Kitchen of the Week: Black and Brass Boost Modern-Day Style
Custom black stained cabinets bring drama to a modern space with a restrained color palette and smart storage options
Tired of their closed-off kitchen and its maple cabinets with rounded ends, granite countertops and slate floor tile, Andy and Janna Gilkison hired designer Julie Smith to create a kitchen that looks and functions better for the modern world.
Smith knocked down walls, unsunk a sunken living room, raised a dropped ceiling and closed off a door for a more open layout. For style, she added sleek black cabinetry with brass hardware, slabs of white marlbe-look quartz for the countertops and backsplash, and fresh white oak floors and shelves.
Note: The “after” photos featured in this article were edited by the photographer to remove overhead lights and outlets.
Smith knocked down walls, unsunk a sunken living room, raised a dropped ceiling and closed off a door for a more open layout. For style, she added sleek black cabinetry with brass hardware, slabs of white marlbe-look quartz for the countertops and backsplash, and fresh white oak floors and shelves.
Note: The “after” photos featured in this article were edited by the photographer to remove overhead lights and outlets.
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After: Smith eliminated the drop ceiling and removed two walls to open the kitchen to the living and dining rooms. Custom cabinets — flat-panel birch with a custom black stain — now steal the show. Local carpenter and original homeowner Dan Dresner built the new cabinets. Andy and Janna repurposed the former cabinets, also built by Dresner, for storage in their garage.
The large expanses of black are broken up by rift-cut oak paneling with a slight whitewash that conceals the range hood, as well as rift-cut oak shelves on the right and white oak flooring. An enlarged window, white walls (Simply White by Benjamin Moore) and white-based marble-look quartz countertops and backsplash also help things feel light. “We didn’t want the space to feel dark, we just wanted a moodier vibe,” Smith says.
The designer also added a larger island with a waterfall countertop on the end that faces the living room. “The larger island is what makes the kitchen feel more pulled out from the corner,” Janna says. “It extends the kitchen basically, and gives us lots of workspace and a place for socializing.”
The couple kept their existing stainless steel refrigerator but ditched the gas cooktop and wall ovens, the latter of which stuck out in a way that bothered Janna. “I thought it really changed the sightlines down the hallway,” she says.
A new stainless steel range with convection oven freed up the former wall oven space, where Smith created a pantry wall that provides most of the kitchen’s storage.
Countertops: Silestone by Cosentino
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The large expanses of black are broken up by rift-cut oak paneling with a slight whitewash that conceals the range hood, as well as rift-cut oak shelves on the right and white oak flooring. An enlarged window, white walls (Simply White by Benjamin Moore) and white-based marble-look quartz countertops and backsplash also help things feel light. “We didn’t want the space to feel dark, we just wanted a moodier vibe,” Smith says.
The designer also added a larger island with a waterfall countertop on the end that faces the living room. “The larger island is what makes the kitchen feel more pulled out from the corner,” Janna says. “It extends the kitchen basically, and gives us lots of workspace and a place for socializing.”
The couple kept their existing stainless steel refrigerator but ditched the gas cooktop and wall ovens, the latter of which stuck out in a way that bothered Janna. “I thought it really changed the sightlines down the hallway,” she says.
A new stainless steel range with convection oven freed up the former wall oven space, where Smith created a pantry wall that provides most of the kitchen’s storage.
Countertops: Silestone by Cosentino
Shop for kitchen island seating
Before: Upper cabinets flanking the window above the sink made this area of the kitchen feel heavy. The glass door on the left led to a courtyard and grill area.
After: Smith covered over the door in order to extend the lower cabinets. A door in the dining room is now used to enter the courtyard.
Extending the lower cabinets allowed Smith to skip the upper cabinets on this wall and almost double the size of the window, to about 8 feet. “We kept a portrait window in the middle and added two single-hung windows on each side so you can pass food through there if need be,” she says.
The slab quartz backsplash is free of seams and grout lines, creating an especially clean look.
A new microwave sits in the island across from the sink. The sliding barn door to the right of the fridge closes off the hallway to the other bedrooms.
Extending the lower cabinets allowed Smith to skip the upper cabinets on this wall and almost double the size of the window, to about 8 feet. “We kept a portrait window in the middle and added two single-hung windows on each side so you can pass food through there if need be,” she says.
The slab quartz backsplash is free of seams and grout lines, creating an especially clean look.
A new microwave sits in the island across from the sink. The sliding barn door to the right of the fridge closes off the hallway to the other bedrooms.
The island drawers sit across from the paneled dishwasher and sink, which makes for easy loading and unloading of dishes. The shallower top drawers hold linens and silverware, while the deeper drawers have pegs that organize dishes and glasses.
The floating shelves provide some visual breathing room between two tall pantry cabinets and allow for an extra countertop, which the family uses as a coffee bar.
Janna says she got the idea for the satin brass cabinet pulls from photos of kitchens she found online, including on Houzz.
This view shows how the kitchen opens to the new dining area, which used to be the location of the sunken living room behind a pony wall. Smith raised the floor so all the spaces now flow smoothly into one another.
The pendant above the sink coordinates with the light above the dining table. Janna had inexpensive wood stools reupholstered in leather.
The pendant above the sink coordinates with the light above the dining table. Janna had inexpensive wood stools reupholstered in leather.
The white undermount single-basin ceramic sink pairs with a two-tone arc spout faucet that includes matte black and knurled brass finishes.
Faucet: Litze, Brizo
Faucet: Litze, Brizo
This view of the kitchen from the living room (formerly the dining room) highlights the easy flow between spaces. Smith removed a wall between the new living room and what’s now the dining room, at left behind the sofa. “When the wall came down, it opened up both the flow and light,” she says. “Instead of using walls to delineate the spaces, we used furniture.”
The existing wood beam between the kitchen and living room was restained to offer a bit of contrast to the other wood elements in the updated kitchen.
The existing wood beam between the kitchen and living room was restained to offer a bit of contrast to the other wood elements in the updated kitchen.
As the floor plan illustrates, the existing layout of the appliances was workable, but removing the upper cabinets on the sink wall and enlarging the window over the sink added lots of natural light. Improving the kitchen’s connection with the dining and living rooms and adding the pantry wall gave the family the more user-friendly and modern space they wanted.
“Our mission with this project was to update a dated home that had so much potential,” Smith says. “The architecture of the home dictated this space.”
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“Our mission with this project was to update a dated home that had so much potential,” Smith says. “The architecture of the home dictated this space.”
More on Houzz
The Most Popular Styles and Cabinet Choices in Kitchen Remodels
Get more kitchen design ideas
Find a kitchen designer and other professionals
Shop for your kitchen
Kitchen at a Glance
Who lives here: Andy and Janna Gilkison; their 10-year-old daughter, Lena; and their Labradoodle
Location: Encinitas, California
Size: 252 square feet (23 square meters)
Designer: Julie Smith of Jula Cole Design
Before: Andy and Janna liked the layout of their existing kitchen, shown here, but they had grown tired of the rounded maple cabinets, granite counters and slate tile floor. A dropped ceiling and walls that separated the kitchen from the dining room and sunken living room made the space feel cramped. “The kitchen felt pushed back into a corner,” Janna says.
The hallway to the right of the fridge leads to the master suite and home office. The opening at its right leads to a hallway and the other bedrooms.