While our style is certainly modern, we’re not crazy about uber minimalistic kitchens that look like they’ve never been used. To us, there is a balance between simplicity and the use of light, color, texture and layers to make a space feel comfortable and inviting. For the kitchen, I have always been drawn to the idea of selective open shelving. But I’m also hesitant. How will it stay looking nice? Will those pretty exposed dishes become a victim of dust, food splatter, or worse…dog hair? (You’d be surprised where it drifts to.) Swayed by caution and the ease of adding a couple extra IKEA units to our list, our previous kitchen iteration showed a bank of mostly white-doored upper cabinets. But then, a few weeks ago on our lighting furniture shopping adventure, we stopped in the Henrybuilt showroom. Just to look. Just to drool. Just to change my mind that indeed open shelving is worth the risk.
What do you think? We actually have a solid collection of white dishes and simple glasses that I wouldn’t mind showing off…and a colored back panel would really give a nice punch. Of course, this adds two more pieces to the “to build” list but we think it will be worth it. We also nixed the mustard yellow [for now] and changed the countertop color to something more neutral to represent the fact that we haven’t really decided on anything yet. We’re also still debating whether or not to extend the backsplash up the wall on the range side. [This is when the push/pull command in sketchup comes in handy. Up? Down? Up? Down.]
In other news, we decided that our big-bowl-little-bowl sink that we bought on clearance a few years ago will be going the way of Craigslist. We just don’t see a use for the small sink part (since we won’t have a garbage disposal) and would prefer one single basin. We’ve also had a few discussions about faucets, but have yet to do any real shopping.
And it’s already February! One more month of planning and prepping and then it’s d-day!