Remodeled to white kitchen, now living room doesn’t FLOW. IDEAS?
5 years ago
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Need so much advice for kitchen/dining room/living room remodel
Comments (21)Your request for help is quite broad and without a lot of specifics. That makes it hard to answer. I'd suggest breaking it down for yourself and for us like this: 1) Before you start choosing finishes, you'll want to solidify your kitchen and likely furniture layout/orientation. You'll get the most help with that if you post a current floor plan of this entire floor drawn to scale with measurements noted on. Your architect might already have a floor plan you can share here, or you could make one with a tape measure and some graph paper. Generally a 1 square = 1 foot or 1 square = 6 inches is a good, usable scale. Please indicate on the plan which sections of which walls are coming down and any other features (good/bad views out certain windows, fireplace, ducting that can't be moved, etc.). Also note anything you'd particularly like to achieve layout-wise (e.g., an island, a view from the island to the TV, etc.). Post that and and people will have enough information to make helpful suggestions. 2) While you're fielding suggestions about your layout, sift through Houzz and Pinterest to find some inspiration pictures you like. Look for rooms that really sing to you and have the kind of appearance or feel you really enjoy in a home and want to achieve here. Once you have found, say, six or more pictures like that, post all of them together on here and ask people to help you review the images and figure out what the commonalities between the pictures are. This will help you identify what specific things you really respond to so you can include those deliberately in your new spaces. 3) After you can articulate what it is your really like and want to bring to this space, THEN repost this question about colors choices and finishes with that information. Provide your final floor plan (the result of #1), explain what specific finishes you like or what you're specifically trying to achieve through finishes (the result of #2), and then ask us how we'd achieve those stylistic preferences in this space that you have planned. You'll get MUCH more targeted, helpful help. Only then will people understand your taste and the space that we've got to work with. THEN they can say helpful things like, "You might like X paint on Y surface with Q backsplash, plus maybe G feature on M wall? That takes advantage of your space for K reasons while adhering to your taste." Also, some side notes: a) I think you'll have an easier time balancing the dining set with styles you prefer if you break up the set across several different rooms. Use the table in the office, the chairs in the dining room, and the hutch in the kitchen or whatever. With all three - the hutch, table, and chairs - together in the dining room (and being the only furniture in that room), the country note you don't seem to be a fan of will inevitably dominate that room. b) I disagree with Sophie that it makes sense to hire an interior designer at this time. When you bring in a professional, you want to have some idea of what you're asking them for. Something you want them to help you achieve. I don't think you have that yet, and free discussion here is a good way to pin down your own thoughts a bit more. c) I don't think whoever said this looked like an inexpensive house meant it in a denigrating way. You mentioned several very large ticket items (kitchen reno and opening up two separate stories of your house), and I think she/he was simply trying to make sure you're not putting more into the house than you can get back when you sell. That can be devastating. But in case that made you feel weird about having posted, rest assured that people post on here with every single kind of house. Is this the grandest house we've ever seen? No. Is it the humblest? Also no. But no one cares. We're all just here because we like improving homes. The starting point really doesn't matter....See MoreKitchen remodel (dining room & maybe living room too) - Ideas Wanted!
Comments (10)@ SapphireStitch While it would be nice to wave a magic wand with an unlimited checkbook - I don't have that. I do have access to some money (got a HELOC). If some of the changes need to be done in stages and can be done effectively - we can do that, because the more money I have to pull upfront from the HELOC, the more I'll end up paying in interest. (yuck). I'm also not averse to acting as my own general contractor/project manager, if needed; I've done that before (successfully) But I'd rather not have to overall manage the project, just because my current employment is a boatload more demanding than my previous employment. The nice thing is that we don't have a defined deadline where "this must be done by" - no one is getting married, boatloads of relatives aren't coming to visit, etc. However, the kitchen as it currently stands is a source of daily irritation. We're getting to the point that if anyone is already in the kitchen, we try to avoid going in there until that person has left the kitchen. Tempers flare....we've got my boyfriend (who was envisioning a quiet, child-free retirement), my teenager (while she's not as much of a drama queen as some teens - she's just starting the teenage years, LOL), and me - frustrated as the primary food purchaser, preparer, organizer, clean-up person. And if my boyfriend happens to suddenly realize his blood sugar has dropped - get the hell out of the way in the kitchen. He's not very good at listening to his body - he literally passed out one time when his blood sugar dropped too low - he dashed into the kitchen, grabbed