And thanks to all of the other kind comments about my work. I hope these threads are educational to those who need the help, and fun for those who need a bit of entertainment.! :)

Cawaps, I agree that the traditional kitchen is a bit too too for my own personal taste, as that runs more to my modern kitchen, but I was careful to try to keep the intricate details as tone on tone as I could in order to tone the sensory overload down a bit. Plus, I do so many, um, "inexpensive" kitchens IRL that it was nice to take off the brakes for these two fantasy kitchens and not worry about costs at all.

Here's the exercise I was working on last night that is almost a direct opposite to the traditional expensive white kitchen above. It involves only off the shelf or website box store merchandise. It's not quite as creative because of limited product availability, but it's still not a OTK budgeted down. It shows that you can still do something creative even if your budget is $7K and not $150K.
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Billy and Pam have been looking for a second home within easy driving distance of their primary home and settle on the Mississippi Gulf Coast as it's only 6 hours away. A vacation home here will be a trial run to see if they want to shift their residence here full time when they retire in a few years. They finally find what they are looking for in an older Craftsman bungalow in Biloxi. It's close to the Air Force base and had been used as a military rental so it's not in great cosmetic shape. But it didn't flood during Katrina even though it lost it's roof. The best part about it is it comes with the lot next door and backs up to an unimproved area close to a warehouse. It may be scrub palmetto and pine that Pam sees, but it feels like a nature preserve. And the second lot could be the space for the workshop that Billy would want if they moved there fulltime.

The main home was 30'x30' and the kitchen was in a 10' addition across the back that also contained the laundry room and a master closet. When they went to remove the old vinyl in the kitchen, they discovered some foundation issues with the addition and had to spend a lot more of their budget on strutural items than they anticipated. Therefore the 15K kitchen budget, which was already meager, was cut in half. The previous renters had let an unauthorized pet damage the old wood flooring, so they have to get new flooring for the whole house. They decide on VCT, because of it's durability, range of color, and inexpensivness. A mix of 7 different colors, all blue, white and grey, plus a fresh apple green will set the colors for the whole home and the 1200 square feet of flooring costs them only $1000 from Lowes with the tools and glue to lay it.

While Pam is painting the place, Billy goes to Lowes to pick up the special order colors of the flooring and appliance shops. There's a sale on, plus a rebate, so he gets a whole GE suite in stainless for $2600, but if the rebate ever comes back, it'll be only $2300.

He wanders over to the in stock cabinets and uses their graph paper to figure out their layout. A couple of pantries to flank either side of the sink run, a 30" sink cabinet and a 30" base cabinet and two wall cabinets come to $1200. He also looks at the in stock laminate but none of the colors go with what they are planning. He also orders the special order white granite sink and Delta Pilar touch control faucet.

Pam vows to never let Billy go to the store by himself again as he's now already spent $5300 of their 7K budget. Pam gets on the net to star looking for help with the kitchens biggest problem: a lack of storage. The two pantries help with that tremendously, but the way the layout of the sink and fridge wall is, with a doorway to the rest of the house right in the middle, and the vent off centered in the 60" range space, there wasn't really room for stock cabinets there. She finds one solution in a pegboard and hook system For $97. She'll box in the one exposed side of the refrigerator and mount the pegboard onto that ala Julia Child's kitchen. For the tiny space that's between the range and outer wall, she finds a $60 laundry storage cabinet that can hold her oils and spices. There's no real room for an eat in kitchen and they plan on making the dining area into an office area for business purposes until they fully retire, so Pam finds a $150 counter height table and stool set on Target's website that can occupy the remaining space between the range and the door. It will be counter space when cooking and can be pulled out to perch at for a quick meal.

She also finds her knobs and pulls on the Lowe's website for another $100 total.

After she installs the laundry organizer, she feels the need for some slim wall storage in that spot. It can't be as deep as a regular shelf because it would hang over the range's space. Amazon comes through for her in the form of a bookshelf potrack for $100 and free shipping. She also buys a couple of sample tiles from a vendor for the backsplash, but they arrive broken. She gets the brainstorm of making her own backsplash and counters out of a broken tile mosaic, so she goes around to the various box stores and tile stores in town for tiles in blues and grays. With the plywood and epoxy grout, it's still less than $100 for the counter and backsplash.

