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Kitchens Design Dilemma Remodeling

2 tone cabinets? Backsplash input needed!

3 years ago

Help! Need some input in this overall design plan/color scheme and help deciding on a backsplash! White upper cabinets and shale base cabinets with white quartz countertop, stainless sink and stainless appliances. Will this look too cold? Is the 2 tone a bad idea and too trendy? I can't decide on either backsplash or if I should go a totally different route.

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Comments (11)

jck910
3 years ago
Choose the backsplash after all the other elements are installed. How brown is the floor IRL? I would go more to brown than gray on the floor.
lucky998877
3 years ago
That backsplash that combines both cabinet colors will not age well. I have 2 tone and my backsplash is white like my uppers. I didn't want to create another stripe by using a pattern BS. In my case, the dark uppers ground a pretty large space, yet the couple of white cabinets almost disappear and let the black windows shine. You are not showing your layout or the size of your kitchen. I like more than 1 cabinet color when the space is large...small kitchens have a cohesive feel with 1 color, and then maybe a pattern splash.
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Need backsplash input, please.
Q
Comments (23)
You're very welcome Cj. In the other thread, you mentioned getting advice from the tile store that didn't mesh with much of the advice here. I don't blame you for being frustrated. Not quite the same thing, but I can relate because I've almost given up on asking family and friends for advice on my own house struggles. Example, regarding a low ceiling problem: Friend: "Aw, just paint it a cool color. It'll be great!" Family member 1: "I hate it too, but it's of the period, so it's understandable." Family member 2: "It's easy. Don't look up." Family member 3: "I just wish your father was here, because he'd tell you there's not a thing wrong with that ceiling!" It's enough to drive a person to drink. Sometimes I think GW members provide more even-handed advice (after you sort through varying opinions) because they worry less about saying what we want to hear, and they have no real motivation to sway them (like, making a sale, or saving money.) I hope you'll post back with how it goes.
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Help/input appreciated with countertop and backsplash ideas
Q
Comments (5)
Thanks for your reply and ideas Eastbaymom! Wow, you are so close to having a new kitchen- I bet you are so excited! We just got word that our cabinets will be delivered next week but the contractor who is installing them is backed up so we are looking at the beginning of July for our install. Yes, we are having under cabinet lighting installed. Your idea of moving the fridge is something we have debated over...and over and over. To put the fridge where you are suggesting (where the current pantry is and yes, it is the small white door on the sink run) would mean that the door way into the dining room would need to be moved out. DH didn't like this design either. There has been a lot of compromising with this final decision/layout due to budget and differing ideas. I personally feel like the fridge looks so oversized and obnoxious where it is currently located. Since the cabinets have been ordered, I don't think we will be changing the location of the appliances. I appreciate your idea and actually really like it however it has been vetoed. I'm considering a counter depth fridge when we replace the current one. I have looked at all 3 of your ideas concerning the backsplash. I am considering subways, especially in something light and possibly glass. I think that something larger is a good idea too. My thought is that I should probably determine the counter selection prior to the backsplash although I really like the crackle subway link you included. This is what our cabinets will look like. What are your counter and backsplash selections? Thanks again for the ideas!
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Need input: gap at end of counter before adding backsplash
Q
Comments (10)
Hi a2gemini, Holy cow--your first counter actually avalanched on the way to your house?! Egads, that must have been an awful feeling. I'm glad that you had a great job after that! I live in northern Massachusetts. From all of my reading of GW, I should have known better than to go with the stone guys that we ended up with. It was one of the areas of the project where I got too tired of wrangling with other members of the family and took the path of least resistance. (And while I don't normally take that path, at the time, I was too exhausted to argue that we should look for another estimate/opinion on which stone contractor to go with. As my brother says "sometimes my life is just a lesson to others of what *not* to do!") --Lee
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Input needed for backsplash around wall partition dividing countertop
Q
Comments (16)
Thanks for all of the input. I'd like to keep it simple (both visually, and remodel cost), so I think everything at the wall cabinet height (D, F) will just be painted drywall (color matched to the cabinets?), with some art hanging there. It sounds like for the B, C and E, any of these options would be acceptable? 1. painted drywall. This maintains the clean lines but requires a high quality countertop install with no gap. 2. 4" backsplash (same as countertop material). This adds a another visual line, but can cover a not-so-great countertop install. 3. 20" (up to wall cabinet height) subway tile. Might be too much tile? 4. 20" backsplash (same as countertop material). Is this too much gray along the wall?
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Patricia Colwell Consulting
3 years ago
I agree to wait until all the other elements ar ein place to choose backsplash and I would not choose the the marble since I do not like real stone next to fake. BTW if it was me I would have just done a granite counter and used a large format glass tile in a color from the granite so maybe just the glass tile in a color from the quartz if that is already oredered.
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HU-187528210
3 years ago
For the cabinets I might go with more of a putty color if you like that family.
Less gray.

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Agreed with the others. Wait on the backsplash. Don’t even remotely think about it right now.

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Inspiration for the cabinets below:

Have fun with your space, main thing I’d take is to focus on doing less gray.
IMO less grey is more :)
Heidi Schubert
Original Author
3 years ago
Floors are installed already and definitely more brown overall but the lighter planks pull in a hint of gray
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Heidi Schubert
Original Author
3 years ago
Also adding: the kitchen layout is shown in the last pic in the gallery and the upper cabinets color is wings & which is white but not stark bright white. I think there's a bit of a shadow on the pic making it look darker.

Backsplash - I'm not opposed to a white subway tile but also wondering if it would be too boring and not have enough visual interest? The wall space for the splash space is relatively small.
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thinkdesignlive
3 years ago
Nobody ever regretted a simple backsplash but you will find thousands of regrets from overly designed ones
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daisychain Zn3b
3 years ago
last modified: 3 years ago
Using a different size plain white tile but doing it in a running bond pattern can be nice. consider 6x6 or 4x12

ETA: on the trendiness of two tone, we did ours in 2006 and people told us then that it was trendy and that we would regret it. we still love it and would do it again. i get that some people just dont care for the look the same way that some dont care for stained wood, but IMHO, it is a legit choice that is here to stay
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Heidi Schubert
Original Author
3 years ago
Here's another pic of the cabinets colors compared to agreeable gray (possible wall color)
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kelli_ga
3 years ago
I like the cabinets. I would explore other options/colors for cabinet hardware and sink. (I don’t like stainless sinks - personal preference.)

Backspash choice is wide open. However all shades of gray tends to look like you are in a black and white movie.
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HU-187528210
3 years ago
I’d do the cabinets in something closer to the agreeable gray than a true gray. It’s softer. And more timeless. But obv my personal preference
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