Oh yeah, don’t think I am not excited! Kitchen Trends Magazine is a primo magazine for a designer to be in so I consider myself very lucky! (click on the link to take you to the actual magazine photos.)

The shelves are my favorite. Futuro Hood and Ceasarstone tops

It is a great kitchen for a lot of reasons, most of which have to do with the small budget and the smaller space. The clients are young working professionals and they were adding onto the house in the back for a master bath/bedroom addition.

Note to self and to readers: This bath will be in next issue of Bathroom Trends…so they say! With magazines…you believe it when you see it!

Getting Creative

This addition took most of the budget but we were able to get creative with the costs. For the record: The table and chairs that the mag prominently displayed were temporary left overs and we all hated it.

There was no great place to position the cooktop. The wall where the Ref/ovens/pantry is located is not as long as it seems. The pantry really is only 16 in deep due to obstructions behind it. And this area is right where the door from carport is located so not so great for a cooking area.

Laminate Table

I wanted to keep from closing in the space so we designed a “table” to be home to the Jennair cooktop. The cool thing is this “table” is not made of stainless as it looks to be but Chemetal laminate. Savings Cha Ching!

We wrapped it around a plywood substrate and chased the wires into the corner cabinet where we were able to put the electrical. Since the house was on a slab, this kept us from having to trench concrete. Savings Cha-Ching!


Chemetal laminate legs and apron.A Futuro Hood is a great selection for modern design.

 

Saving on Electrical & Tile

We also encountered issues with getting new wiring to the hood, light in kitchen and the very cool and quite affordable George Kovacs aluminum pendant over the table. We ended up chasing wires along side the existing beams and then covering them. This was contractor’s idea and I thought it worked very well! Savings Cha Ching!

The countertop is Caesarstone blizzard and the backsplash is Artistic Tile “Shimmer”. We exhausted the budget by this point and could not do the full splash originally discussed. But thanks to the wonderful talent of our tile guy John Hale/Flat Rock Tile, we were able to install the 12×24 shimmer in a vertical pattern to minimize the cuts for the most seamless look. And it worked great….at a substantial savings over the full splash of blizzard. Savings Cha Ching!

The tile goes behind the floating shelves as well.

Mid Century Modern Cabinets

The cabinets also have an aluminum toe kick and are crafted from walnut. We applied a dark stain for almost an eggplant black hue. This works well with the purple walls the homeowner said was a “must”. But the darker cabinetry, simple white on the tops and the minimal backsplash really help the bold colors hit the high notes.

The other wall consists of a nice pantry with pullouts, Refrigerator, microwave, oven and a large but shallow dish pantry for all their “stuffs”. That was a problem with limited wall space for any upper storage. This great pantry space houses almost all of their day to day dishware, bakeware and serving pieces thus leaving the 4 upper cabinets for glassware.

The utility walll.

Granted the dark cabinets/light counter combo could be considered played out. But, the truth is the design fit the feel of the retro modern house, played well with the modern aesthetic the young couple favored, and most importantly fit into their pocketbook with some room to spare for the oh-so-cool light fixtures!

We utilized existing where we could…dishwasher, moldings, and faucet. Savings Cha Ching!

Truth or Dare:

I would take one more dark coffee bean kitchen over the oh-so-overdone “smokers haze with a glaze” kitchen any day. To those of you who do not know me yet, that means the yellowy white painted cabinets with “chocolate” glaze that were so popular a few (dozen) years ago.


A bit much for me. I keep expecting a curtain to drop from the tray ceiling soffit and someone to step out and take a bow. I wonder if they have to pack a sack lunch to get from the sink to the refrig to avoid going hungry on the trek?

 

Ok Ok..lighten up… I am just kidding here. Mostly. It is a pretty kitchen with some nice details.  I am sure the Stepford Wives will love it.