I don't see how one could write a book on landscaping the ranch-style home without having some photos of such homes in the book, any more than one could re: Craftsman, Victorian, and so forth. By training and nature, I operate under the principle of "never assume anything," and so I have not yet assumed that the OP even HAS a ranch style home as I understand them. I've seen any number of somewhat modest and likely one-story homes called a "ranch" (or "rancher") even though that home may have a number of features related to its actual height and width proportions, roof line, embellishments, ceiling heights, porticos, verticality and so forth that to me makes it, well, something else, at least in terms of whether any generic ranch-landscape principles could apply. So one can have a generic discussion, but fundamentally each individual offered "visual" of a landscape is based on an associated underlying, assumed, envisioned, particular house.

g@xedos is right, this is all about the product placement. There is nothing inherently wrong with a cool palette, especially in this location. In the before photos, you can see the kitchen originally only occupied the small recessed area and there was a long peninsula down one side. In this sense, xedos is only partially right --- there was no island but definitely they chose this odd layout because it shows better. There was a breakfast nook that has been removed. One element that had me puzzled, the Viking fridge (vs. the Thermador sponsor), is there as it is a carry-over item from the original. They are heavily restricted to featuring the major elements from the sponsors. However, that does not excuse the designer from making good decisions among the stuff they have to work with. I think it's also important to see the kitchen in the context of the great room and the patio/pool. I found this photo: Some of the decisions come more into context when you see the full view. You can see the nailhead repeat move from the sofas to the stools to the hall chests. I still don't think there is enough to make the kitchen design elements work -- and the designer still gets no "pass" when it comes to the bathroom tile that ended up on the wall (which I have -- in my hall bathroom). You would have thought the tile sponsor would have some other suitable alternative.

Yes, dhygarden! I should have mentioned ebony and Madagascar rosewood in the same breath as ivory. I returned home in September from a year in Zambia doing research, and the elephant situation is dire. Zambia is one of the few African countries whose elephant population is not going down, but South Africa, who has the largest elephant population, has terrible problems with ivory poachers, even though they have a very aggressive program to stop them. As long as there is a market for ivory, the poachers will not stop. I spent time in an area where we had elephants and they are magnificent creatures. To kill them just to take the ivory is so... well, I could go on, but that's not the question at hand here. I usually don't have a problem downloading pictures or reading photo-heavy blogs, but Joni's was an exception. She could re-size them and make it a lot easier for her readers. I do have to say, other than the first picture of her daughter's table, which I thought was pretty neat, I didn't care for any of the others. That second picture, of the Veranda bedroom, was perfectly hideous, in my opinion. Looked like it reeked of Chanel and cigarettes and belonged to a high class madam. LOL Of course, just my opinion, someone else may think it's awesome! :-) I'm not sure the reports of the death of gray aren't greatly exaggerated. ;-) Maria Killam says gray is still "the neutral of the decade," and we're only halfway through the decade. A lot of people here on the gw forums are doing new kitchens and bathrooms as we speak in gray. Maybe it's not as popular to paint all the walls in the entire house in gray, but I think using gray is still quite acceptable. In my kitchen remodel, I'm doing all the cupboards/cabs in gray, the IKEA bodbyn in their SEKTIONS line. The counter will be black (I think, still deciding), the sink will be white farmhouse, the appliances black and stainless, the table and chairs white (eat-in kitchen), the back splash stacked rock, mostly gray but other tones too, the area rug under the table maroon with gray and white, window trim in maroon and wooden horizontal blinds in white. The wallpaper by the table/chairs will be a textured very, very light gray, almost white, and the floors will be vinyl planks hardwood look, grayish whiteish whitewashed. I don't feel like that's too much gray. (But I'd love anyone's input into the whole color scheme!) I doubt any of my friends will say, "Oh that gray is so last year!" Actually, none of my friends would ever say anything remotely like that, lol. I agree with violet west in that it's bold and daring to do a "permanent" fixture like a bathroom floor in a very bright color (or colors), but as she says, you'd better have the time, patience, and money to re-do them when that color starts to look pretty dated. I have a bright yellow sofa that's really a queen sized futon. But I can buy new covers for it for less than $100 on Amazon. Not that I have $100 to just throw around all the time. I ordered it with the yellow in 2011 and it's still yellow. I'm probably going to order a new cover in gray linen and get maroon throw pillow covers. My living room will have the same floor as the kitchen, as the LR, K, and DR are all one big great room. My accent wall will be stacked rock, just like the kitchen back splash. The area rug is a bigger version of the kitchen rug, maroon with white and gray. Same wallpaper on the one wall. I don't know what to do, if anything, about my chocolate brown recliner and loveseat. But then Maria Killam said yellow is hot this year, especially yellow sofas, LOL. Figures I'd be changing OUT of the yellow sofa the minute it becomes trendy, haha! But even though it might be fun to do, say, the bright yellow IKEA cupboards or a floor in primary colors, those are things I won't be able to afford to change, plus I think it's wasteful to rip up perfectly good stuff just because you want to be trend-setting. I'm confident my gray and white color scheme with pops of maroon will stand the test of time...and if not, who cares? :-) As long as I love it, that's all that matters. :-) Lana, well said. Monica, you did it right. People used to buy houses and pay them off. Unfortunately for my kids' generation *(genX), the crazy housing bubble taught them that houses are virtual ATM machines, sell every couple of years and buy something bigger and better. Of course, that all came crashing down in 2008. Now these kids in their mid-30's are stuck upside down in houses where they owe far more than they're worth. What Monica and her husband did was to pay off the loan early (easy if you just pay a little more than the minimum every month!), take out prudent equity loans to add on, rather than buy something bigger, pay the loans off. Now they're set for the rest of their lives in a home that they love, and it's theirs free and clear. Homes are still the best investment around IF you do it that way. Kudos to Monica and her DH! Lynn, I too really enjoy looking at pictures of other homes, even when they're not my cup of tea. I like seeing people's creativity in many different styles. I still think the bottom line is if YOU think it's beautiful, then it's beautiful. If YOU'RE happy, then who cares what Maria or Joni or anyone else thinks? You're the one living there day in and day out, and if your home makes you smile, that's all that matters. :-)

When I see chandeliers like this ANYWHERE, but especially in a kitchen, I always want to know how often the help comes in to clean. I've cleaned a crystal chandelier (once!) and said never again. To keep it sparkly, one must remove each bobble one at a time and clean it with ammonia, dry it and re-attach it to the chandelier. In a kitchen, this would be a task that would have to be done at least monthly. The whole thing is just OTT. Kitchens and bathrooms are rooms one uses multiple times a day and must have a degree of practicality where cleaning is concerned. Unless one lives in an English manor house, why on earth would they want such high ceilings that will be difficult to keep clean? I love polished metals (including brass) in a kitchen but the brass on the marble is just WAY too busy. Trophy kitchen for trophy wife with trophy twins? Okay - that WAS snarky but really....