Our New Kitchen Design Temper Board (and 5 questions that helped me make selections!)

At the moment I needed to indicate you our kitchen design temper board and provide you with some inquiries to ask your self when designing a kitchen! The weather of our kitchen had been chosen thoughtfully to assist create the temper we felt was proper for this residence. The work will start within the subsequent couple of weeks and our kitchen will begin to change into REAL!

Designing a kitchen for your self (and even when you’ve got a designer serving to you!) isn’t straightforward. Should you care concerning the finish consequence and love numerous design instructions, you possibly can undoubtedly get in your personal approach. I’m an over-thinker in terms of such a significant funding, however all that “overthinking” is value it to provide me the boldness that I want to maneuver ahead.

At the moment I’ll share a number of of my ideas that helped me to make selections and introduced me to the design we’re about to see come to life!

1. Think about the environment of your house and the place you reside.

Our residence is actually a coastal residence. We are able to see the water from our home windows and might stroll to the seaside in a couple of minutes. We’re situated on an island on the coast of Washington state and are surrounded by each huge evergreen forests and the Salish sea.

Does our location imply we’ve to have a coastal type kitchen? No, a location doesn’t restrict your type. However for me, I prefer to really feel at peace with my environment. I really like how a house feels when all of it comes collectively in a harmonious approach, the place there’s a connection between inside AND out! You could possibly join the 2 with a colour palette, but it surely could possibly be different issues as nicely. Your lighting might be impacted by the place you reside, too, so that may play into how your kitchen will really feel a method or one other, too.

Does a connection to your location imply you shouldn’t have a coastal type in case you are landlocked? By no means, you possibly can have a house with coastal influences wherever you reside. You may all the time discover applicable methods to include design components, equipment and colour palettes you like.

2. Think about design components that complement the type of residence you may have.

While you design a kitchen ideally you need the kitchen to go along with the home, or be capable to add to or improve the temper or type of what’s already there. If your house doesn’t have a selected type otherwise you don’t just like the one you may have, you possibly can mess around with concepts that may make sense.

I’ve all the time beloved coastal design, however the query I needed to reply earlier than I might design our kitchen is what precisely does “coastal” imply for OUR residence? Everybody can interpret coastal a little bit otherwise! And there have been so many various methods to go inside coastal type. At first I thought-about many choices, however ultimately landed on one which felt proper for us.

Thankfully, I might take design cues from what was already authentic to our Nantucket-inspired neighborhood and the type of our residence. What is smart in our residence? Conventional components like bead board, shaker cabinetry, window seats, marble, brass, polished nickel, natural neutrals and a few muted colours, nods to the seaside location … these are all classics that look proper at residence right here and can stand the check of time.

3. Think about any present options or limitations that should be addressed your house.

Our new kitchen house has present home windows that may all be relocated to the brand new eating room. One will stay in place. A brand new set of French doorways within the kitchen will mirror the lounge doorways on the opposite aspect of the home. With French doorways occupying a lot of the essential again wall of the kitchen, and the prevailing opening to the eating room on the alternative aspect, we solely had two partitions left.

We needed to take advantage of these partitions and make the most of the small house in between. A compact dimension, restricted wall house and huge French doorways to the yard undoubtedly formed our selections for a way to slot in storage in addition to design selections.

It can save you all of the great Pinterest and Instagram concepts at first while you’re dreaming and gathering your ideas, however when it’s time to truly design your kitchen, you have to take a look at the house you’ll even have! These particulars WILL possible change lots of the preliminary concepts or selections you may need made swiftly.

We additionally thought-about the impression of our linked rooms and the path the home windows face in our kitchen. Colours are impacted by the place you reside in addition to the path of sunshine coming into your house. Your colour palette is perhaps additionally decided by any linked areas. You might go into your kitchen planning considering you undoubtedly desire a sure colour within the kitchen solely to comprehend later, that colour doesn’t complement the house you may have. It’s useful to carry your preliminary concepts loosely till you’re really testing colours and contemplating the small print of your house.

The colours we thought-about had been based mostly on what felt the perfect in our lighting (we examined paint samples and variations for weeks on each wall within the room and round our residence generally). It was vital to us to consider how it could really feel as we appeared by way of the opposite rooms into the kitchen.