They have 1K left to spend, and Pam is really happy until Billy vetoes her choice for a ceiling fan light fixture combo because they are so near to salt water. He says they need something of better quality. No ceiling fan is pretty to her, but it is needed there to help to circulate the air from the window AC. She manages to find one that will be OK design wise for here and sturdy enough in construction for Billy, but it's $500. What the hell, right! By the time she figures in the cost of the apple green Valspar paint and two coats of stain blocking primer she's used on the kitchen, she's got $350 left. So she goes to Hancock Fabric and finds the perfect beachy stripe for her window treatments. The window over the sink gets the valance and cafe curtain, while the window in the middle of the galley wall gets just the valance because of the window AC hanging from it.

They still have $250 left, but what they saved here, they get to spend in the rest of the house and Pam knows exactly where she's going to spend this. One oyster dinner treat for themselves for a job well done, and one stop at the booth of a local craftsman at the flea market, and Pam now has a beautiful cedar swing for their tiny front porch and her budget is done with.

Sorry I have to post and run. I never look at anyone's until i post mine.
Funny, I had an orange mixer on my moodboard and i took it out because it was slightly off, and it shows up here again! Also funny both Marcolo and i used cows. My thought process there was that if you are stuck with white --- black and green always look nice with white and pretty soon you see a cow standing in the grass...

Cool, but I don't understand this part:

Billy vetoes her choice for a ceiling fan light fixture combo because they are so near to salt water

I live across the street from the ocean and my original ceiling fans/light fixtures are still going strong from the early 80s. I've replaced a couple but that was for energy use/aesthetic reasons, not salt-related failure.

Let's just say that it was a "$100 box store special" that was vetoed. A good quality fan is more weathertight and anything from the 80's, even if it were cheap builder grade 80's, is much better constructed than the lightweight tinfoil ceiling fans found at a box store today.

This kitchen is inspired from Steph2000's search for her galley kitchen wall.

But for context, let's say that this kitchen is for an about to be retired couple, empty nesters, Marc and Yvonne. They want to keep their family home, but it is time for an upgrade sans enfants. They have a number of antiques, but also appreciate many elements of modern design. A good budget, let's say $30K. Both love gardening, and are looking to bring the garden inside year 'round, to compensate for the four months a year that their garden is deep in its winter sleep. Yvonne is looking forward to her new white garden kitchen.

They essentially have a galley kitchen, open to the family room and dining room. One arm of the galley is a peninsula. Off the family room is the former mud room with a door to the backyard. This used to be full of kids boots and jackets, but now it will be converted into a sort of butler's pantry/garden centre.

They love green and orange, and were inspired by this fabric, which they used as a tablecloth in the adjoining dining room. The artichoke fixture over the dining room table adds to the garden vibe in a modern way.

Hardwood replaces tile and wall to wall carpeting on the main floor:

They want a living wall in their kitchen. There is a window just the other side of the peninsula, but the living wall will have to have some supplemental artificial light. The wall pictured is from "Plants on Walls", cost about $1,200, but it could be a great DIY project for much less. This unit easy to install, dramatic and simple to operate: it is irrigated automatically, just top up the reservoir every couple of weeks.

White upper cabinets with soft rounded glass panels. The backs of these cabinets will be painted the same soft green, as will the lower cabinets. Hardware same as those in the picture with the glass cabinets. Ignore the red in the picture with uppers.

Yvonne liked how the oven window was rounded like the cabinets:

Sink, faucet, Silestone counters, backsplash and the favoured pale green paint for the lower cabinets:

A neighbour had this old sink that Marc thought would make a wonderful indoor potting table. Since the old mud room backed onto the powder room, they had ready access to plumbing, handy for a potting bench. Open shelves stocked other key kitchen produce.

Yvonne realised as she finalised her kitchen plan that her white kitchen actually wasn't all that white ... and that was okay.

Cawaps, I love your Pagan kitchen! As it happens, I'm Pagan myself AND I already fell in love with that persimmon tile, long before this thread came into existence. So you're spot-on there. :-)

And that turquoise concrete counter is gorgeous. It looks more like water to me than air, though, probably because it's horizontal and below eye level. But I really like the way you arranged all the elements. The cloud light was awesome.

