Designing a dream kitchen…

If you read the road, you know about my sister girl Lisa of Lisa Gabrielson Vintage Finds and Designs (see her gorgeous home HERE). Who as we speak is off to Italy with her family to celebrate her husband’s birthday (lucky duck!). Last time she went I conveniently slide some money into her pocket and couldn’t wait for her to get home with my surprise!

Anyhoo, she and I may have been separated at birth when it comes to design and are dabbling with the idea of partnering up (thank you to our supah star sister friends for their guiding light in this process). We sat down to lunch to discuss our ideas, goals, ethics, etc. and knock, knock: a gorgeous kitchen remodel to test drive our fun new endeavor days later. Even better the clients are sweet as can be and have great taste. I’m thinking its gotta be a sign.

Over Prrrrosecco (you have to say it like Lisa with the Italian accent) we came up with a gorgeous design plan and as I sit and type this, our tasteful clients are sitting somewhere fabulous, Hawaii, hopefully daydreaming about it. Hawaii, Italy…Cumming, Georgia… what’s wrong with this picture? 😉

I won’t spoil the surprise but for now wanted to share our inspiration photos, the gorgeous sketches of our design plan and our mood board. Enjoy!

That fab fabric in the corner will be used for the three roman shades you see below. Almost always start your window treatments at the ceiling to bring the eye up and visually make the windows appear larger. Otherwise its dead space while you could be looking at this gorgeous fabric instead.

Slightly obsessed with open shelving in kitchens (feel free to fan yourself, whoooo, when looking at photo below).

Open shelving is a great option to update your kitchen on a tight budget and have all your pretties on display. Just rip those builder grade oak colored cabinets off the wall, instantly opening up your space. Cover the mess walls in bead board trim and install those shelves with your favorite brackets. Still sound too risky? Try taking the doors off your cabinets, trim the openings and paint the interior a pop of color. You can do this. Let your mind wander with metallic interior paint or foxed mirrors or a crazy stencil or lyrics to your favorite song…the sky’s the limit. Go there. It’s not just about opening the space on the walls, but also creating enough space for you to cook in your kitchen by getting a good amount of counters in. And don’t forget to upgrade your sink to tie everything together! Farmhouse sinks are a classic way of updating your kitchen without getting too bogged down with following trends. If you are thinking of making the switch to a farmhouse sink, check out this handy guide to help make your search a little easier: www.annieandoak.com/blogs/design-style/the-only-guide-you-need-to-choosing-and-installing-a-farmhouse-sink. Furthermore, you might even decide to get yourself something like a coffee machine to help you wake up in the morning. If this is something of interest to you, then you coulc always check out these hamilton beach flexbrew reviews here.

Here’s our interpretation of the focal wall with stainless steel hood and shiny chrome sconces. Don’t you just love how the artist sketched in the blue Mason jars? I do. Let’s call this kitchen pitter patter.

Another -meant to be- moment happened when our clients sent us their kitchen inspire photos, both curated by our designer friends. Of all the photos in kitchen design land.

Ohhhh sometimes I get a good feelin….

The wall directly to the left of the stove and open shelves will look a little something like this…

All cabinets Mascarpone by Benjamin Moore (a favorite white) with the recessed niche above the refrigerator painted Sea Salt by Sherwin Williams. Our clients made the great suggestion to make it a wine rack. Perfecto.

One by six planks installed on the ceiling, repurposing the kitchen chairs but maybe painting them a pop of color and adding a high back banquette to the window wall in a bold striped outdoor fabric. Drama-rama light over the table. Also adding an x detail to the end of the kitchen island.

Honestly, a kitchen remodel like this would be a dream come true. That being said, I would need to reach out to an electrician to take care of installing the brand new light. Some things are best left to the experts after all and anything involving electrical work or wiring is definitely one of those things! Fortunately, a friend of mine has given me a recommendation about the best Greenwich electrician so I am sure I would be able to find an electrician that was up to the job. But yes, let’s put our head’s together and come up with some new and exiting ways to design kitchen islands. What if we recessed the base cabinets (and I’m not speaking about this project in particular) to make the island look more like a table with shallow edges and deep open ends and finished the sides to mirror the sides of this open air structure, located in new urbanism Mixson.

You know a lot of folks love mirrored furniture, could we put some shine on a kitchen island? What if we got away from straight lines and thought round? Wine barrels? An old hot air balloon basket? I saw one once at Scott’s and it was SOLD (buzz kill) but wanted desperately to know its plans for the future.

Back to the task at hand.

Potterybarn’s “Peyton” cotton linen drapes will frame the dining space. Tight, flush and crisp to the floor. It is still the kitchen.

And lastly my partner-in-crime will use her magic and custom faux finish the pantry barn doors to give them a found, reclaimed, stellar look.

So what do you think? Think they’ll love living, cooking and making memories here? We sure hope so. Once you have your dream kitchen, you’ll want to keep it pristine; in which case, you should consider purchasing a Bissell steam cleaner to keep your hard floors looking their best.

Big thanks to our amazing clients. We’ll keep you tuned in. And if you’d like to see more mad science from this project, check out the “D” board HERE.

xx,
Jen

p.s. If you’d like help designing a space you will LOVE and LIVE in, let us know. We absolutely love what we do. Cheers!

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