Whereas there have been a number of moods and colours we thought-about, we needed to decide what was proper for our residence. As a lot as I really like seeing the development of darker or moody cupboards, for instance, I saved coming again to the lighting in OUR kitchen. I actually felt that the temper wanted to be mild, pleased, welcoming, but in addition natural, gentle and heat.

What descriptive phrases make sense for the temper of your kitchen? How mild, heat and welcoming the temper would really feel in our house was a HUGE a part of our choice course of! It’d really feel like you’re over considering on the time, however in the long run, we’re SO glad we didn’t get swayed by what would in the end not be proper for our residence.

4. What’s the objective of your house (how are you going to make use of it)?

This actually ought to be primary, it is a vital consideration! We’re empty nesters, however my dad and mom stay right here and we’ve three kids, two are married up to now! Hopefully we’ll have grand children sometime. We’ll be internet hosting household gatherings at our residence, so we needed to maximise the circulation by way of the principle ground with as a lot “openness” and “connection” as we are able to (in addition to to the yard). But we additionally needed to retain the prevailing partitions that give every house a definite really feel and objective (kitchen, eating and front room).

Our essential ground is kind of small, we additionally needed to permit house for flexibility in addition to incorporating as a lot storage as we probably might! With solely two partitions to work with for storage, these partitions particularly had been designed with perform in thoughts in addition to how we wish to use our house. Additionally we plan to stay on this residence perpetually (we’ve no plans to ever transfer), so we’re designing what we love (not for resale). Our wants formed our selections. It’s so vital to contemplate the way you’ll stay within the house earlier than you get your coronary heart set on design options! Let your self design on your wants first, then incorporate design components you like and that match into that house!

5. What are your type components?

The primary two items I selected undoubtedly set the type and introduced readability to all the different components. I purchased a particular faucet and vary that I beloved. The range and its colour undoubtedly turned an announcement piece within the general design. The remainder of the kitchen helps that colour assertion to let it shine, reasonably than competing or distracting from it.

With an in any other case impartial natural palette, we centered on ensuring we added character, texture and heat in addition to particular areas for my favourite and ever-evolving seasonal equipment. Do you like adorning with equipment? What colours do you want to make use of? Plan for them in your design! The place will you exhibit your favourite issues? Do you may have fairly cookbooks or wish to show dishes or artwork? Do you want to brighten for the seasons or with totally different colours all year long?

We performed with flat lay design boards by simply laying out some equipment we beloved together with the weather on the ground or a chunk of flooring or counter to see how they “felt” collectively. It was enjoyable to alter out equipment on the board to see what number of combos we might create with just some accent modifications. As soon as we noticed what we needed, we knew what extra “everlasting” selections needed to be made (and which had been versatile!).

As I used to be dreaming concerning the prospects for brand new kitchen, there have been many concepts we got here up with alongside the best way that I didn’t find yourself utilizing! However it’s nonetheless coming collectively as I dreamed it could. It’ll really feel proper in our residence and be a real reflection of our household and what I really like.

That’s a problem while you’re first designing your kitchen, as a result of ALL of the concepts seem to be prospects. Particularly in the event you love the creativity of design and need your kitchen to be particular. Early on you possibly can take into account a moody kitchen or a shiny one, one colour of cupboards or one other, white or cream cupboards, darkish wooden, mild wooden, tile…so many various types…all the pieces is an possibility. Till it isn’t any extra. Ha!

Sooner or later, it’s important to slim your selections down. Which means you’ll need to cease contemplating all the prospects or it can simply create confusion in your type or your thoughts! Remind your self that there are MANY concepts and types of kitchens that may all be stunning and practical for various causes, however you solely have one undertaking to deal with right now.

When the time involves decide on YOUR type and YOUR design, you’ll let the others go. Now the enjoyable begins since you begin to run in a single path and fall in love the one you may have! Have enjoyable along with your selections and don’t look again. Appears like marriage recommendation, too LOL! 🙂

There’s a lot extra I wish to share, however I hope this a minimum of offers you a primary look into the design course of!

I can’t wait to share about extra of our kitchen design selections with you, and naturally present you the progress alongside the best way!

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Extra Posts about Our Kitchen Rework:

My New Kitchen Ground Plan + Dad and mom’ Addition and Exterior Elevation