Kitchen cabinets, island, small office nook colors/combos questions
Purchasing a new home and looking to brighten kitchen and coordinate small office 'nook'. There is a separate dining room and the kitchen/breakfast/living area are all one open space. The current cabinets are dark brown; countertop granite (Azul Platino?) and backsplash are beige/brown. There is a wet bar in the open area between the kitchen and great room. There is a full basement with another wet bar. Our goal is to 'live' upstairs, so we plan to remove the upstairs wet bar in the kitchen/great room area and replace it with a small office nook. We will also be leveling the peninsula and making it all counter height. (All light fixtures will be changed, so just ignore those and furniture in pictures.)
Because of the proximity of adjacent homes, the kitchen/living area is relatively dark. And, I like more of a white/bright/transitional-to-contemporary style. Walls will be painted a taupe/warm gray color -- Sherwin Williams Worldly Gray, or similar (maybe a little lighter).
My questions are related to countertops and cabinets:
(1) Montgomery or Berwyn quartz?
(2) Re-door and paint cabinets or Paint existing doors and cabinets?
(3) With white kitchen cabinets, and brown entertainment console ==> white or brown desk nook cabinets?
Countertops:
I have been looking at countertops and like the Cambria Montgomery or Berwyn quartz. (We have white quartz in a vacation home, so wanting to do something a little different.) Montgomery is my favorite, because I lean toward aqua, teal and turquoise, along with warm grays/taupe in decorating but is it more limiting down the road at resale? I've seen lots of houzz pics with Berwyn, and it seems to be a very popular and versatile color. Comments on either choice?
Cabinets:
(1) So, perimeter cabinets will be changed to white. I could paint the existing kitchen cabinets white, but I'm reading that the re-painting may only last 5 years or so. Is that true? Plus, I prefer a more contemporary shaker style, so if I replace the doors and have the cabinet boxes repainted to match, is that a better, longer lasting option? (We anticipate being in this house at least 10 years. Re-door option is doable from a budget standpoint.)
(2) And the island cabinets/drawers... Because the kitchen is pretty compact, and the island isn't really a focal point from the great room, should I change the base to white also? Or, keep the dark brown as a contrast to the white perimeter cabinets?
Office Nook:
I have found a number of options (see below pics from houzz) for creating the office nook (removing wet bar above). I know it may be considered 'out of date', but to make this home livable for us, we need this space to be functional. My question is related to cabinet color here. Since it is technically part of the great room (above) and not 'in' the kitchen, I was planning to use dark brown cabinets. We have a contemporary brown entertainment console (below) that will be used in the great room on the opposite wall. I would match this.
I'm afraid white would stand out too much, and we want it to blend into the space as much as possible. (We may end up with doors to close off the area as well. See 3rd example below.) Comments on desk/cabinet color?
Comment (1)
tozmo1
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