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Help dissecting this kitchen image

11 years ago

https://www.houzz.com/photos/traditional-at-its-best-traditional-kitchen-toronto-phvw-vp~70569-at-its-best-traditional-kitchen-toronto

I love this kitchen and am using it as inspiration for my own remodel. Long story short...We started with picking out Wellborn Divinity colored cabinets and planned on doing a brownish granite. Then we fell for the black or white granites and ultimately a dark gray called Steel Grey. Brown tones were out and I was on the hunt looking for off-white kitchens with dark counters and found this one and LOVE it. Can anyone help me dissect it? I think I see a little dark brown in the granite. I'm wondering if I should do a darker floor too. I'm not crazy on the white flooring.

https://www.houzz.com/photos/traditional-at-its-best-traditional-kitchen-toronto-phvw-vp~70569-at-its-best-traditional-kitchen-toronto

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Comments (7)

liriodendron
11 years ago
It looks like classic black and white with maybe also a bit of dark grey b/s to go along with the grey of the S/S - at least to me. I see no brown. Only color accent is the Wolf-knobs.

It also looks very formal and shiny/glossy to me - and with its fancy furniture-ish molding trim and door profiles. It has a high-end, show-room display quality to me.

Is that the look that you're going for?

L.
Fori
11 years ago
I think folks here would be making their tile guy come back and flatten out that field tile. :P

Overall it looks very blueish to me, like it was glazed with a newspaper instead of the typical brown glaze. It's definitely dressy instead of warm, but that's not a bad thing.

I'd prefer it with a darker flooring than light (I can't see what's actually there). I think the floor would be place to bring in life--a really rich wood would be nice.
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Lisa - sorry i never saw those comments on the other thread.. i think since i was posting a follow-up at the same time that you were posting yours.. so i never thought to look back up in the thread just down.. Thanks for the ideas you provided there.. Buehl -I really like the cabinet window.. that would be really nice.. Just in general from the layout ideas it made me realize a couple of things.. i think I am a bit of a spartan so the idea of all those cabinets and having to walk around the dining table feels a bit overwhelming.. which is why i tried to cram it against the wall... also realized that I don't want to end up feeling like the dining table is in the kitchen.. I still want the dining table to feel like its a separate space. even thou is in the same room really.. so maybe do that with some seperation and different colors for the furniture and possibly pantry? this other post that had a different color for the wall cabinets and the island cabinets was pretty intriguing.. also the placement of fridge vs pantry in terms of easy of putting all the groceries away whether i come in the front door or the back.. i think it might help to provide a bigger perspective of the house.. the flow from the front door and living room and how that space feels might help determine the best placement of the dining table.. our house really doesn't currently have a place for a dining table.. it either goes in the living room or in the room i call the den.. another thought on the table that buehl brought up is that we won't have the extensions on much at all and we probably won't fill up both sides of the table that often either.. so could we push the one side closer to the wall or furniture just for everyday use and pull it out the 8 to 10 times a year that we need to fit more people.. the shame of things now is that the dining table kind of messes up the den so we never use that room.. except for 8-10 times a year.. thanks for the thoughts and ideas.. it helps a lot to have different prespectives and stretch my thinking a bit..
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Back with updated image, need kitchen layout advise please!
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Comments (25)
Sorry about the confusion. I stared at it a while before finding something ok enough to sketch. Seeing the floor plan makes it different. I tried using the space behind the stairs as the dining area. It felt a little narrow. I was hoping for a dining room on the other side of those closets cause the proper dining room is even narrower. Rats. Can the little kitchen wall be removed - where the hallway makes a turn next to the closet under the stairs? It would give you a beautiful vista through the house out the back windows. Do a little bump out in the narrow section - seat high with transom or skylights or both for dining area? Use bumpout window as banquette seating. Make a cool narrow buffet on stair wall for dining stuff storage. Have a clean up station where the original bump out is shown and use the rest of the former dining room as kitchen. Your clean up area can double as a bar-coffee zone when entertaining. The business of cooking can take place in the bay. Sinks can be cheap or expensive. Adding the "hand washing" sink to our kitchen was $400 or something like that. We had easy plumbing tho, open basement and a drain stack 2 feet away. Have you thought about frosted or wavy glass panels underneath clear transoms - enough for screening but with nice diffuse light? I'd like to redo the windows in my office for the same reason. Someday I will get up the nerve to try that film.
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Comments (14)
Thanks, Fori, that one is almost invisible, isn't it? Do you have a photo of yours installed? I think I looked for it on the Finished kitchens blog based on something you wrote on another thread, but I wasn't able to find it. Pentimento-- that is the very image I was trying to find again! I saw it, but could not remember where to save my life! Thanks so much. That does look like it could fit in a 20th century house in the woods! I have had a hard time finding anything similar because I had no idea what to call it. I like that one a lot, so I did look at the rest of the room. "Rustic Modern," they call it-- I like that term, too. That one is in between 2 windows, though, so I'd have to come up with a creative solution to fit it in between 2 cabs. Our kitchen will be fairly small, so although I can give up the space above the hood, I'll have to have uppers on both sides. Sochi, thanks for the images (and I am a huge admirer of your kitchen, by the way.) it is fun to see people coming up with some lateral solutions. I might be more innovative if I thought I could do without uppers! (And it is a sweet spot we have-- we've been camping on it and cooking outdoors for 20 years!) Tracyerin, thanks for the link. I like the way that one works with the surrounding cabinetry. I really appreciate all of you taking the time to send these. It may be a year before these are built, but I will let you know how it turns out!
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Comments (3)
My island is 70" by 42". Our granite sits on a plywood base with metal support and one metal post. I sure hope it doesn't look like a surf board. This shows the plywood with the metal supports inserted. I have not idea if this helps you are not but just wanted to get things started.
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pricklypearcactus
11 years ago
Sorry, I don't dark brown in the granite in your inspiration. I see white (maybe off-white) cabinets with raised panels and traditional styling and maybe a glaze to highlight. I see polished black (or maybe black and charcoal or a hint of blue) granite with a moderately detailed edge. I see an uneven white with a hint of gray backsplash (maybe marble?) with a detail inset and line of a dark grayish blue color that seems to have some sort of textural element.
User
11 years ago
Subtle luxe tone on tone details is what this kitchen is about, with a few high contrast elements thrown in. White and black. No brown. Unless the floors are a brownish wood or tile. Highly detailed raised panels doors. Multi stacked crown molding. There's probably 10K worth of molding in that kitchen in a "moderate" priced line. In a custom line, probably at least 20K worth. There's the specialty cabinets too. The funky transition angled (pantry?) cabinet next to the fridge, and the appliqued mantle hood. The ogee edge to the stone. The textural element of the tile which is the same colors as the cabinets, but detailed to provide visual interest.

It's a very expensive and traditional look that will be difficult to replicate without doing the charcoal and white look. AND putting a LOT of money into the details. It's ALL about the details. Using only two colors lets the textural quality of the elements used be the star. And that's why it's not over the top like it would be if you had more than two colors happening here.
Fori
11 years ago
Hey they copied my old fridge cabinet! Except I also put doors in the end. I didn't notice that somehow. :P

Anyway, does anyone know offhand what that fridge is? I'm all about the built in towel bar!
treasuretheday
11 years ago
Here's wider view of the same room which shows the island and floor a little better...

[Traditional Kitchen design[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/traditional-kitchen-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_709~s_2107) by Toronto Interior Designer Isabel Beattie @ K Cabinets Oakville
Fori
11 years ago
Oh. You can definitely do better on the floor. It looks like they didn't want to replace the tile they had spent so much on in the 1980s. I'm sure it's better in person. :)

If you want a kitchen without brown to go with your granite, you could do a lot worse for inspiration! I like this much better than brown glazed brown granited stuff.

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