore for the perimeter cabinetry and Abyss by Benjamin Moore for the island.

We had a lot of debate on the cabinet hardware. Should we go brass or black? I did a lot of research on mixed metal do’s and don’ts. The few things I learnt while searching the web is this. 1. Definitely mix your metals & 2. Do not have Less than 1 metal or more than 3 within a space. So having this new information I took into account our surroundings.

Metal 1 – Brass

We had already purchased our island pendant lighting after seeking some inspiration from one of my favourite designers Jillian Harris.

While we didn’t get the exact pendants she has, I found a similar pendant off of Canadian Lighting Experts. I love the Marine style pendant. It is such a statement piece and will add the wow factor to our kitchen. When we opened the box I was instantly fell in love. I can’t wait for these to be installed.

 

Metal 2 – Black

Our lighting for the dining room is this beautiful black rattan Archer Pendant from CB2. I wanted something that wasn’t typical for a dining room chandelier since we already had our kitchen island pendants picked out.

The space is open concept so I wanted something bold, but that wasn’t going to get lost in the mix or overpower our island lighting.

Since we couldn’t add another metal into the mix we decided to purchase a black matte kitchen sink faucet from Moen. We went with the Moen STO faucet.

Metal 3 – Stainless Steel

Adding in the stainless appliances, we were already at the max for our metal finishes for the space so we decided to go ahead with the black hardware. Since we had the brass island pendants, I didn’t want the hardware to be off in finish or compete against the lighting.

Layout

We decided that we wanted to have a clean island and chose to move the sink to the exterior wall. We love to entertain so to have an open island that we can utilize was a definite must have for us. We had our contractor install a new window above the sink to add some additional natural lighting into the space. We decided to keep the walls on either side of the sink clear without cabinets. Once we’ve lived in the space for a while we’re going to install our kitchen back splash to the underside of the ceiling around the window. We also decided to have our cabinetry installer (Sarnia Cabinet’s) provide a custom millwork hood in lieu of a standard under cabinet range hood. This was one wish item I had, and I am so happy we decided to go ahead with it. We also decided to have the cabinetry extend to the underside of the ceilings since we have 9′ ceilings on the main floor I definitely love that look and think it adds a higher end finish to cabinets.

Finishes & Details.

Flooring

The flooring throughout the main floor is a wide plank solid maple hardwood. I fell in love with this floor as soon as I spotted it. I love the matte finish and rustic vibe it gives off.

Counter

We decided to use quartz counters for the kitchen. I wanted a classic marble look and Bryan wanted a solid white counter. We looked at several products and finally decided on Frosty Carrina from Caesarstone. It is mainly white with a subtle grey grain throughout. I think this counter incorporates both of our styles perfectly.

Garbage & Recycling Drawer

A few fun things we’ve incorporated into our kitchen are from frustration from past houses and some Pinterest finds. We had our cabinet makers incorporate a double garbage/recycling drawer for us. If you’ve ever had your pup swallow a 6″ corn cob and require emergency surgery you would be doing the same.

Drawer Inserts

We had our cabinet maker incorporate handy pegs & cutlery inserts that make it easy to keep plates, bowls and silverware in place. This will be going in our island.

Move in date is about 5 weeks away, once we have our kitchen installed and set up I will share an update on how everything has been incorporated!

xo JL