a glucerna and the last thing he remembered was opening it up - but he woke up on the floor sitting in a puddle of the stuff. (I wasn't home at the time). When either I or my teen are in the kitchen and if boyfriend does the mad dash into the kitchen - we pretty much have to drop what we are doing so he can grab something and while he stands there and he starts shoveling whatever down his throat. And since the space is so tight - it can mean leaving stuff cooking on the stove, etc. One time he dashed in, grabbed a breakfast sandwich out of the refrigerator, yanked what was already cooking in the microwave out, and threw his sandwich in. Anyhow, I digress. I know that some of the things we want are going to be big-ticket items - new cabinets, granite or quartzite countertops, slide-in induction stove. That's why I'm also looking for cost-efficient plans, such as instead of moving the sink to the middle of the room, let's keep it on the same wall and just shorten the distance from the hot water heater to the new sink location. Let's not blow out any of the exterior walls, and we can keep the current windows, dishwasher, and refrigerator. If replacing the 10'x13' current laminate would be cheapest to match new hardwood to the existing hardwood, rather than ripping it all out and putting tile down in a 20'x13' space, I'm fine keeping hardwood. If a nice, medium-stain maple cabinet is cheaper than white painted cabinets, I'm find with the the stained version... I prefer it, personally. Rather than a huge pantry cabinet, if building a pantry closet with adjustable shelves is cheaper, I'm fine with that (plus with all the small appliances and bulk-purchases from Costco and BJ's - I think it would suit our storage needs better). If getting an island fits the layout, but is out of reach - I'm fine holding off on installing island cabinets and countertop and using a kitchen table in the meantime. And because we don't have a "get it done by" date... once I have a really solid design/layout... I have the time to shop different cabinet lines and stoves, wait for sales and then to be ready to capitalize on hopefully a decent deal. I don't know if it's true, but I did see some articles that indicate the best time to shop for kitchen cabinets is November to early January....See MoreWhy doesn’t my living room look “right”?
Comments (27)Hi Holly. Is the door in between the sofas the main door in and out of the room? Your biggest factor here is layout and paint. Sorry you just painted but its the wrong color to work with your existing pieces. Also dividing the paint color below the moulding strip is making the room feel squat because of the sharp color contrast. One color to the ceiling would be ideal.. Really white or a pale pale pink is your friend here and would have been preferable. The place to have brought in some color accents would be in a rug to ground the space and some pillows. The minty green isnt the right tone. I would pull the rose tone from your fireplace tile and a deeper green. accent with warm whites. A sheer warm white drapery panel won't make the window seem so heavy and you could even mount these to the outside of the window bump out. A round coffee table would be a better fit for the furniture layout. I would do chests on either side of your fireplace and I like where you were going with the round mirror but I would do one over each chest and then bring in a piece of art for over the fireplace. Try moving your art you have on either side of the fireplace above your sofa and see how that feels. They may be too small but its worth a try. Is there a reason for the moulding behind the sofa? Your black floor lamp is overwhelming the room and I would do something that ties into the gold mirrors. If that door us used then that would not be my choice for a place to have a lamp. Thats hard to say without seeing where your travel paths are in the room. A side table and lamp to anchor the corner near the windows. Here are some ideas to tie into what I am saying....See MoreAm I the only one who doesn’t want a white kitchen??
Comments (37)You're not the only one. All white would "grind my gears". I'm not a compulsive "clean freak" but white would show every bit of dust/dirt ... and I live on a country dirt road off another private country dirt road. Weather permitting, I keep my windows open from early spring to late fall because I go outside too often to want to be changing temp from ambient temp to AC and back again. To me, that makes hot weather seem even more hot . If you are wanting to reuse your current cabinets, you might consider researching products that would darken your stained cabinets a bit to get rid of any "orange" vibe -- that would be my first choice. Is there a cabinet, upper and /or lower, that is installed apart from the others -- one from which you could remove the door(s) and see if it might be either stained darker or refinished? Or do you have cabinets above the refrigerator that could be removed and replaced with an open shelf if what you try doesn't result in something you like?...See MoreRelated Professionals
Van Wert Interior Designers & Decorators · Town and Country Architects & Building Designers · St. Louis Kitchen & Bathroom Designers · Boston Furniture & Accessories · Erlanger General Contractors · North Lauderdale General Contractors · Mount Vernon Interior Designers & Decorators · Minneapolis Furniture & Accessories · Redmond Furniture & Accessories · Fountainebleau Furniture & Accessories · Mill Valley Furniture & Accessories · Sacramento Lighting · League City Kitchen & Bathroom Remodelers · Toledo Kitchen & Bathroom Remodelers · Alton Cabinets & Cabinetry- 5 years ago
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