Planning Our Dream Kitchen
We’re getting closer and closer to the finish line on our new home—less than 45 days to go! As OMG-holy crap-excited as I am, I’ve been feeling like I still have SO many things to finalize. I’m a planner by nature, so I like to go into any situation with all of my options already mapped out. When it comes to designing our house, my overly-prepared, ‘plan everything out’ tendencies are proving to create a bit of a challenge, but in a good way!
On my design projects for other people, I’m used to having to think through all of the design possibilities upfront in order to deliver the best and most complete design possible for my clients. Now that I’m designing my own home though, I’m realizing every day that I don’t need every single detail planned out ahead of time. It’s MY house. I get to live there forever and ever if I want to. I get to make my mind, and then change it, and then beg Ira to let me change it again. This exhausting (but totally worth it) indecisiveness has caused me to design and redesign our kitchen no less than 10 times over the past couple of months, and today I’m sharing it all with you! I’ll walk you through my design process, the mockups I made to help me visualize the space, and show you what I hope our kitchen will look like one day! Buckle up—we’re jumping down a big rabbit hole of kitchen designs!
my design inspo
It’s only right that I start off with a look at my kitchen design inspiration so you can get a feel for where my mind was at. You can see check it out (plus some more of the inspo I saved for the rest of the house) right here on my Pinterest! Notice any similarities in the inspo images? Yeah. I really have a thing for black kitchens.
Don’t get me wrong—all-white kitchens are stunning! But it’s black kitchens that always stop me mid-scroll. So bold and beautiful. I knew as soon as I saw them on Pinterest that I had to have one. As I’m sure you know by now, I really like simple, neutral color scheme designs with a bit of a natural element. Add in a touch of brass and it’s golden (pun most definitely intended)!
On the lighter side, I’ve been basically obsessed with this particular kitchen for a year now and it reealllly took some convincing for Ira to come around. Since this will be both of our home, I wanted him to have a little input in the design as well. Keywords being “a little.” I cannot and will not have any leather recliners, Pokemon posters, or Michigan paraphernalia hung about. And that’s that on that. But in all seriousness, the man’s got great taste. (I’ve trained him well.) We agreed on most of the major items in the kitchen and the ideas that he wasn’t so sold on, well, we’re doing it anyway. Perfect compromise :)
our original kitchen plans
After pinning for weeks, this is the original mockup I created for Ira and me to take to our design studio appointment. Ira was immediately drawn to the idea of a dark, moody kitchen, and eventually accepted my idea to tie in some wood cabinetry. We both felt like the mix of cabinets would make more of a statement and be a nice break from the norm. To keep the kitchen from looking too busy with the two-tone cabinets, we planned on a marble-look quartz countertop, a simple backsplash tile, and matte black accents (surprise, surprise).
Our standard kitchen layout included a slide-in range with a microwave above and I was…less than thrilled with that option. Before we even signed our initial contract, we talked to our sales consultant about upgrading our appliances from the standard to a built-in microwave and oven with a full vent hood. Built-in appliances always make a house feel more like a home to me, plus I’ve always loved the look of a full chimney vent hood, so the appliance upgrade went straight to the “must-have” list.
For the past couple of years, I’ve been OBSESSED with GE’s Cafe Fridge. It’s seriously the prettiest fridge I’ve ever seen. It comes in 3 finishes—matte black, matte white, and stainless steel—and has custom looking handles in black, silver, bronze, and copper that can be paired with any fridge color for a really custom look. Ira and I both fell in love with the matte black, but we knew we wouldn’t be able to afford to replace all of our appliances for the full Cafe collection immediately. The black body and silver handles were a good way to match the color of the existing appliances. If you’re looking to upgrade your appliances for a new build or a renovation and can fit it in your budget, I definitely recommend checking out the Cafe collection!
the beginnings of our kitchen design
At our design meeting, we learned that two-tone kitchen cabinets actually aren’t an option with our builder—boooooo. But no worries, we had a backup plan. We decided to put wood tone cabinets in the bathrooms and go with black cabinets throughout the kitchen. Our cabinet color is Espresso, but just like our windows…they basically look black. I love that they’re stained rather than painted, so you can still see a bit of the wood grain. We didn’t add any cabinet hardware with the builder, but at this point in my design plan, I was thinking we’d do simple, black rectangular pulls on all doors and drawers.
We also learned during our design appointment that our builder doesn’t carry any faux-wood flooring in the shade we wanted—booooo, x2—so we’ll be doing them ourselves after we close. Or more than likely, we’ll be getting them done. The light wood flooring will give us a bit of the natural look we wanted for the room, while still keeping the entire space looking light and bright. We were able to get all of the other elements we wanted like the subway tile backsplash and matte black fixtures though, so we’re pretty happy that those will already be done when we move in.
rethinking the appliances
The more I thought about the appliances, the more I wasn’t loving how the black fridge looked with the cabinets. Rather than meshing as I intended, I started to feel like the black stainless finish was clashing with the cabinets. On top of that, I didn’t want that side of the kitchen to have a “black hole” effect. Since there aren’t any windows on that side of the house I could already sense that it was going to look really dark in the kitchen with too much black. So I swapped that beautiful fridge for the same one in stainless steel, but with black handles.
I wasn’t totally sold on the idea of black cabinet hardware, so I removed it completely for a better look at the kitchen as a whole. And that’s when I absolutely knew. The kitchen looked pretty…pretty BORING.
okay, but what if we add gold?
From the very beginning, I wanted brass accents in the kitchen. Ira, on the other hand, wasn’t feeling it. I love gold anything—all of the jewelry I wear is gold—but he’s more of a silver/platinum guy. I tried to do the kitchen his way, but it just looked so flat and plain without any gold!
Hardware is like jewelry for your kitchen and my kitchen was looking awfully naked without it. So rather than go with my original plan of using matte black throughout, I added pops of brass in the hardware and faucet.
I wasn’t sure how I felt about putting a brass handle on a silver fridge at first (and tbh I’m still not completely sold), but it’s definitely growing on me. Once I settled on the design elements, I made a more realistic rendering to see it all come together to scale and color me impressed. Honey, this kitchen is looking GEWD.
our kitchen irl!
Obviously, it’s still under construction, but here she is! The cabinets were installed a few weeks ago and the countertops were just set in place on Friday! Would ya look at that waterfall island!! More pictures to come once they completely finish the underside of the island, but wheeeeeew girl. That island is ev. ry. thing!
what’s left to plan…
We’ll still have to finalize our plans for the kitchen faucet, although I’m really loving the way this Brizo faucet becomes the centerpiece of the kitchen and ties in all of the other brass elements together.
I’ll spare y’all the 10+ mockups I did comparing hardware options and save it for a roundup post later this week with all of my favorites! I still haven’t finalized the hardware I want, but after comparing so many different options, I know exactly what I’m looking for (and what I’m not).
Large handles on all drawers
Handles or slim, finger tab pulls on all doors
A warm brass tone (not yellowy) to match the fridge & faucet
A modern shape without ends that stick out (I hate when my pockets or tie-waist pants get caught on the handles!)
The great thing about homeownership is that you’re only limited to your own creativity (and budget). We already have most of the projects for this space planned out, but I swear I think of new ones every day. Some are things everyone will see, pendants over the island and new floors, but others are more for my own sanity, like a custom spice drawer and full-on pantry organization. Can’t wait to share it all with y’all when the time comes!
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