Building house?? Which do you prefer? Decorator's eye

[Octobermommy]

I am picking out fixtures right now and I am totally overwhelmed. My style is transitional.

My kitchen will have white perimeter cabinets and I am thinking of doing the island in either grey, black or an espresso stain with the vent hood being painted or stained the same as the island. The floors & countertops have not been chosen yet but I am wanting a light granite and a medium colored floor ( I wanted dark but with my kids I need to go medium)

Stainless appliances, moen arbor faucet in either stainless or black wrought iron.

Any thoughts?

[luli13]

I love the soft look of a gray islands over a dark one. I also prefer stainless or nickel fixture finishes. What kind of floor are you doing? I, too, am looking at a medium colored wood floor due to my kids and dog. Just too much dirt and hair would show on dark wood, I'm afraid, though I really love the look of dark hardwood. We are looking at hand scraped hickory floors.

[AnnieW625]

I would not paint your island a separate color.

I have a hard time making a choice for you without photos.

For the faucet I would probably do stainless, but the black might also be nice if the counter tops are lighter.

FWIW I hate hate hate my stainless sink, I find it is a pain to keep looking clean.

[nfowife]

I have black distressed perimeter cabs, med wood stained island and matching hood over cooktop. Light granite and dark concrete stained floors. I love the look and everyone who comes over compliments it!

I'd do a slightly creamy color for your cabinets and not stark white. Otherwise I think it will look great!

[fivi2]

For our upcoming remodel, we are planning to do white perimeter and island, but a different countertop for the island. Just a thought. Of your choices I prefer grey island. Faucet for me depends on too many other variables.

[khalloc]

Given the option, I would NOT put a sink in my island. I just dont think its the best place for a sink.

I love white & expresso together, so I would choose an expresso island. But do try to move the sink elsewhere.

[queenmama]

Given the option, I would NOT put a sink in my island. I just dont think its the best place for a sink.

I love white & expresso together, so I would choose an expresso island. But do try to move the sink elsewhere.

:yeahthat: all of it!

Have you been to the Kitchens forum on Garden Web? The regulars over there (I've been mostly lurking for a decade or so! ha!) are experts and will have valuable advice.

[3isEnough]

:yeahthat: all of it!

Have you been to the Kitchens forum on Garden Web? The regulars over there (I've been mostly lurking for a decade or so! ha!) are experts and will have valuable advice.

:yeahthat: Also, they (gardenweb) have a finished kitchens blog that you can look at for ideas. For the best pictures, go to Houzz and look at their kitchens. I get all of my ideas from there. Review a lot of kitchen pics and see what appeals to you the most again and again.

FWIW, the different color island as you're proposing is very popular right now. Or you can do the same color island with a different color countertop on it.

[khalloc]

I highly recommend Garden Web as well. I wouldnt design a kitchen without their help. Especially one from scratch! You have the opportunity to make your new kitchen very efficient and have the best layout for your space, especially since you are building a house. I've remodelled 1 kitchen and am about to remodel a 2nd kitchen and I spend months on Gardenweb in the kitchen forum to make sure i think of everything before hand.

[marymoo86]

I like the idea of the black island as it can get tricky when pairing different color woods against each other.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bTfnZ2shF9k/Te9mdeGeBCI/AAAAAAAAVdU/hAiPz6zjnJk/s1600/black%2Bisland.jpg

[gatorsmom]

I haven't read the other responses just the op, but your kitchen sounds very similar to the one we are putting in our new house. We are building and I chose our cabinets with the help of our designers in September. They are being installed as I type and they are gorgeous!! We did a separate color island and "hutch" in our kitchen which are a darker color wood to make them appear to be separate pieces of furniture. They are a dark alder wood finish. The rest of the cabinets in our kitchen are a cream color with a coffee colored glaze in them. It is so beautiful. Both the alder hutch and island as well as the cream cabinets are distressed to give them a rustic look which is what the theme of the house is. The trim in our house is a similar color (Sherwin Williams "creamy"). And the walls of our kitchen and great room are Sherwin Williams "latte". All of our appliances are stainless but our plumbing fixtures for the kitchen and nearby powder room are oil-rubbed bronze Kohler fixtures. Even though there were more choices of kitchen fixtures in stainless our designer really pushed the oil-rubbed bronze. Now that I see it going in, I whole-heartedly agree. It is gorgeous. My second choice would be stainless though. I think black wrought iron is starting to look dated. Moreso than the stainless.

I got a lot of my ideas from the gardenweb site and photos from the Houzz website. The folks at the gardenweb site were very, very helpful.

Eta: we are installing a stainless sink. My mom had a ceramic sink that stained horribly so that was OUT. And some neighbors put in a cement sink that needs to be coated regularly since the finish scratches off so easily. So we are going with stainless because it has the least upkeep that I know of.

As for where to put the sink, it should be near the dishwasher of course, but you can also put a small prep sink in another area of the kitchen near where you would be preparing meals. I've decided to put my sink in an area that is easy for the kids to get to when wanting to run in from outside to wash their hands, easy for meal clean up, and easy to grab a glass of water. I have a separate prep sink on the other side of the kitchen.

[Octobermommy]

Thanks for the responses. I should have just hired a designer! Now, it is too late. Sorry for the confusion, the sink is not in the island, those are just the decisions I am trying to make. I like the look of the matte black but I am worried about it holding up well.

It looks like espresso is the winner so far!

[gatorsmom]

Thanks for the responses. I should have just hired a designer! Now, it is too late. !


It is not too late! You can call a design firm and ask if they will spend an hour with your to help designs the layout and look of your kitchen and ask them to choose the colors and hardware. You would be amazed what you can accomplish in an hour or two with a designer who knows her stuff. Now is the time to talk to someone before you've chosen cabinets! Cabinets are an expensive purchase and you want to really plan their layout well. GL! If I were you'd I'd go to the yellow pages and call a couple of builders. Ask them who they recommend for a design firm and specific names.

[smilequeen]

I spent a lot of time looking through magazines about kitchens trying to decide. We have a different color on our island and I love it that way. That's definitely the most current style. I'm not sure what I'd put with pure white, but the picture above looks good :)

But I also really like my sink and dishwasher in my island. It's right across from my cooktop...perfect for cooking and straight into the sink :)

[squimp]

We just redid our kitchen and I spent a lot of time looking on websites and pinning different things onto Pinterest. It really helped me think through and identify what I really wanted.

[Octobermommy]

I decided on the stainless steel faucet. Thanks for the advice. I am still deciding on the island color.

Thanks, Gatorsmom, I need to get a designers help pronto!

[Twoboos]

We are redoing our kitchen and doing light cabs (cream, not straight white) and dark island, and probably dark "hutch" as well. I've seen it IRL in a few houses (and more than a few pics on Houzz, lol) and I LOVE it. Plus this is a good compromise for me & DH since he wants a dark dark dark kitchen and I don't.

We are going to see the plans next week, and I am already freaking out about the whole thing even though it's very exciting!

GL with your reno!

[megs4413]

We're Also building right now. Our cabinets are white with light granite countertops. The island is stained a dark espresso With the same granite counters. The faucet and fixtures are oil rubbed bronze.