Congratulations on your new beach house. How exciting!!!

I think you could use the same color paint in different sheens and that will actually open up the space and look cohesive. Chantilly lace is like Super White it will be very BRIGHT. Which I happen to love but I wonder if it might fight with your countertop. I assume you are keeping the counters you have? They may look a bit dingy with the bright white color you are thinking of. You might want to be sure this will work by painting a sample. And of course check your BS tile goes with the white you choose.

Farmhouse sink? This could be trick if you don't have the space. These sinks need a specific size base that can accommodate the large bowl. Sometimes it needs to be 2 to 3 inches larger.

I love the idea of a black sink and black hardware and even black appliances.

Here is a similar kitchen style to yours.. But this one doesn't have a black sink

Family Home Revitalized · More Info

What color are the shelves going to be?

Industrial Farmhouse · More Info

Oak Street Kitchen Renovation · More Info

Thanks so much for comments!

I completely forgot to mention that we do plan on changing the kitchen countertops all to white quartz! Definitely not keeping the current ones…

Regarding shelves, a warm oak or walnut style? Maybe even black hardware accents rather than wood alone to tie in the black accents all over the kitchen.

And yes we are going for a brighter.

Our main concern is, with this in mind, if we kept the 90s tile floors, would it go well? These floors go underneath the cabinets so to redo would be quite a big job.

Final comment is we would put backsplash on the stove side wall too between top and bottom cabinets.

Thanks again!

I personally don’t recommend open shelving (dust) or black anything. This is a beach house, yes, not a flipped Nashville hipster condo? I suggest you take a softer approach. White farmhouse sink, warm white cabinetry, hardwood flooring; think classic and timeless. Otherwise you have a look that (sorry) already looks 10 years dated. If you want a modern look, this can be achieves through decor and artwork. The architectural and design elements will look best if left more timeless rather than trendy (and again this trend has already passed).

Thanks for your input!

Ok so for the floor, when you say hardwood, how best to match it? What color/width of flooring? This is what has my head scratching.

I cant stand seeing two completely different toned hardwood floors right next to each other…

I would definitely replace flooring. Not that much. New builds don’t put flooring under cabinets. I too know all white kitchens have had their day. Light woods or wood look would be more timeless. I would not do floating shelves. Inconvenient and for second home you don’t want to be cleaning these everytime you go to the beach. Trust me on this. You can get appliances resurfaced to change color. Retro blue might be fun note. Change lighting for best results. Have fun with it. Congratulations!

Here are a couple images to get your creative juices flowing. If you keep cabinets quiet, you could do a more interesting floor tile. Just depends but I would try looking for ideas that aren’t in every kitchen trendy look. It’s a beach house! Let it say “hey, this is our fun place!”

Oops sorry for the duplicate.

Many of these examples show open shelves…..which you said is not a good idea bc of dust……Seems beautiful to see these awe dropping images but when I said this same style except in white, suddenly open shelves are bad and trend is gone? Im confused. What am I missing. Lol. Got all these ideas from similar websites and forums….

Ive seen many of the same images of mixing color schemes with floors/cabinets/tile which are gorgeous, but fear that in 5-10 years all this will go out of style and now we have a tacky kitchen vs going with simple white makes it timeless…..

To the poster before, again not entirely married to black fixtures in kitchen; could consider brass too, but again just dont want things to be a trend.

Also to the prior poster, i submitted the living room photo to show the current wall colors. We are not keeping any of the furniture and will be getting new ones (not our style at all). Yes furniture and art does make a space entirely different

I agree with Flo...

Keep the cabinets if you can. That light tone gives a perfect coastal feel and easier to maintain. Spend the money on lighting fixtures, hardware, wood floors (you can match the lovely white oak that you have in the rest of the space) counters and new backsplash.

As far as shelves... I think if you love it go for it. But do so knowing that it is a HUGE dust collector. One thing you could do is store the items you are putting on the shelves in the cabinets and when you open up the place for a visit pull them out so they are dust free and put them on the shelves. If you have a busy place you will constantly be washing and re-shelving the glassware etc..

If you chose to go without shelves, you could do a cabinet with glass keeping the items clean but still allowing you to peek at something.

