I’m a little reticent to show pics yet as it is missing some key elements, but here we go.
So, I think this is going to be the coolest kitchen we’ve done so far in terms of tones, textures and materials. I really wanted to do stainless steel base cabinets as I think they are really striking. To soften the feel of that, we are going to install butcher block countertops, which almost gives a country feel. There will also be stainless steel backsplash that rises up to a wood shelve that goes around the entire L of the stainless cabinets.
For the kitchen island, I thought it would be cool to basically flip the colors. So, instead of grey colored base cabinet and a wood top, we went with birch veneer base cabinet and we will install a concrete countertop on top. I decided not to add any pigment to the countertop as I want to maintain its light grey color to play off the stainless steel.
We went with those large, linear ikea handles too. I worry a little bit that the look will become dated and almost become the mod equivalent of cherry cabinets and granite countertops in McMansions. So, reflecting on this, we didn’t go with the extra long handles and only put them on the island cabinets.
As far as the function of the kitchen, I went with the concrete island as I see that as the place where you make all your food and wanted something extremely durable that you could both put hot pots down on and could take some water.
One could argue that the biggest drawback to the kitchen is that there are no wall cabinets. This is because there are two large windows in the kitchen that take up most of the wall space. We did this as I love a kitchen with lots of natural light and we wanted folks to take in the awesome views of the mountains.
Now, to remedy this, we’ve done a few things. It’s a large kitchen with plenty of base cabinets for storage to help compensate. It’s hard to make out now, but we are building a large ledge shelf around the exterior wall cabinets as an extra spot to put stuff. The ledge would make a great spot to grow herbs too.
In addition, we’ve got a nice pantry area with french doors (we are going to build shelves at the height of the glass). And, we installed some more shelves in a utility closet just off the kitchen.
Check out the pics: