Kitchen Renovation: Figuring Out the Details

Friday, December 10, 2021

While the initial inspiration for the kitchen began 10 years ago, much has happened in those ten years. And design decisions need to accommodate the actual kitchen we have, as well as our current needs and capabilities. So, all the ideas spat out below are held to those constraints - things that are logistically and financially feasible for us.

Sources, clockwise from top left: Sustainable Kitchens, The Inspired Room, Jaclyn Peters Design #jpdprojecthwy206, HomeDepot (fridge), Home Depot, Apartment Therapy, Formica, The Happy Tudor, and Bon Appetit.

Above is the "final" inspiration board (at least, at time of writing), grabbed from my GoodNotes notebook on the Kitchen Renovation topic. You can see I stuck with two-tone green & white kitchen cabinets, but I'm tweaking the green shade a bit. Some decisions-ish were made on the finish of hardware, counters, what to do with the window trim, and some other choices.

As Pinterest has destroyed image search on the Internet, I've used all my Internet sleuthing skillz to find the sources of all images used in my inspiration boards. So, the links under each photo will take you to the actual source (when it still exists).

Paint Colors

Green Kitchens are having a moment, but I've wanted a green kitchen for 10 years. Popular choices seem to be sage-y greens, seafoam-y greens, or smoke-y greens. Not so much emerald, hunter, or bright green (as in the initial inspiration). I fell in love with a few Farrow & Ball Smoke Green kitchens, so I found a Benjamin Moore similar tone in Enchanted Forest. If I were to choose again, I might go one shade lighter on the same card, to Garden Oasis, just to brighten the lower half of the kitchen up a bit. But when the sun is streaming in, I think the darker Enchanted Forest will look great.

Jack Pine Source: House of Jade Interiors. Green Smoke Source: Sustainable Kitchens. Avon Green Source: Ashley Ray. Scenic Drive source: Caroline Walkup. Garden Oasis Source: Ashley Scott, Scout Modern

While I really like the Jack Pine kitchen below, I determined that since my kitchen has north-facing windows (which tend to be cooler more blue tone), that I didn't need a green with that much blue in it, as the indirect sunlight should do that for me. I did, however, keep the black cabinet pulls, light counters, and wood accents from this one.

Top Source: Jaclyn Peters Design #jpdprojecthwy206. Bottom source: Chad Esslinger Design #cedbarberrycourt.

I really liked the Sustainable Kitchens in Farrow & Ball Green Smoke with Farrow & Ball Cornforth White on the walls. I think Benjamin Moore Balboa Mist might be a good option for my kitchen walls (and interiors, just to match them in something lighter than dark rose!). Balboa Mist also happens to be one shade darker on the same card as Classic Gray, which is what the adjacent dining room is painted, so these two rooms will sort of mildly coordinate that way.

All paint drop images from Benjamin Moore

I settled on Benjamin Moore Chantilly Lace for the upper cabinets and the ceiling. This is because as a more neutral white, Chantilly Lace works really well with Balboa Mist and it may also work better with the typically cooler default white subway tiles that I plan to use in a later stage of the kitchen evolution. While Benjamin Moore Simply White is a popular option for kitchen cabinets, it was waaaay too creamy next to the sample subway tiles I grabbed.

Window

And then we have the one kitchen window! It's rather on-trend right now to paint the window sashing and rails black, which I definitely considered. But then I fell in love with several kitchens with wood trim on the windows. So I think we're going with wood on the window, in a natural-ish (or maybe slightly gray) shade of stain. This can match the other wood elements in the kitchen, like shelving and the little folding table next to the stove.

Images sources, clockwise from top-left: Campbells Coming Home, Kate Lester Interiors, Studio McGee, and Apartment Therapy.

Counters

Now, I understand that quartz counters are the "affordable" popular countertop surface these days. However...custom cut quartz counters would just increase our budget by about 50% which is...not desirable. So we decided to just replace the existing worn laminate counters with updated laminate counters from Formica. I pulled out a bunch of the lighter/whiter natural material looking Formica styles, and had J pick which one he liked best. So, white painted marble it is!

While the current counters have a very retro metal edging trim, modern formica now had beveled edging strips to match, so it'll look more like a solid surface material.

It should be possible to install these ourselves, with some practice. Both The Craft Patch Blog and Hammer and a Headband have DIY tutorials for doing so. While laminate is not the most appealing of materials, it's what's already in the kitchen so it's just in keeping with status quo.

Image source: Formica and Vivi Et Margot.

Hardware

As far hardware, black or brass seemed the best options. We're going with black, specifically 3.5" High Desert Bar Pulls from Wayfair so we don't have to fill in or drill new door holes and probably these 3/8" partial inset hinges (yes, concealed hinges are all the rage, but they're not fiscally feasible for partial inset doors). Partial inset cabinet doors, all the worst features of overlay and fully inset doors, and affordability is the only benefit.

When we eventually get to Phase 2 of the kitchen renovation, which involves backsplash tile, I think we'll be going with white square subway tile installed like typical rectangular subway tile, and warm gray grout, as recommended by Young House Love.

Image sources: Home Depot, Wayfair, Home Depot, Floor And Decor, The Happy Tudor.

So that's what I'm thinking so far on the general feel/look of the kitchen. I've wobbled around a bit on the specific details, but to be honest, nothing is all that incredibly different from when I first started planning a few months back.