Thanks, Ideagirl, glad you like it. It's hard not to love the persimmon tile. I fell in love with it when Marcolo posted it on the "Are kitchens headed in this direction?" thread, where the idea for the Design Around this Threads was born.

Is this topic losing steam so soon?

cawaps. I had chosen a Natalie Black backsplash as well, in orange and greens, for my 2nd kitchen but changed it out so as not to repeat. Her tiles really are their stunning best in the persimmon though. Makes me wonder if I could get away with a little red in my kitchen.

I hope the thread isn't losing steam, there are several great white(ish) kitchens in this thread. Would any of you white kitchen folks consider any of these designs? Anything tempt you into added more colour to your white kitchen? Or not? Too many cows, birds and plants?

LWO - I'm not loving the last kitchen. It looks arranged well enough, but it is possible that I'm ruined for 'off the shelf' kitchens because I've been frequenting GW too long.

I think part of the slowness might be due to the time of year.

But I also think we need to be careful to balance the designs so they are also accessible on various different levels. If the whole design is iconoclastic it is not going to appeal to a lot of people. If the design pivots around a highly unique element that no one else is going to be able to find or afford its not going to appeal to a lot of people. So while I think these threads have been educational in showing people how to consider things outside the box, I think they have also veered into non-reproducible territory to some degree. Any one of us, I think, could design a spectacular Lavender kitchen if we accomplished the whole thing with custom work and one-offs and unique finds, but I don't know that it would be helpful in a practical sense for someone else who wanted a lavender kitchen.

So I would like to see these threads stay a little bit closer to "off the shelf" -- which encompasses a huge amount of resources--than to be flights of fantasy where the fictional homeowner happened to uncover a Tiffany glass window in the kitchen that would form the centerpiece of the design.

WRT the "losing steam" comment, I haven't played the last few rounds cuz there are too many rules, and I don't dig that, there are too many rules to follow IRL, I'm certainly not going to take on a fantasy project that's rife with them.

I have enjoyed reading the threads a great deal, there are some great ideas and beautiful designs, thanks to those who have posted their stuff.

sandyponder

I secretly want the pink kitchen!

These posts are some of the most innovative kitchens I've seen on here. In fact, I like them better then Houzz.
They look not only livable but functional.

You guys better not get found out or you're going to see one of YOUR kitchens
show somewhere up when a designer starts copying them.

Well, it was fun to see my dilemma inspire a mood board! And, to answer the question as to whether any of these tempt... I did find a lot of the entries to be kinda themey, and not in colors leaning to my personal taste. There are some individual elements that I like, but interestingly, I wasn't sure in many cases that white cabinets were the best choice with them.

So far, I think palimpsest gets my vote for the most liveable kitchen. Although, I was very intrigued by the 4 elements kitchen from cawaps and would love to see that in real life. Sochi's backsplash tile is lovely though I'm not a fan of peachy tones, and one of Marcolo's kitchens in an earlier thread of this series has inspired me to at least consider greenish counter not unlike what Sochi just picked. I loved how that counter related to the outside, which was very visible with this row of windows down near the counter. Hmmm...what was the name of that counter? It's somewhere in my piles of file archives...

I'm not even sure I have the language to describe what I would love to see - and consider in my home. White with thick brown pieces/shelving - earthy and relating to the outside while remaining quiet and neutral. Organic and primative in sort of an chunky, almost zen way, not a beat-up antiques shabby chic way. I should attempt a mood board or ten someday, but they look like they take a lot of time I don't have at the moment.

Really Pal? Most of the threads have had a range - from off the shelf, to modest $20-24K kitchens, with a few flights of fancy in the $50+K range. I agree it is easier to pull together a $100K kitchen off the internet than a $10K kitchen, but I think there should be a mix. I know that most can't afford a $75K kitchen, but they could use it as inspiration and appropriate aspects into a $20K kitchen.

Most people who frequent GW, Houzz, home porn mags, etc., must love the sensational expensive kitchens they see. They know they can't reproduce it faithfully, but it gets their creative juices imagining how to reproduce on a cheaper budget. I would also say that most GW kitchens splurge on at least one item - the over the top professional range, the mod light fixture, marble countertop.

I don't want to set even more rules, but I think if someone posts a $100K kitchen, they should also design a more modest kitchen as well. Or - this might be fun - essentially the same kitchen, one worth $100K the other worth $20K.

