We hope you enjoyed last week’s Part 1 on having a great Kitchen discussing style, islands, display, and your kitchen’s focal point. This week we will comment on finishes, lighting, storage, and so much more! As we emphasized last week, your kitchen is one of the most important spaces in your home. We hope you will find these tips and discussions on the current trends helpful and inspiring.
Lighting:
Lighting always greatly impacts the way a space feels, looks, and functions. Display lighting, under counter task lighting, and ceiling fixtures for ambient lighting are needed to ensure proper lighting control. Advancements in LED lighting have made a huge leap. LED can now come in a more desirable warmer color range and can be dimmed. Group lighting above an island is a Growing Trend and something our clients are frequently request.
Finishes:
Having the right combination of finishes is critical, especially in a kitchen. You have to keep in mind durability, maintenance issues, as well as juxtaposing of texture, color, and scale. If your countertop has a lot of movement, then go with something more structured and simple for your backsplash.
We like to mix glossy finishes with matt ones to keep proper balance. For example, if you are using a high gloss finish on all your cabinets, then go with a less reflective surface for the countertops. Having a mixture of wood, stainless, granite, porcelain, and glass in one space can be beautiful or disastrous if you’re not careful.
Hardware and Plumbing:
The same goes for mixing stainless steel faucets and appliances with oiled rubbed bronze or brass hardware. There is a strategic balancing act to it. This is when some of the design rules get thrown out the window and careful planning and visual double checks are necessary.
We are seeing a growing trend towards using all pulls verses a mixture of pulls and knobs. Pay close attention to the scale of the drawers and doors in relationship to the hardware you want to use. If the hardware is too over-powering, it can make the kitchen feel cluttered and your hardware becomes the eye-catching feature.
When picking your hardware, check to make sure it feels good to the contour of your hand. If it has a heavy feel to it, then most likely it will hold up longer to abuse and everyday use.
Storage:
We are seeing a growing trend in the usage of all drawers for lowers and no doors. Why? Well it is much easier to pull out a drawer than to have to open doors and get down on your knees to reach the back of a cabinet. Of course, websites like Pinterest and Houzz are overloaded with all kinds of nifty storage ideas. When hiring a professional to organize your storage needs or if you are trying to DIY, take careful measurements and inventory of all your dishes, containers, pots, pans, cookie sheets, cooking utensils, small appliances… you get the idea. Once you have all of that information, then consider important placement needs. After both of those things are carefully planned out, then start looking at organization containers, racks, pullouts, and accessories.
Painted vs. Stained:
The on-going trend is still leaning more towards painted verses stained cabinetry in kitchens. Painted gives you the option for color and a lighter, brighter space. Some might feel that painted cabinets make a space feel too modern or cold. If you take a more traditionally styled cabinet and paint it a nice ivory or cream, the resulting outcome is a more “transitional” updated feel verses contemporary. Stained cabinets are still beautiful and charming in the right setting. It just depends on the look and style you are trying to achieve. If you have an older home and you want to update it, painting the cabinets a lighter color will give you the biggest transformation for the least amount of money.
Having A Great Kitchen Part 2:
Kitchens are one of our favorite spaces to design. The careful planning, attention to details, and customizable options are endless which gives our clients and us a lot of creative freedom. Due to the many functional needs and aesthetic direction one can take, we would recommend seeking advice from a professional at least at the beginning stages to assure you are off on the right track. Rsvp Design Services would love to help you with this. Give us a call today and let us help you create your dream kitchen!
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