I wanted to use this kitchen re-furbish as a teaching lesson as much as I just want to share with you the beautiful outcome!
Contractor- On Time Builders Materials Supply-Ashley Interiors
Many times, I get clients wanting to do partial kitchen and bath remodels. Meaning they want to keep existing cabinets and just do flooring and countertops. Or keep floors and just do floors and cabinets. My advice DON’T! In the beginning of my career, I let clients do this over and over again and the results always looked like something was still old. I have seen instances where the room turned out OK but many times…it doesn’t. I always suggest people either wait until they have the budget to remodel right or go simple with their new selections. If you try and make something older looking newer (like installing modern glass mosaics in a kitchen with honey oak cabinets) it will just look off. The alternative to replacing an entire set of oak cabinets is to paint them. It can make a tremendous difference in the result. And you aren’t doing this to necessarily save money, you are doing this for the good of your design! A good painter won’t be inexpensive but this is one area you don’t want to skimp.
Luckily these clients were on board with painting the cabinets from the get go but they did want to keep their existing floor tiles. You’ll see whey I really pushed them to replace it later in this post.
The style of this home overall is traditional. The goal was to keep it traditional yet modern.
Cabinet Paint:: Benjamin Moore OC-38 Arcadia White
Granite:: Santa Cecelia
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I get apprehension from some clients about subway tile. Of course it is not for everyone but if you are open to it, your kitchen will stay classic rather than be dated 7 years down the road by installing the latest fad. I love subway tiles and their are so many options as far as colors and textures that there really is a right option to fit any style of decor. They are also the perfect contrast to a busier granite. It is imperative to use a tile with your granite that will not compete against it. If you are a granite lover, let it shine and be the star of the show. Otherwise your eye will be overloaded and not have anywhere to focus in the room.
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The floor tiles are a porcelain limestone look so they will be easy to maintain…no sealing. The offset rectangular pattern modernized the stone look. Another way we blended some modern into the traditional was with the chandelier in the eating area. Drum shades always add a modern touch to a chandelier.
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Woven wood shades added texture to the space as well as brought in some contrast to an otherwise light space. I like how they balanced out the darkness from the homeowners existing wooden hutch on the opposite side of the room,
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Both the floor and the granite had a slight green undertone to it so I we selected a that tone of beige for the paint. The wall in this image looks a little off but in person it really looks great. It’s Sherwin Williams Ecru 6135.
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And now…get ready….for the before shots. Quite a transformation wouldn’t you agree?
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And remember when I talked about how originally the homeowners wanted to keep the existing tile? Well, here it was. 12×12 ceramic beige tiles. The first and foremost reason I stressed we needed to change it was that it had a pink undertone to it and all of the granites we were interested in were in the gold/green family. By far, the number one mistake I see being made in homes, is people not understanding the undertones in beige. The second reason I suggested the tile be changed was that is was a 12×12 in a fairly large kitchen. It was really too small and busy for the scale of the space. In the end the homeowners agreed and were so happy they made room in the budget to allow for a new floor. I cannot imagine this tile with the rest of that new beautiful kitchen!
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And one after again so I don’t leave you with pink tile!