Steph2000 - I've tried to use a variety of colours in my mood boards. My personal preference is blue, but I've used red, orange, green and browns. I don't like peach either - that wasn't the greatest backsplash pick for that kitchen. Too peachy (I needed orange) and too zen for this kitchen. I just didn't come across something perfect I guess.

I'll try something more organic/brown/chunky in some future board.

I love your pagan kitchen too cawap! I have been slow to post due to the demands of the season but am enjoying these posts a bunch! I like the idea of an off the rack kitchen. Maybe using only HD or lowes products. Those who are just reading, give it a try and post a mood board for us! I have no idea what I am doing but no one has been mean or too critical and it is addictive. Even if my designs do not live up too the pros I am proud to have tried and I feel this exercise has helped me grow in regards to my design knowledge.

Mtnredux: I love that kitchen! Is that paisely a tile or fabric? If it's a fabric it would be an even better tile mosaic. And where did you get that leather pull?

Sochi: That Schumacher wallpaper always makes me happy :)

I am not saying more rules are necessary but without some parameters, we could go on designing versions of our same favorite kitchens again and again. I agree their has been a mix of unique and more typical, but I tend to favor the results --high end, or low-- end that are comprised of things that anybody could get their hands on (given the budget)

Off the shelf doesn't necessarily mean off the shelf at Home Depot, it could mean off the shelf at Clive Christian and Lacanche. But on the other hand, starting out with a statement piece that is unique, really expensive and hard to duplicate can make the kitchen design process secondary because the attention is held by the statement piece.

I like parameters. I think I went with the Elements theme because White was just too open--I found myself floundering on this one more than some of the others, for some reason.

My kitchens in the Formica thread were pretty much off the shelf (and the blue/green mobile home one was low budget, mostly Ikea). My 1920s kitchens had some vintage items, but they weren't items I designed around that the whole look would fall apart without. In reality, you'd substitute something else for the uore unique items.

I incorporated some DIY items in this one. Not completely unreasonable ones, but not something just anybody would take on. I personally would be happy to try to patina sheet copper (and I actually found some tiles that were close to what I wanted), but probably wouldn't take on concrete countertops. But I've seen some really impressive DIY projects on this site, so it didn't seem beyond the pale. And it's stuff you could pay for if you couldn't do it yourself, if it was in the budget.

I've seen a few posts where from the backstory, the remodel was probably quite expensive, but the money got sucked up with new foundations or remediating flood damage, limiting the budget available for the pretty stuff. That's a pretty realistic situation (been there).

I get that people are busy, and I'm happy to keep each round going for a week or more if that gives more people time to put something together. But the thread needs to have enough activity to stay on page 1 or 2, or it's just going to fall off the radar.

Chris,

Hi, thank you. I like it too. I think taking an existing white kitchen and adding orange and and a very dark brown would look nice. I would also like to use the leather and stitches as an homage to Hermes history as a saddlery. I really think you could cover a range hood in leather. Especially if you used a protectant on it like you might with boots.

The leather handles are mine! I used them in my dressing room for the drawers. They are leather, reinforced with steel, and they have rivets. Come in different colors and metals. They are pricey. i ordered them direct from SDS London and I wired them Sterling, which was less then getting them here.

The top right hand corner is fabric I wanted to use on a drum shade.

Here is a link that might be useful: leather handles

The last few times ive done this I made a point of commenting on everyone who made a moodboard, and I will again. It is just a busy time of year and with so many i actually have to take to notes as i scroll!

Im not sure it but it might be easier if each moodboard was its own post ....?

I understand what you mean now Palimpsest, fair enough.

I think some parameters are good as well, but sandyponder, don't hold yourself back! If you break a few rules you might just make Marcolo cranky, which could be entertaining.

cawaps - argh, foundation repair. Talk about an un-fun way to spend money. When we were finally able to rip out the (7 different levels of) floor in my kitchen to reveal the foundation below, the contractor called the structural engineer (never a good sign). They then invited DH and me down to check it out. They were trying not to laugh while breaking the news to us - that there actually wasn't a foundation under that section of the house any more. The mid-section of the house was sitting on bedrock. Apparently they don't see that often. Hence the chuckles.

