Another white cab/gray counter post
Bunny
12 years ago
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Fori
12 years agosuebr
12 years agoRelated Discussions
this last one is a grey color counter top for another idea i had.
Comments (1)Hard to judge on my monitor. I would say if your cabinets are more on the creamy side than your choice with the brown might be better. If they are more on the white side, than I would say your grey speckled choice. I think you are on the right track....See MoreHow to on white cabs and (almost) white countertops???
Comments (10)dmwbcc: according to an independent kitchen designer who had or has her own TV show, you just choose any light colored counter, and it goes with the light colored cabinets. I'll quote half of an article I saved a couple years ago: Be big where it counts. Aim for long runs of counter space for preparation areas. Forget triangles: they can leave the chef feeling cramped. Even in small spaces, focus on making the cook feel that there's room to spare. Keep it light. We can all love bold, dramatic, cutting-edge colors. But face it: most of us are looking for a kitchen that stands the test of time, and that makes you feel good every time you enter it. A need for enduring style and timeless choices guides you to choose a lighter shade of pale for the fixed elements, such as cabinets, and then go nuts with a bold accent colour on the walls that is both inexpensive and easy to change if, by chance, you should find that it is less pleasing later. But do it two ways. Just because it's light doesn't mean it has to be white. Torn between a desire for something new and a need to appeal to the greatest number of people when selling the house, settle on light, but not white. Once installed, two light colours pick up the variations in both the counters and the backsplash, and create a subtle two-tone effect. I can't say it's bold, but it's way better than plain!! Don't give in to granite. Although it has a reputation as the practical choice for stone countertops, you don't need to give in to the speckles, the flecks and the hues that this material offers. And dark is out of the question. If counters are dirty, you want to see what's on them, please. Marble, a classic no-no, is good: kitchens can develop a patina like a bistro with counters bars and table tops in carrera marble; you have to be willing to live with counters that will develop stains over time. There's a choice for light counters: engineered quartz stone! A composite, it comes in beautiful shades, and won't stain, crack or discolour like natural materials. It's stunning. Minimize allowances. The rule says you need 42 inches to open the refrigerator, dishwasher, oven, or to get around a counter, but you can push the limits by reducing the clearance (down to 36 inches) in favour of achieving more counter and storage space. Lets face it, preparing meals is not a group effort, and you don't need space to choreograph a dance routine. No one has ever complained after their kitchen went in: it's only a problem on paper. ... The designer is Sarah Richardson. She says any two light colors play off each other and make the whole. She says for you to look for light color quartz. I've found there are about 20 manufacturers of quartz, although only a small number of them are highly available everywhere. I found that Cimstone made the largest variety of light color quartz. Go see their web site to find out who would be able to show you samples where you are. E.g. Barents, Grimsey, Arcadia....See MoreWhite cabs/gray counters; forgot about the flooring!
Comments (21)Thanks so much for your help, everyone. I'm inching closer, I think. kpaquette -- your floors are beautiful (love that border)! If I go the red oak route, I really hope I can manage to get those warm gold/brown tones in the floor. Bobby99 -- That certainly is the beauty of unstained wood floors! Your golden floors look great with the black countertop, and I'd never be able to tell you have such a lovely and large companion romping on them! Northcarolina - I know what you mean about that red soil. I've got relatives in NC and when I come home from a visit, I've got to wipe the red clay off my sneakers -- it is a gorgeous soil though and would blend perfectly with the red oak - a maintenance dream! linelle, dseng, flori and i_love_my_dog -- that's what I'm struggling with the most. I'm afraid if I do anything other than red oak it will disrupt the flow and make the house seem choppy. Although the kitchen is not really "open", it has three interior doors (all leading from red oak) and you can see into the kitchen from the (red oak) front entryway. I love the red oak in all the pictures you've so graciously posted, but most of the kitchens (with the exception of oldbat's first pic) look pretty traditional; and I think our renovated kitchen will end up more transitional and I'm not sure it will look as good. I went to a nearby Lumber Liquidators yesterday (hmmm -- I only saw the bad reviews of LL after I returned). I loved the LL "Golden Teak", but after reading some negative reviews of LL, am pretty reluctant to take a chance on that. The teak has some variation though and blends with and picks up some of the red oak color, but is more of a medium brown with some red and gold tones. It really seemed like a nice compromise between the red oak and dark stained floors that would blend nicely. Didn't like unstained white oak at all (too greenish) with the gray counter. I'm tempted to try to stain oak the color of the Golden Teak. The LL guy did tell me that if I'm toying with staining an oak floor, I should go with white oak because it absorbs the stain more evenly. Can red oak be stained to pick up brown/gold tones? I'm not sure that will gain me much though, because once you stain oak, isn't it likely to show dirt and scratches much like the darker stained floor which I love but am trying to avoid because of the maintenance?...See MoreGray cabs with Black Countertops?
Comments (8)Thanks everyone. We're trying to keep the costs very low because we intend to sell this house in about 2 years. We live here so I want a more functional and kitchen but don't want to spend much money on it. I know you can get laminate countertops other places but they are more expensive. We can buy the Ikea countertops for about $400 and have them installed for about $200 more by our carpenter friend. I've read on this forum about laminate quotes being only slightly less than granite. Could we get a mid-range laminate without a backsplash for less than $1K? Our kitchen is and to give a frame of reference the estimates we got for granite and quartz were $5K. Because we're selling the house soon, we don't want anything too adventurous. I just want it to look nice and the buyers can invest in granite if they want. The buyer will want this house because it's the most affordable one in a nice neighborhood and is move in ready. Our goal is make these improvements out of the housekeeping money, so to speak. Meaning we pull nothing out of our savings....See MoreBunny
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