If you can believe it, this bright, airy and open kitchen used to feel enclosed, outdated and very, very beige. Although it needed a lot of redesigning, there was also a lot working for it. The existing space was quite large, and with a little reconfiguring, I knew we could make it flow better. Additionally, the house had tons of existing storage, so we were able to get creative with the design. Finally, we were able to reuse their existing appliances which opened a lot of room in the budget.
The natural light in the space was insane, which was so much fun to design around. We knew we wanted to play up the natural light, so the color palette reflected that. Our clients wanted a timeless and white kitchen, so we got to work right away making it feel fresh and modern, while balancing some inspiration from older European kitchens. Originally, we designed the gorgeous island to have a natural stain, but the stain just couldn’t capture the light correctly, so we ended up painting the island a beautiful greige. It was just different enough from the perimeter cabinets to feel layered and interesting. Another fun fact, the island’s grey counter top arrived with a fairly significant defect, so we ended up swapping it for the same quartz as the perimeter of the rest of the kitchen.
The key things we updated in the kitchen was the style of the cabinetry. We swapped to inset cabinet doors which gave a more bespoke and timeless quality to them. Then, we swapped out the cabinetry surrounding the range hood and installed floating shelves and removed the built in desk. That opened things up significantly and made everything feel a bit more contemporary. We swapped the old tile floor for the same wood flooring we ran through the rest of the house. This keeps things feeling streamlined and warm, which were key problems with the original kitchen.
A couple changes we often see in outdated kitchens that make for a big difference: we reversed the placement of the double overs and removed the uneven soffit. However the biggest switch it in the kitchen was actually rotating the island and removing the massive columns that divided the kitchen from the family room, allowing the space to flow better. The final touch really was adding pendant lighting over the island and sconces above the open shelves. The clients had no mood lighting at all in their kitchen before, and this make it feel so much softer and more inviting.
We styled the space out with one of our signature vintage rugs and a curated collection of artisan accessories for the old European vibe. I think when we mixed in more contemporary pieces, it made this kitchen feel modern and exciting, even when it had such a monochromatic palette. We hit a couple road blocks with this project (hello bad stain, I see you defective counter…), but I’m so proud of how the LBD team created such a timeless, beautiful kitchen for our clients. Ready to start planning the kitchen of your dreams? We’d love to help!