Mtn, on the cows. Would someone on a farm really want to be reminded of the cows in their kitchen? Or perhaps the real cows are gone at this point I guess? Love the backstory, but I guess I'm not that into cows, lol.

Pal,

I am not sure I agree. First of all, most of the design sources people look at it are unattainable in some way to most of the people looking at them. AD was always that way. First, start with a penthouse and terrace overlooking CPW ...

But people still BUY that stuff and apparently enjoy it and or find it useful.

I think the mood boards are high end but not whacky. No one has put in a Cornue or two of everything, yet, I don't think. Using one of a kind pieces is okay, too .... with ebay and 1st dibs etc etc you don't even have to get off your fanny to find statement pieces.

The REALLY pita constraint we have is this medium. We have to use things we can find images of! Good images. That often means pricey. For example, one of my fave tiles is $5 sq ft but you cannot find any really nice well lit photos of it like you will with the Ann Sacks stuff. Plus I don't even know how to photoshop, so if I think of something really unusual, like a leather covered range hood (ok so maybe thats not code...), and I can't find an image, it doesnt help my moodboard.

Sochi,

Well, they dont live on a farm at all. This is a summer family retreat, and it was a dairy farm years ago, hence a bit of nostalgic connection. I was trying to mix white with an animal print and I liked cowhide b/w, plus I thought it would be fairly easy to stencil.

Mtnrdredux, I'm with you on what a pain it is not to have Photoshop. I wanted the niche with the turquoise and persimmon, but all I had to work with to color it was Microsoft Paint. PITA, and it took forever.

I don't have photoshop either, I just do what I can with photobucket.

So, what is everyone thinking for the next round?

Maybe a mail order kitchen? All major elements would need to be home deliverable? For the folks who aren't in the major metro areas?

Or we could have some sample home pictures from real estate listings and imagine the new kitchens for them?

I didn't have any client in mind for this one. I just wanted to do one that was very white "except." In this case the "except" is a structural colums that can't be removed, so they clad it in Corian Mint Ice backlit with LEDs.

Floors and walls are clad in Slimlite megatile (20"x118" panels) in Oyster. Eurocabinets from Aran Cucine (photo courtesy of www.europeancabinets.com). Liebherr fridge, Electrolux induction cooktop, and GE ovens. Casprini table and chairs. Lighting from Progress Lighting and Tech Lighting found on lightingdirect.com. Rangehood is Murano Snow by Futuro. Faucet is by Kohler.

The whole thing makes me think of the set design discussion from the white kitchens thread. What kind of frigid person would want to live in such a space? So this was as abstact exercise.

Juliekcmo, very cool idea about finding a real estate ad and designing a good kitchen for the house. Very fun, fueling my passion for real estate and kitchen design! I just saw a mcm house for sale today not far from me, with an underwhelming white kitchen, but a cool house generally. I'd do that in a flash.

Cawaps, agreed, that kitchen is too cold for human habitation. Nice pieces though and an interesting exercise.

I have nothing to contribute but just wanted to say how enjoyable I find these threads. I think you are all so clever and creative. What you are able to pull together for your mood boards is just amazing and I just love the background stories... are they totally fictional? or maybe just a little bit autobiographical? So funny!

I second the idea of doing a kitchen for a specific house.

I also think each moodboard should have its own thread. These get too cumbersome to discuss. Gotta run but it is STILL on my to do list to give comments

Mauadadapaige, I had never put together a mood board before the Colonian Revived thread (Design Around This #2). It takes a bit of time, but if you can do a Google image search and can master the basic tips on posting photos, you can do this.

The background stories are cracking me up too. I don't know about anyone else, but mine are pretty much fictional, although there are little snippets of the lives of me or my friends and family in them. My sister's first home was a mobile home, my brother has a mid-century American Kitchens sink, I have an O'Keefe and Merrit range in the garage with a damaged thermocouple. I had to replace the foundation on my house which sucked up all the remodeling budget. I live in Oakland and referred to some specific local salvage places in one post. That sort of thing. It adds realism, but hopefully doesn't reveal too much about me or my family.

I had never done a mood board before the 3rd thread (1920s kitchen). I've learned quite a bit about Olioboard and Flickr since the first kitchen I posted. That alone makes these exercises worthwhile. Not only am I learning a little about design (mostly from others) but I'm also learning how to more efficiently create moodboards, navigate the web, identify where to find what I'm looking for relatively quickly, use Flickr, etc. Plus it's fun and quite addictive. I encourage everyone to try it out.

