Brighten kitchen?
Lisa G
last year
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Comments (19)
Lynzy
last yearLisa G
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Updating /brightening kitchen on small budget
Comments (17)To start, I'd hang your roman shade much higher so it is not blocking any part of the window when it's pulled up (it looks as if it's blocking about 8 inches?). This will not only let in more light but also make the window look bigger and give a bit more sense of height to the room. I'd also see if it is possible to alter the upper cabinetry around the window a bit. Right now the cabinets are noticeably crowding the window, which means light is being blocked on either side from really penetrating into your kitchen. If you are planning to paint your cabinetry anyway, I would suggest taking down the diagonal corner upper (the upper immediately to the right of the sink). Corner cabinets provide fairly inaccessible, bad storage anyway, and this one is blocking your desired light! After taking that cabinet down, you could leave that corner empty. Since the uppers around the range that would remain would be symmetrical, it would look intentional. Somewhat like this: Or you could fill in that corner by installing a normal, straight, non-corner upper cabinet (possible reusing the corner cabinet's door?) on the range wall. Then your uppers on the range wall would die straight into the window wall like this: Or you could fill in that corner with open shelves that die into the window wall. Like this: I think the second two options are nicer-looking than leaving the corner empty, but if budget is an issue, the empty corner looks fine enough and lets in light just as well. In terms of reducing the light-blocking nature of the cabinet to the left of the window, since you are planning on painting the cabinets, you could look into finding an existing cabinet line with the same door shape as your cabinets. Then you could purchase and paint a less-wide upper and swap it in for the existing one to the left of the sink. You could also swap that cabinet for open shelves, which would be especially great for letting the natural light into the room. If you do swap out the cabinet to the left of the sink, perhaps you could move the existing upper to the corner, replacing the existing corner cabinet and the upper to its right. Like this:...See MoreBrighten up kitchen more seating.
Comments (1)Are you talking about painting your cabinetry or just painting the walls? I think you have a lovely kitchen, by the way, but I would definitely understand if you wanted to add some in-kitchen seating. One of the first issues I see with your current layout is a range top without a lot of safety space around it and no ventilation system in place. If you are thinking about adding or rearranging cabinetry, this is something you should at least talk about doing, moving the range top to a safer wall location and adding ducted ventilation if you can. That would be a huge step toward making your kitchen work harder for you. As to the island, It's perfectly possible with the proper bracing to add a full 15" overhang to allow for seating without needing to add cabinetry. In fact, you'll need to be careful to maintain a 42"-wide walkway between any overhang and surrounding cabinetry if you go this direction, possibly more depending on the type of seating you have and where it is located. If you are looking at solid surface, are you talking about quartz, Corian, or something else? If you're looking at quartz, if you have a ProSource in your area, they have good pricing on Cambria which is one of the best qualities available....See MoreKitchen cabinets, island, small office nook colors/combos questions
Comments (1)Wow, lots to do. Very exciting. Suggest you break this post up to get more responses....See MoreBrighten and upgrade dark Baltic granite
Comments (8)Can we get a couple photos during the daytime with those curtains over the sink open or gone please? It would be nice to see what kind of natural light you are getting. And those curtains are not helping your decor situation, you might want to consider changing that out for something lighter/brighter that can allow in natural light as possible. What is going on with your lighting situation? I can tell there is a bright daylight kind of bulb from above, but what is the light fixture? How does the light over the sink light up? You might want to consider changing out your current lighting for something more. Also, consider putting in under cabinet lighting. You could do above lighting too to project light up the walls since you got space above to work with there. The shiny grey paint isn't good- go for something warmer. Creams, yellows, soft greens or mellow browns/rusts could work. Aso, go for something with less gloss. Don't mess with your cabinets yet- make some other changes first and see how that shapes things up....See MoreLynzy
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