Friday, March 27, 2015

Kitchen Re-Re-imagined

If you are not already tired of hearing about The Kitchen....well, bless you.

Once upon a time I wanted all white cabinetry and white countertops and white all the things because I'm delusional or something.  Or I just wanted opposite of what we had in the past maybe? Ugh, it was a hard decision to make, to switch away from that vision.  You know why?  Because I love love love looking at pictures of crisp white kitchens on Pinterest and imagining myself standing at the window with a gentle breeze blowing through my hair whilst I lovingly massage some fine china with my hole-free rubber gloves. Sadly, reality is a thing, you know?

So then we talked to our contractor/cabinet guy and he said white cabinets do look beautiful at first, but any painted wood (vs stained wood) is going to show damage and scratches and start looking old much more quickly. Plus in our climate, the humidity goes up and down so drastically that wood separates and then goes back together frequently. All the seam lines tend to separate and we are going see the wood color in all those places and, well, it could start to look ugly. Sadness. I still was pushing for the white, but Tommy was not feelin it anymore, so the compromise is that we are going to go with light maple cabinets with just a clear stain so I can still get sort of a light and bright look but without the painted ness.

Hey look, I spent way too long on Polyvore putting this together.  Aren't you proud of me?

light maple shaker kitchen
That's a maple door with white tile backsplash, dark countertops and black hardware. Stainless appliances were the easy pick once we switched away from white cabinets.
I ALSO have a New Casa, New Kitchen Pinterest board because if visiting one website to be bored by pictures of a a kitchen that doesn't actually exist is good, visiting three is even better.  You are welcome.

ANYWAY!  Our builder brought me a sample of a door he had made and when I saw it and touched it, I was totally sold.  I still can't believe this is actually going to happen, y'all.  So magical.  Amazing.  All words of happiness.

Oh.  Hah.  Forgot.  For a little while (budgetary restrictions doncha know) we're going to have just, um, plywood subfloor as our floor...?  Fun!  So Imma probably paint it a color close to the color we want to get eventually and see if we end up liking it after all.  Uber fancy.

Here are things we've not decided yet:

-wall color
-what to do about those built ins
-which specific knobs to put on the upper cabinets (you'd think I was designing the space shuttle with how seriously I'm treating this particular decision.  Perhaps I need an intervention?)

Sweet sassy mollasey.  Let's get this show on the road soon, shall we?

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17 comments :

  1. I'm grieving with you for your white :( Our cabinets do look older since they're painted but I thought you were going to be buying new and didn't think new factory painted/sealed/whatever-they-do-that's-not-normal-paint didn't have that issue?? Our friends with installed white cabinets don't seem to? Either way, though, it will be gorgeous!! And new!! And bright!!

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  2. I'm enjoying following along and seeing all of your choices. So fun to see what others choose and the transformations in their home. I'll keep eagerly watching here and Insta. :)

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  3. Maple is gorg, and you can always paint it down the road if you need a change. :)

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  4. I was a white kitchen dreamer, too - I still drool over the white kitchen's on pinterest. But we realized we are messy, messy family. When they said how easy the white was to clean - well, unless you were splattering them with tomato sauce or mustard (which we do on a pretty regular basis) we had reality set in, too. We went with a light "pecan" and love, love, love it! I still love PICTURES of white cabinets!!!!

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  5. A suggestion for the builtins - modify or make new doors to match the new cabinet doors. Then because they won't match the cabinet wood I would paint them the same color as the wall in a semi gloss. Pulls to match the rest of the kitchen.
    Can't get enough kitchen updates! Keep them coming!

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    1. I agree that you should have matching doors made for the built-ins. Especially since you aren't going to have white cabinets. The old furnace chimney in our house has plaster over it so that you can't see the brick. (When I say plaster I mean the old style stuff, not drywall.)

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  6. White kitchens are veeeery pretty to look at, but would never work for me. I am definitely NOT a scrub the kitchen down every day sort of person, and I just know that grease in the air from cooking would settle on white cabinets and turn them yellow. So many kinds of gross! Our cabinets are all a nice light wood color, and I love them. Have fun with the kitchen planning!