Is there any legal risk if we pull a house from a real estate listing? Since these are all in the public domaine I should think not, but this isn't my area of legal expertise. I think some posters have done this in the past?

MDP: Mine was inspired by a few things: 1) a white kitchen someone here did with pink and brown accents (can't remember the username, sorry!); 2) our current house had a '50s Roper when we bought it...I loved it but we already had our Lacanche; 3) I did have to custom-glaze some white tiles to replace the ones in our shower for a plumbing repair, using exactly the method I described.

I thought about throwing a few glam elements into Vicky's kitchen, but decided to keep it overall very retro and plain. Self-critique: A pale brown grout might look nicer and update the pink tiles. I should have picked one of Ikea's slab cabinets to evoke the metal cabinets from the 50s, which would work better than the Lindingo. They might be too glossy, though. Also left out pulls and faucets and other appliances. What can I say, it was late and I'd spent too much time looking for a fabric that worked. That one wasn't perfect, but it was the best I could come up with.

cawaps: I know that song! :-) I love the way you thought about every element and pulled them together. Especially love the water tile...beautiful.

leia: Your whimsical Hawaiian kitchen and recovering crack addict made me smile. I thought the cart was a bit too industrial to go with everything else, but that was my only criticism.

roarah: You had me at the jade, since that's my favorite color. Lovely job; my favorite was the old painted dresser as island.

sochi: You used a similar green in the second moodboard; I liked it and the cherry blossom backsplash but thought the greens might clash. Otherwise, that potting sink on that floor...WOW.

palimpsest: Gorgeous palette, cheerful and calm at the same time. Very interesting to use the pale green instead of white. I loved the way the light fixture picked up the birdcage shape in the fabric and thought that was very clever.

marcolo: I thought the cow kitchen was very charming. Corrugated tin ceiling would be a bit much for me, but otherwise I really liked it! Fresh, thoughtful and definitely unique.

LWO: Your Greek revival was my favorite in this thread. Incredibly rich and textured and, as you said, not a bit boring.

On the subject of pulling a home from a real estate listing, I had thought about doing something like that, possibly as a separate thread ("Pimp my Kitchen!"). I don't know about the issue of using photos from listings--we could just link to them, but they could disappear a the drop of a hat. I'd be happy to volunteer my house and provide photos (my perennially "before" kitchen needs pimping), but it is a 1910 Edwardian, so Marcolo might be opposed on grounds of principle.

Regarding what Sochi said on the spillover effects from participating on this thread: I find that I am more likely to respond to other threads with pictures, since it doesn't seem like such a chore anymore, now that I have lots of practice. I've also learned not to overinvest in a particular choice. At the idea stage you can easily adopt, evaluate, replace, look for something else. If I was really doing a kitchen, the next step would be samples and making sure things really look like what you want (colors, textures). You can't do that in the online photo stage, so there is no point in getting angsty about it. With a real kitchen it is so easy to obsess over each and every decision (TKO), when sometimes pretty good is good enough.

I only wish that more of the people who need design help were trying to participate. It IS a learning exercise. Or, it was conceived of that way. It's great that so many talented amateurs and pros are giving examples of "how to", but there's nothing like getting your feet wet to go swimming. I think we should give a shoutout in the next thread to encourage first time posters, and make the next challenge a more easy, fun project like a patterned tile or fabric. Get more folks on board, and maybe they'd like to continue on in graduate school with the harder challenges. Didn't Cawaps make a list of all of the suggestions so far? How about posting it again?

I am vehemently against creating separate threads for each and every person who wants to participate. There are already enough threads on this board to try to keep track of. Centralizing everything in a single post may be a bit wonky because of the forum software, but it keeps everything and everyone together.

Here's my list again, compiled from my suggestions and those of others. This was originally posted as a straw man, so feel free to add, delete, or reorder. I've added some of the new suggestions at the end.

I'm also opposed to separate threads. As inconvenient as a single thread can be, at least it is an active thread that stays on page 1 or 2. If each design was a separate thread, the older ones would eventually fall off the radar. Also, keeping them as a single thread makes it easy to search for them (which I seem to be doing a lot).

Here's the list:

1) Keeping the golden oak
2) Tract house (specify decade? or any tract house?)
3) Interesting tile (pick specific tile or line of tile)
4) Pink Kitchen
5) Knotty pine
6) Queen Anne
7) Metal cabinetry
8) Vetrazzo
9) French Country
10) Interesting tile (pick specific tile or line of tile)
11) Starting from clothing fashions as your inspiration pic, design a kitchen that suits the era/mood/style
12) 1930s kitchen
13) Wacky linoleum (Marmoleum croco or the graphic series)
14) Rustic Modern Cottage
15) Back-painted glass
16) 1970s home
17) $10K budget
18) Animal prints! (we can put the Marmoleum Croco here)
19) Ikea kitchen (all Ikea?)
20) Mid-life crisis bachelor pad
21) Pimp this kitchen (choose home/kitchen from real estate listing)
22) Home Depot kitchen
23) Mail order kitchen
I don't know if other people are pulling ideas the suggestions people have made, but I saw a pink kitchen on this thread, and an animal print.

cawaps - I know that the list is already very long, but please add the modern kitchen reno of a Victorian period home. A few people seemed to like that one.

Also - steampunk?

I think we'd be okay with a real estate listing as long as we make it clear where we are getting the pictures from. Just extra advertising isn't it? I'd volunteer to find something that lines up with one of the suggestions - i.e. pick an interesting (or not) home and make people use animal prints, or a pink kitchen, knotty pine, steam punk, etc. The real estate ads are ideal as there are usually multiple pictures and you can really get a feeling for the house.

I thought I posted this before, but it looks like it didn't go through.

I'm not sure I like the idea of combining a specific house/kitchen with other restrictions. Sandyponder complained above about "too many rules", and while I don't 100% agree (I haven't found the recent threads overly restrictive), I like having enough flexibility that the responses show a lot of variety.

Here's a revised list, with Sochi's additions and a few suggestions I had missed from the Tuscan thread:

1) Keeping the golden oak
2) Tract house (specify decade? or any tract house?)
3) Interesting tile (pick specific tile or line of tile)
4) Pink Kitchen
5) Knotty pine
6) Queen Anne
7) Metal cabinetry
8) Vetrazzo
9) French Country
10) Interesting tile (pick specific tile or line of tile)
11) Starting from clothing fashions as your inspiration pic, design a kitchen that suits the era/mood/style
12) 1930s kitchen
13) Wacky linoleum (Marmoleum croco or the graphic series)
14) Rustic Modern Cottage
15) Back-painted glass
16) 1970s home
17) $10K budget
18) Animal prints! (we can put the Marmoleum Croco here)
19) Ikea kitchen (all Ikea?)
20) Mid-life crisis bachelor pad
21) Pimp this kitchen (choose home/kitchen from real estate listing)
22) Home Depot kitchen
23) Mail order kitchen
24) Modern kitchen in a Victorian home
25) Steampunk
26) Colorful kitchen (although I think we've been getting a lot of these on other threads)
27) Eclectic

I would be up for just about any of them, but I am thinking that Queen Anne and Victorian may be too similar to be separate categories, and agree that colorful is already happening. I would like to specify for the Victorian kitchen that the current kitchen doesn't have anything of particular beauty or rarity preexisting. The Victorian kitchens I have seen were either (rarely) almost intact with new appliances inserted or there was nothing left of the original fabric except the walls, floor and ceiling.

So, if you want to use encaustics or lincrusta or quartersawn wood, you have to find it.

Here's a different way of thinking about it. I binned them into groups (and added a few more house styles). Since I lumped the "color" kitchens in with the "theme" kitchens, I figure we've had two from the same bin in a row (Tuscan and white). So I think we should change it up to style/era of the home, buget or supply restrictions, or a material (but not cabinet material because I think that gets too close to what we did for white kitchens).

