Kitchen Remodel

Black Accents Kitchen

Despite the current trend of using white painted cabinets many people still love the warmth of natural wood and this project is a great example of how to balance a stained finish and dark granite but still keep bright in a small area. The original kitchen had inadequate lighting, builder grade oak cabinets, white appliances, dated green wallpaper and mossy green granite. There was also an open space aka dust collection area above the wall cabinets instead of taking cabinets to ceiling. The layers of flooring created a transition height change from the wood flooring in adjacent rooms by about 1 1/2″. The original footprint for cabinets wasted what could have been a lot of storage area and counter space. The owners had fit a hutch in for storage since the cabinets were lacking.

Seville Lucerne cabinets in Alpine door style Carmel finish on maple

Porcelain flooring in Marfil

Absolute black granite counter Ivory travertine backsplash

Bosch appliance

Black Accents Kitchen

Seville Lucerne cabinets in Alpine door style Carmel finish on maple

Porcelain flooring in Marfil

Absolute black granite counter Ivory travertine backsplash

Bosch appliance

What Makes This Project Unique:

The new design idea maximized storage by putting cabinets on all available walls and as high as possible while leaving some room for trim. The original deep refrigerator was swapped out for a counter depth model and the new Bosch dishwasher was paneled to blend in. Two L shape sections of cabinets and counter across from each other really expanded the counter area. The new decorative wood hood becomes a functional but lovely traditional focal point. A transition in depth of cabinets accommodates the doorway to foyer location and that gracefully provides a built in hutch look cabinet with glass doors. New LED lights in the ceiling and under wall cabinets really keep it bright to work but dimmers were also provided so the ambiance can be changed. The travertine backsplash and floor tile contrast in lighter cream tones striking a nice balance against the dark granite and warm stain.

Design Challenges:

Some challenges we encountered were that we had hoped that hood duct work could be run to exterior through a closet in bedroom behind it than turn right through bricks to outside but during construction we found too many structural and mechanical obstacles in all possible routes. The sunroom on the other side of the original brick exterior wall had a much higher ceiling and the room was offset to the range wall so that wouldn’t work. The sink needed to stay so the owner could continue to look through the window opening that was left in the brick wall into her sunroom. In this case we had to install the recirculating kit that came as an option with the blower. Fortunately we were able to provide a beautiful solution that went through crown and used a decorative black grille that matched the hardware and other black accents. Like many of the projects we work on the home had been previously renovated with a large addition and other projects by people who provide inferior workmanship so we had lots of sorting out of the mess they had left in the electric, plumbing and all the layers of thick flooring on top of each other. These customers couldn’t be more happy with the end result. This is exactly the look they wanted and they love the quality of the products used and were thrilled with the quick and excellent installation.