Seeing white

Yesterday morning we started really planning our kitchen remodel. I have to keep reminding myself that until the cabinets come down this isn’t a reality and yet it’s really fun to start making all the final decisions. We’re 99% sure demolition is a month or two away and if it’s any reassurance to my heart, we do have our new microwave and range sitting quietly in the garage awaiting their new home.

Until then, I’m dreaming in white. A white kitchen has been my dream for as long as I can remember with accents of pale robin’s egg blue. Classic with touches of beachy-Nantucket flair. I’m still gathering my thoughts but after our first design meeting over coffee, we’re that much closer to bringing my vision to reality. I can’t wait to see in white. We briefly considered doing grey or navy cabinetry but at the end of the day we want to do this once, as we’re hoping to live here for the long haul and I know I would tire of anything but white after awhile.

So, this morning we hashed out the layout one last time to make sure everything was in place so the plan could be forwarded on to our cabinet maker. There’s still some tweaking to do but we’re that much closer.

6 months ago when we started dreaming of our white kitchen we were certain we would be buying the off-white Adel cabinets from IKEA. Seriously I love IKEA cabinets and all their inner components. I love how this kitchen came together…gorgeous! In fact, we chose the same exact pulls for our cabinets. Now that our plan has changed slightly I even asked Alex if he would install the drawer components from IKEA in our new cabinets. I was denied but seriously their cabinet innards seem indestructible…something that my clumsy ways would find assuring.

Our budget for the kitchen is definitely not big and IKEA cabinets fit the cabinet budget perfectly. But being the wise people we are we sought out some second opinions as well. We checked with Alex’s cabinet specialist at a local lumberyard/cabinetry shop, Home Depot/Lowes semi-custom cabinetry, and with a cabinetmaker in a city south of us. Believe it or not we will be doing our entire kitchen for the price of semi-custom from Home Depot/Lowes. We knew what we thought their pricing would be, given we’ve utilized their services often with clients, but oh.my.goodness, it was really expensive. Triple our cabinet allowance expensive. Money we don’t have to spend on just cabinetry.

But there was a silver lining to our cabinet debacle. Alex is in a Christian men’s business group with other entrepreneurs/self-employed men and one of them happens to partner with a local cabinet shop. They offered him their friends and family discount which ended up being amazing and after a visit to their shop we were sold. So now we are able, blessed really, to have custom cabinets for our kitchen for just a little tiny bit more than IKEA pricing. Seriously, still pinching myself.

So with our cabinets now custom there are a few fun things we are able to accomplish that we would not have been able to with IKEA. One area we just changed is alongside an empty wall in our current kitchen. I love the idea of a built-in hutch with plate rails above for my mason jars and thankfully with our revised plan we are able to make something like that work. Full detail still to be developed but I’m ecstatic that there will be a place to show off their beauty filled with dry goods!

I can’t find a picture to do the idea justice but you can imagine shelves on the upper portion with a plate rail, an open counter area at counter height for our coffee maker/toaster, and drawers below. And the entire thing will look more like built in cabinetry. When we have a screen shot I’ll share;) Our current kitchen is neither big nor small but it is definitely lacking in storage. This will help things considerably as will removing our soffits, taking the cabinets to the ceiling, and adding some much needed storage including a place for mops/cleaning supplies. While I’m excited on how things are progressing we hit upon a design dilemma.

Here’s the render view of our kitchen:

I tend to like things visually symmetrical and if we line our cabinets up the above wall symmetrically we lose the ability to have a hinged door for the corner cabinet. Without the hinged door the upper cabinets to the right and the left of the sink will be almost identical in size but if we keep the hinged door and eliminate a blind corner (which would be ideal since everything always gets lost in those) the cabinets to the right of the sink will be smaller throwing off the symmetry. The render above illustrates the size difference of the top cabinets which allows for the hinged corner doors.

So here are my questions for you:

Honor symmetry or go for function?

Anyone have ideas for the dreaded corners?

And on another note, one bowl kitchen sink or two?