Materials
Keeping the golden oak
Knotty pine
Metal cabinetry
Interesting tile (we can do this one over and over)
Vetrazzo
Marmoleum graphic series
Back-painted glass

Defining the Home
Tract house (specify decade? or any tract house?)
Queen Anne
Spanish Colonial Revival
Craftsman
Tudor Revival
Prarie School
1930s
1940s
1950s
1960s
1970s
Pimp this kitchen (choose home/kitchen from real estate listing)
Beach House
Mash-up house (what do you do with a house that is already a mash-up of styles, like a Mission-style Queen Anne)

Theme Kitchens
Pink Kitchen
French Country
Animal prints! (we can put the Marmoleum Croco here)
Steampunk
Eclectic
Starting from clothing fashions as your inspiration pic, design a kitchen that suits the era/mood/style
Rustic Modern Cottage

Budget/Supply restrictions
$10K budget
Ikea kitchen (all Ikea?)
Mail order kitchen
Home Depot kitchen

Define the People
Mid-life crisis bachelor (or cougar) pad

I'm lurking and loving these design threads. I'm artistically/design impaired, but am learning a ton, and love so many of the kitchens -- even the ones I would never want in my home have lots to love about them.

I've seen so many cool things to love, and I hope someday use, in my fixer-upper on a budget home. Thanks to all!

In the absence of any objections, I would be happy to set up a Victorian/Queen Anne design thread with a limited number of "givens." Let me know if this is good.

That sounds good.

I was thinking that the next post should star off with a call out to the lurkers, maybe with some of the quotes from this thread of folks who had never done this before we took it on in one of these threads. I think the lurkers have this wacky idea that everybody who posts on this thread is some uber-creative design professional, which isn't true at all (although we have some of those).

Quotes:
LWO: I only wish that more of the people who need design help were trying to participate. It IS a learning exercise. Or, it was conceived of that way. It's great that so many talented amateurs and pros are giving examples of "how to", but there's nothing like getting your feet wet to go swimming.

Testimonials:
Sochi:I had never done a mood board before the 3rd thread (1920s kitchen). I've learned quite a bit about Olioboard and Flickr since the first kitchen I posted. That alone makes these exercises worthwhile. Not only am I learning a little about design (mostly from others) but I'm also learning how to more efficiently create moodboards, navigate the web, identify where to find what I'm looking for relatively quickly, use Flickr, etc. Plus it's fun and quite addictive. I encourage everyone to try it out.

cawaps:I had never put together a mood board before the Colonial Revived thread (Design Around This #2). It takes a bit of time, but if you can do a Google image search and can master the basic tips on posting photos, you can do this...I find that I am more likely to respond to other threads with pictures, since it doesn't seem like such a chore anymore, now that I have lots of practice. I've also learned not to overinvest in a particular choice. At the idea stage you can easily adopt, evaluate, replace, look for something else.

Okay I will do it then.

Well, cawaps, you can think my statement was complaining, I think I was stating an opinion. When 4 design elements are "banned", the age of home that can be used is mandated, color proportions are dictated and the phrase "show your work" is used, well, IMO that's pretty rule bound. You seem to like setting and following rules, so have at it, but not me, I'm more of a free association person and all the rules make this too much like work.

I will enjoy reviewing the results, these truly are entertaining threads, I'm just pointing out that not everyone likes such tight dictates.

sandyponder

I have been away for a couple of days, but I just wanted to put in my vote that I think after the exercise pal is working on, our next project should be designing around a minimal traditional house from the '40s through the '70s. The kind of house that people on the forum complain about because it doesn't give enough direction or inspiration, because it's not midcentury modern or anything distinctive, just vaguely traditional, vaguely modern and with minimal detail.

Sandyponder, I sorry if I offended with my choice of words. My Random House dictionary defines complain as "express dissatisfaction," which was the sense in which I meant it. I was actually trying to argue for fewer rules when I made the statement.

Those houses from the 40's-70's often, as marcolo pointed out, even "vaguely" have some detail that can be built onto decoration wise.
The one I would like to see as an exercise is one of those neo-????? whatevers that were built during the housing boom of the 80's through the 90's. The ones that are >4000 sq.ft. in subdivisions where they are all the same and completely devoid of any character. It would be interesting to see how you really smart and talented people (hear the hint of jealousy) could do a kitchen and perhaps redo the front of one of those behemoths to give it some personality that would tie into the look of the kitchen.

I am a lurker and do enjoy reading these but am waaaay too intimidated to make any comments.

I read these threads off and on with enjoyment, too. However, until we finally move into our house, I don't have time to contribute. Hopefully it will still be going when our year long saga finishes.