The photos below show beautiful floors and light wood cabinets. Timeless.

Eclectic Mid Century Modern · More Info

Oak Hills Mid Century Modern · More Info

Berkeley Craftsman Kitchen Reface · More Info

Silver Vale Residence · More Info

Thanks for the floor idea recs

One thing to note is that this kitchen is super small. I believe like 75 sq ft. The cabinets on top and bottom on BOTH sides feels congested.

I dk understand the concerns of dust collectors and feel that the risk may be worth it….?

Ah the floors. Just so concerned with the two toned hardwood floor look. In such a tiny space juxtaposed to the already existing hardwood floors

Maybe a different patterned tile? If cabinets are neutral….like Flo referred to in her pics

What is your budget? You just bought this house, so perhaps it makes more sense to live with it for a while before you start doing a partial renovation.

If I were in your position, I would wait and see how the kitchen functions first, before spending money on changing the cosmetics. You may find out that the appliances are not working well, the layout is not optimal, the plumbing or electrical needs fixing, etc. You may want to wait until you can do a full renovation, and if so, you've kind of wasted money on, as they say, "putting lipstick on a pig."

Personally I don't feel that black appliances, especially a black refrigerator, work well in a beach house. They are very heavy and gloomy.

Regarding the floor, you have solid hardwood in the rest of the house? It looks like 2-3" strip oak, which you can get in any lumberyard, and would match perfectly fine if you were to run it into the kitchen. It doesn't necessarily have to look "two-toned" if done well by a competent floor installer.

Thanks Diana.

Totally understand your point of view on waiting it out and “living” in it to see/feel it out. Maybe the reason I want to rip it out is bc I hate the current look haha but you make a good point.

To be honest we dont like the black appliances either and are seriously considering changing it out.

Budget wise, we can do a total gut but its more of if we dont have to bc the bones are good with the kitchen ie cabinets, layout, IF we could make current floor work with the future “look”, we would rather not. But if in all honesty it *needs to be done, then we will.

The existing kitchen floors should function well since this is s beach house and folks will be tracking in sand. Same thing for the wood flooring elsewhere. Would advise you to think light, breezy colors throughout the house to maximize the sunlight you will be receiving. As far as backsplash would NOT advise you to take it to the ceiling. That seldom looks good. Would also councel you against a black sink of any kinda. Once again, think light colors even for plumbing fixtures. Good luck!

Thanks everyone for a great discussion and recs.

I think the biggest points I got out of this discussion are:

1. no black sinks - totally fine with that
2. questionable black anything - fixtures, appliances - we too were going back between black and brass look
3. floor is a bit up in the air and we need to know whether floor goes underneath the cabinets or not
4. +/- floating shelves - thing is we have had floating shelves in a prior house which was great and didnt bother us cleaning the dust. Just an FYI if i didnt mention, we would not be putting dishes on those shelves; more for decorative things to warm up the place. There are plenty of cabinet space even if we took out the cabinets adjacent to the window

The inspiration pics i was looking at were these:

If you don't change the tile floor in the kitchen I think Chantilly Lace won't look good with it. I have CL trim in my living room and it is really white. Before you buy cans of it, be sure to sample. There are a lot of different whites and that one just may not be the best one for this house. I have Simply White trim everywhere else in my house. I kind of regret the CL in the living room, but not interested in redoing it. The two colors aren't different enough that anyone is going to notice the difference room to room, but SW is a little softer and warmer, so IMO, better. White Dove is another white to look at. One of my friends has used that throughout her house and it is pretty popular in general.

You said you are have chantilly lace on your trim that looks so white. But whats your wall color against it?

I did look at the other whites and seems like many different undertones. Whereas CL is pretty neutral.

Obviously yes we will be sampling before confirming anything…..

Please don’t pat samples on you wall. This will give you problems when you do paint. BM Chantilly Lace is one of the whitest whites out there. SW Pure White is a tad warmer but still white. SW Alabaster is my fav. Use 3,000 LED bulbs and you will love the look. If you have plenty of storage and floating shelves aren’t a cleaning issue it’s a very nice look in a kitchen. Best of luck in your new place. So exciting!

Auto correct! Don’t put sample paint directly on your wall. Get samples from www.samplize.com (I get no credits from them) because they use actual paint in flat finish. Best of the best. I am a Certified Color Strategist and have studied color in depth for many years. Your lighting is critical in all these decisions so work on that first.

Oh. I also like frosted LED bulbs. Cuts glare down and in general looks better. AND make sure they are “dimmable” type bulbs. Always nice to be able to moderate strength of light depending on conditions outside. 😄

1) would you do backsplash all the way up to ceiling? thinking white subway tile

White subway tile is fine. There can be a risk with white-against-white that one of them will end up looking gray or pink or yellow against the other white. I suggest you also look at 4x4 square tile. It is more interesting now than subway tile, and also fits a beach house vibe. Perhaps a color other than white, like a soft blue. Do not take the tile up to the ceiling - your kitchen's size cannot pull off that look. That look also runs the risk of looking like your high school cafeteria walls.

2) would you do black farmhouse kitchen sink?

Farmhouse, yes. Black sink, NO WAY.

3) black pendant hanging light along window?

No. Why black there? You are at a beach house, with the beachy vibes. Black will be more moody, and from a practical perspective, will show the dust. Maybe a bright metallic, like a polished brass, polished nickel or polished chrome.

Also, do you need a pendant light there at all? The ceiling does not look tall, and you can save the cost of the light and the electrician by skipping it.

4) for budget, we really dont want to redo the kitchen floors. would these floors work with this modern look?...if we kept the 90s tile floors, would it go well?

I don't think the tile floors you show will look good. You will spend all that money to update your kitchen, but those floors will look even older and more tired by contrast. I understand budget constraints. But your kitchen floor does not look that big, and this would be a worthwhile expense.

"add black modern clean hardware"

I actually do not think that black hardware reads "modern". Especially against white cabinets. See Boxerpal's photos above - those are traditional kitchens. Black hardware also pins you to black faucet and lighting trim. You may be thinking too much about the black and not considering anything else. Polished chrome is both modern and timeless (it's been around for a hundred years non-stop), is easy to take care of, adds a nice sparkle, and will withstand the wear of a beach house.

"add warm wood floating shelves - 1 to 2 on each side of window"

While these can be very pretty, they are a maintenance PITA. The things on the shelves need to be arranged perfectly because they veer into clutter in a hot minute. And both the shelves and the items on them can collect dust, especially in a beach house. Are you going to be at the beach house year-round? If not, when you return to it, those shelves will need a lot o' dusting.

"when you say hardwood, how best to match it?"

Match to the wood floor you have in the adjacent room. Any good flooring contractor should be able to do this. This is what they do every day. You just need to find a good flooring contractor.

"These sinks need a specific size base that can accommodate the large bowl."

Actually, both Kohler and Elkay make apron-front sinks that are designed to fit into existing cabinetry, called "self-trimming". The Kohler Whitehaven is one, and I cannot remember the models of the Elkay. I am tagging @Joseph Corlett, LLC who could advise you on that. What width is your existing sink base cabinet?

Everything is “dated” after 5-7 years. New products, new technology and plenty of marketing outdates elements no matter what. Easy to extend wood into kitchen. You could do a herringbone pattern just for fun if you want. Loads of options. Biggest no-no’s. No black in this kitchen. Use color on walls if you go white on cabinets. Pale blues are super friendly and can work with most any “styling” choices.

Thanks all.

Noted about the no black. Scratching that off the list. To be honest our initial thoughts were brass, and we are coming back to that thought again anyways. And yes same with farmhouse sink; was a thought but noted. Plan is for white.

We need to figure out the floors. Good advice about the flooring contractor. Just need to figure out if floor goes under the cabinets or not.

Noted about the subway tile. Initially was thinking half way at first but some pics taking it to ceiling looked intriguing.

And yes ultimately everything is dated after 5-7 years. Just thinking which look would last the longest.

Dn’t know if anyone has asked this question but…will this be a seasonal rental property for income? Or is it for your exclusive use? This can be a driver in making decisions regarding renovations and decor.

Initially using exclusively for us. May dabble down the road with rental...but not for too much. This current house has been rented out for the last 3 years as the pictures show and has done well with it.