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  7. Love the kitchen/house updates. We have similar built-ins throughout our house. I had no idea of what to do with them. Then we were gifted (THANK YOU, LORD!) with a few hours of a decorator and her recommendation was paint them 1 shade lighter than the wall color in a semi gloss because then they will "dissappear". We've done it to the built-ins in the kitchen and it made all the difference! Next up built-ins in the den.

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  8. And so dies my dreams of an all white kitchen as well. My dad built me some extra cabinets for my kitchen and painted them white and they are a mess, less than a year later. If I had the time and inclination to repaint them every three months they would probably look great, but I have small children, yo! And no big kids (yet) so white scuff marked cabinets abound in my kitchen. I love the light maple though, very pretty.

    And I just paused and looked out my kitchen window and saw snow flurries. Stupid Michigan.

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  9. It will look beautiful. Hmm, those built-ins... if you wanted to go dark, like the color you plan for the floors, you could use Minwax Gel Stain right over the current stain. It should darken it, but still let the grain through. Or, you could paint it the same as the wall color. Or, have your builder make new doors in the light maple and just try to make the little bits that peek through the doors as discreet as possible- maybe sanding and staining very light to try to match as best you can.

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  10. I agree with Natasha, sand down the existing built-ins and use a clear-coat or a very light stain to match the new cabinets. That along with matching hardware will go a long way towards tying them together. They don't have to be a perfect match since they aren't right next to one another.

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  11. We have a light oak with natural stain and it is nice. Not crisp, but it seems warm and inviting to me. For built in cabinets: it's hard to show on Pinterest, but we had our cabinet builder make our cabinets and extra 3 inches deeper over standard cabinets. We LOVE it. We have more storage space and more counter-space, which is a big plus with our big-ish family. If you've got the floor space to make your cabinets deeper, I highly recommend it.

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  12. I had a white kitchen, and the stains, man. Maybe it was just me, but I couldn't keep them clean. Sticky kid fingers, food spills, accumulated grease from cooking. On the upper cabinets, like it floated through the air a little at a time. I didn't even know that was a thing. Now we have oak (I think) and it hides things much better. Of course, these cabinets are much newer and nicer in general so that probably colors my feelings a bit. Anyway, love what you've put together up there!

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  13. Our kitchen (and living room and built ins) are all painted white. When we bought the house it was fresh and pretty, but six months later...I like the look, but it scratches and dings really easily and is really obvious. I think the wood color is the way to go and you'll like it.

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  14. Ditto on getting new cabinet doors for the built-ins to match the kitchen cabinets. Can't wait to see the process :)

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  15. I'm surprised at all the comments on white cabinets! We went through the same decision years ago. We ended up ordering stained cabinets and then called the company the next morning because I couldn't sleep all night thinking about not having what I really wanted. Our cabinets are not stark white. They are maple, painted a creamy white color with glaze. We LOVE it and would do it all over again. We live in an area where the humidity fluctuates and have never had a problem with cracking, chipping, or anything else. As far as grease goes, well, grease is grease whether you have painted or stained cabinetry. I'm the type of person that prefers to see the dirt and grime so that I'm reminded that it needs cleaned! I'm not the best housekeeper, so this is a good system for me. We've spilled coffee, spaghetti sauce, chili... you name it, and the cabinets are super easy to wipe and have never stained. And I don't have to wipe them down daily, weekly, or even monthly to keep them looking nice.

    Anyway, my white cabinet soapbox aside, I'm sure you'll be happy with anything new and different! :)

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  16. "reality is a thing" hahah! as for the cabinets, i would take those doors right off. the bottom shelf becomes a toddler station; the higher ones can be books or art/school supplies or whatevs. we're in the middle of a DIY kitchen redo, too: i have floors but the only counters are a drain board, an ikea island, and about 18” nxt to the stove. 'sall good, 'sall good!

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