When we built our house, this room was probably the one I was most excited about. I’m Italian … we cook a lot. I’ve been blessed to be around lots of women in my life who enjoy cooking.
I think the older you get, the more you understand what you like/don’t like, so building a house in my late 40’s afforded me many years of experience. Age, for me at least, helps me make decisions quicker because I tend to rule things out rather quickly.
how to begin designing a kitchen
One thing I highly recommend when designing anything is make an Ideabook on Houzz.com. If you haven’t been on that website, it is a treasure trove of other people’s homes that will bring you endless hours of inspiration. Whenever I begin working with a new client, I have them create an Ideabook. Once your Ideabook is created, see if there are pictures that have the same elements that you are continually drawn to – cabinet color/style, countertop material, rustic vs. modern vs. classic vs. traditional.
what to consider when designing a kitchen
There are many things to consider and it can be overwhelming. Here is a list of what I would suggest you pay attention to when making design decisions.
- Function – the most important element. Make sure the layout of your kitchen works. So many mistakes are made in this step. Have you ever been into a kitchen that feels cramped? Or you have to open the oven in order to open a drawer? Or you can’t have someone at the sink and someone at the stove because it’s too tight? Or you need to walk a mile to get to your fridge?
- Appliances – these need to be determined fairly early in the process. Your kitchen designer (the person laying out all of the cabinetry) needs to know what size appliances you will be buying. Are you getting an extra large fridge? Or a drawer microwave? Or a stove/microwave combo? Or a wall oven? Or a large range?
- Cabinetry – the fun part! Layout of cabinetry is vital (this goes back to function). But then you also have cabinetry options – drawers vs. cabinets with doors, pantry cabinets, paneled ends, light molding, an island with legs … the options are endless. Then you need to decide cabinet finish – painted vs. stained wood. Don’t forget cabinet structure – how is it made? Glass vs. solid panel doors?
- Range hoods – these have become popular and a focal point of the space. They range from simple metal designs to elaborate custom hoods and everything in between.
- Backsplash – classic tile, trendy tile, full stone slab … so many options.
- Floating shelves
- Plumbing fixtures including anything extra like a pot filler (a faucet above your range to fill pots)
- Special electrical outlet placement
why i chose the things i did and do i have any regrets
Building our dream home was just that … a dream. We finally have enough money where I can make a lot of choices that I couldn’t make when we built our first house when we were nearly newly married with young kids. That was the super budget house (which was still amazing) and this is the dream house. I still am not the big spender … I have the saving gene forever in my blood.
I knew I wanted a white kitchen. Our last kitchen had stained cabinets and I really liked the idea of something clean and fresh. I also liked the idea of simple cabinet doors – shaker. To me this was a classic design, something that can stand the test of time. I added a couple of glass door fronts because I have some dishes/servers that I really like. And I am a neat cabinet person so I knew that would not be an issue.
One thing my mom talked me into was doing almost all the lowers with drawers. I pushed back on her, but boy am I glad I listened! That was probably one of the best decisions I made. Drawers are so much more practical than cabinets. They stay neater, you can fit more in, and you can see EVERYTHING in a drawer and don’t have to crawl around to see what’s in there. Do as many drawers as you can!
I do not have many special in cabinet/drawer add-ons because, well, they are typically expensive. I can just purchase drawer dividers at HomeGoods. But I did include a built-in trash cabinet which is wonderful. No more ugly trash can sitting out.
My island is quite large – 9′ x 5′. This is the best place to prep, talk to my hubs or guests, pay bills, or do just about anything. It faces the TV so I can be entertained while I’m cooking. I put my sink here because in my opinion, if your sink cannot be under a window, it should be in the open. I do not want to face a wall while washing dishes. So the island houses my dishwasher and super cool drawer microwave by Sharp.
I am so thankful my kitchen was big enough to put a desk area. This is a first for me and I questioned whether or not it would be useful. It is. It tends to be an area that collects papers, but at least the papers have a home and do not sit on the countertop I’m using to cook. It also has tons of storage to house all those things you never know where to put, but you need them.
The drink bar … oh how I love this space. I hemmed and hawed about doing this, wondering if it was going to take up too much room. This was another area my mom said DO IT! I drink a lot of hot tea … a lot. Like some people are coffee people, tea is my drink (wine too). We have a little baby sink in the drink bar so we could have an instant hot water dispenser (no heating water for tea or hot cocoa), and we can rinse out the coffee pot. When we have guests, everything is right there for their use. Did I mention I love tea? This is one of the most used spots in the house. I store the tea and coffee in plain sight in mason jars that are labeled and can be changed out when we fill with something else. You’ll also see I’m a big fan of Barefoot Contessa (simple delicious recipes).
I need to give a shoutout to the amazing potter who made my mugs! She is local to Lynchburg but has an Etsy shop which you can find here. The striped cutting board is also made by a friend who is a craftsman and you can buy his products here.
Our counters are made of quartzite. This is a natural stone that tends to look like marble but acts like granite. I could do a whole blog post on countertop materials (that info will be in my eBook). I LOVE the look of marble … so classic and classy! But marble etches and stains easily and I’m not a careful cook. This gives you the look without the headaches. It’s hard to find though! Mine came from Roanoke Granite, the only place in my area that has several quartzite options. A big ask from our installer was I did not want a seam anywhere. Many times natural stones that have busy patterns do not match up well, and I knew that would be the case here. So I was able to choose slabs big enough to give me full pieces.
My range and hood are from Zline. So much research went into this purchase. I wanted a big range because I can have lots of pots going at once so a 6 burner is a dream. This unit was mid priced so its within our budget. We recently had to change the lower burner component (hubs did that thankfully) which is a drag since it’s only 2 1/2 years old. Other than that it has performed nicely. I would say if I were to do it again, I would pick a beefier hood – something with a little more detail.
Another thing my mom convinced me of – get a pot filler! Her reason was, when I am old and don’t want to carry heavy pots of water from the stove to the sink, I’ll be thankful I have that. I’m not old yet, but I really do enjoy that feature. The faucet is larger than a regular sink faucet so the pot fills up in half the time. It’s a bit of luxury and doesn’t cost much extra when you’re doing a new build.
There are a couple of other things to note. I had the kitchen designer add panels to the ends of all the cabinets. The standard would be to have the side of the cabinet showing, but we have a more detailed paneled look. This makes it look more like furniture. It’s an upgrade that gives you more bang for your buck. I also had her add big chunky legs to the island. We have an extra large overhang for seating (we had the space) so the legs needed to look proportional and not skimpy.
I hope this helps you when you design a kitchen from scratch or you are remodeling.
Too many choices?
I wrote an eBook that gets into much more detail about designing every space for your home. Check it out here.