TRADITIONAL KITCHEN DESIGN

I thought it would be fitting to have my first post of 2020 be about our future kitchen since it is the room I am most looking forward to in our new home. The kitchen has always been our gathering place – we spend a lot of time in there! I can’t wait to bake cookies with my boys and cook many meals for my family in our new kitchen. I have been working with Erica Bryant Design on every aspect of our home build. I love her work and I am so thrilled she helped design ours!
This post discusses our traditional kitchen design and layout, our cabinets, design selections, and the appliances we selected.

Traditional Kitchen Design Layout

The most important thing for us when we were designing the layout of our kitchen was to make sure it had a good flow. We wanted our refrigerator to be close to the range top and sink for prepping. Our trash pull out is to the right of our sink, and the dishwasher to the left to load dishes. The microwave was intentionally put in the island next to the trash pull out – hidden but still easy access. We also put a beverage fridge on the end so it is convenient for our kids and guests.

You will notice in our kitchen there are two islands: a main island and a serving island. Our serving island will be where we serve food during family dinners and when we have guests over. My in-laws have a similar layout with a serving island and it works really well when we go over there for dinner! We also had a serving island in our old home and loved it. I will show you the design details for the serving island further down in this post.

Kitchen Cabinetry Renderings

Our kitchen cabinets will be inset and have a shaker style door front. We are working with CE Smith Custom Cabinetry and are so excited with how the renderings turned out! I can’t wait to see them once they are built.

Kitchen Design Selections

When we first started to design the kitchen, I had a few items on my wish list: white cabinets, a slab backsplash, an apron sink, and a range or range top with brass accents. Here is the vision for our kitchen and some of our design selections so far.

A couple things to note…

Country Industrial pendant lights: I am so excited about these lights! They are substantial and beautiful in person. There will be two of these hanging over the main island. I was debating between the Darlana brass lanterns and a light blue pendant light for awhile. I realized the blue finish on the light was more of a robin egg’s blue and it limited our paint choices for cabinetry colors. I wanted to bring some color in on our serving island so we decided to go with a brass light. I love the Darlana pendants but will incorporate them into our main hallway.

Apron Sink + Drip Ledge: I have always wanted a white apron front sink and I love the practical purpose of a drip ledge as well as the aesthetic of it. A drip ledge helps to stop water from leaking down the fronts of your cabinets under the sink, which over time can damage them.

Waterstone faucet: The kitchen faucet of my dreams! We selected an oversized version in polished nickel.

Bluestar Range Top: I discuss this appliance more at the end of this blog post.

Items we haven’t finalized:
– Cabinet paint colors
– Hardware: We haven’t selected hardware yet but I imagine it will be an antique or unlacquered brass. I just love the warmth brass has and wanted to bring that into our kitchen.
– Countertop slabs

Serving Island Design

Our serving island will look like its own piece of furniture. We wanted it to stand out from the other kitchen cabinetry and add some color to the kitchen. Our selections below aren’t finalized yet, but give you an idea of the look we are going for.

Kitchen Appliance Selections

I thought it would be helpful to list out what appliances we ended up selecting since we did a ton of research. The next time you need a new appliance, just remember this blog post! 🙂

Bluestar range top: This was the hardest decision for us. Everyone has a preference about ranges vs. range tops, and for me it came down to the functionality of how I like to cook. I really like the efficiency of being able to cook a few dishes at different temperatures. However, I also really like the beautiful ranges that they make now. You can customize them with basically any finish you want. Most of them are 48″ which comes with one larger oven and one smaller oven. They also make a 60″ range with two larger ovens but I think that would have taken up almost the entire wall our hood is located on, and I don’t need that many burners. I originally wanted to go with a range, but I kept coming back to the functionality part of having two large ovens to work with. I think our selection of a 36″ Bluestar Range Top was a good compromise and I love the finishes we selected! We went with stainless steel and a brass trim kit.

Wolf Double Wall Ovens: I love to cook and when I do there are usually a couple dishes that need to cook at different temperatures. I also have a very tall husband who appreciates the ovens being off of the floor!

Two Subzero 36″ Refrigerators: This was the most important appliance for us. Our fridge is always bursting at the seams and there never seems to be enough room for produce. We needed more fridge space with our 3 growing boys.

Zephyr beverage fridge: This one has a glass front which we liked for our kids and guests to see what beverages we have. It also has a row for wine bottles, too, which will come in handy.

Wolf warming drawer: I cannot wait to use the warming drawer. Keeping food warm until it is ready to be served will come in handy everyday but also for the holidays too!

KitchenAid Dishwasher: We had a KitchenAid dishwasher in our old home and liked it so we thought we would go with the same brand again.

Whirlpool Microwave: Ben and I are both in agreement that a microwave is a microwave. There is nothing special about ours – just a simple stainless steel microwave 🙂 It will sit in a trim kit in the kitchen island.

Appliances we considered but ultimately did not add:

• Subzero refrigerator drawers: I have heard great things about these and how well they keep your produce fresher for longer! We chose not to get these since we will have more refrigerator space now.
• Ice maker: We chose not to get an ice maker due to the maintenance of them and we didn’t really think it was necessary.

I hope you guys like our vision for the kitchen! If you have any questions let me know in the comments!
xo, Kate