Young House Love

DIY Home Decorating Projects, Tutorials, & Shenanigans

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Reader Redesign: Bring Your Tuxedo

As much as we love a white kitchen, there are so many other fun options out there, like my sister’s wood cabinets + white appliances combo and “tuxedo” kitchens (a combo of dark and light cabinets). So when Rita’s makeover landed in our inbox, we couldn’t believe how much she changed her space for the better, and especially liked her two-tone cabinets. Here’s her letter:

Hi Sherry and John, We recently finished renovating our kitchen. The challenge was creating a kosher kitchen (two sinks and separate spaces for meat and dairy) while keeping it looking clean and uncluttered and keeping the cost down. The original kitchen was beige-on-beige laminate with very little counter space.

The only thing that wasn’t torn out was the window above the sink! The wall between the dining room and kitchen was removed, the dinette area was deleted, and that’s where the breakfast bar now sits. The large picture window was made shorter to accommodate the long counter with a second sink.

This kitchen is all about contrasts… white upper cabinets and dark gray bottom cabinets, a rough reclaimed wood dining table and shimmery capiz lighting fixture, sleek white counter tops and a dark limestone tile backsplash.

The cabinets are shaker style Diamond cabinets from Lowe’s (I’m thrilled with the quality). The brass pulls are Martha Stewart for Home Depot and the counters are quartz. Light fixtures over the breakfast bar and sink are from Schoolhouse Electric. The natural light that pours into the kitchen most of the day is awesome although I still need window treatments–I’m thinking of roman shades.

The new pantry sits where the original refrigerator used to be.

There are also two “sides” flanking the stove–one for meat the other side for dairy.

Here’s one of my favorite things–I found the idea on Pinterest.

It was totally worth the months of plaster dust and living with no sink or stove for a while.  Our new kitchen is not only beautiful but a pleasure to cook in and I feel blessed to be able to work in it everyday. Thank you, Rita

No, thank YOU Rita! Because in addition to that awesome cabinet color combo, you have actually made me – a dude who likes power washing – appreciate gold hardware. And Sherry’s pretty much in love with everything, but the gold fixture over the sink (speaking of which, you can read all of the full sources on her blog) did her in. Thanks again for sharing your kitchen! What do you guys think? Got a favorite part? Who’s digging the secret TV?

Stuff We Love

Comments

  1. I LOVE the kitchen.

    It is peaceful, sleek and full of surprises – like the mystery TV and the “Luxo” Pixar lamp over the sink. I also love the corner cabinets on a diagonal instead of sharp corners. This is a kitchen done right, not just the surfaces but the practicality of the layout.

    This is way up on the top of the list of great kitchens. Well done, Rita. You know your stuff!

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  4. I love love LOVE the light over the sink! It’s so perfectly unique and artistic while still being super functional as task lighting. Love! My husband has been campaigning for a TV in our kitchen, and this is the first set-up I’ve seen that could possibly convince me to cave and get one.

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  5. Woo! Loving the brass hardware- words that I have NEVER spoken… Errr, typed, before. And the lighting! And the cabinets/countertops! I’m in full swoon.

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  7. Thank you so much for featuring a kosher kitchen – it’s a certain kind of consideration in a design, and one doesn’t run into it very often in the Blogosphere!! It’s so lovely – kudos to the family.

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  8. Oh my heck. WHERE IS THAT FRUIT HOLDER BASKET FROM?

    I’ve been searching high and low for the perfect one, and it is in this kitchen!

    Rita, can you please share?

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  10. Intrigued that Rita loves the quality of her Diamond cabinets … when I visited Lowe’s a few years ago for a reno plan, the kitchen designer firmly guided me away from Diamond, saying her installers hated their shoddy quality.

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  13. This is one of my favourite ever Reader Redesigns! They did an amazing job – that’s an incredible kitchen. You’re right Sherry, that light fixture over the sink is pretty much to die for!
    x

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  14. LOVE the “jewelry” found in all that brass hardware and the sink light. Even those bubble pendants look like earrings. Very tasteful and beautiful all around!

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  15. Um….kosher or not, you can never go wrong with two sinks. Especially when you have kids or more than one person cooking in the kitchen (<<especially the latter). It just makes life easier. They did a beautiful job!

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  17. Very beautiful combo, someone should try it in their new home? :) Can’t wait to see!!

    Btw, I miss a pint it button in the images. It’s a new blog fashion out there that I find very useful(I did it myself on my blog too…)

    I can’t get bored of your sister’s home,it’s so beautiful!

    xx

    Reply

    • Thanks so much! We tried putting a pin it button on every image (that pops up when you scroll) and within a few hours we got complaints that it was annoying, so we got ’em down asap. Maybe if we can find a way to make them less assuming we can bring them back? Hope it helps!

      xo,
      s

    • You may already know this, but you can add a Pin-It button to your browser. Visit pinterest for instructions on how to set it up. With the Pin-It button no matter what website you visit it’s just two clicks to pin an image! Hope this is helpful for someone :)

    • Thanks Jannel and Sherry! I find it very useful specially when there are a lot of images to pin… I have read about a feature you can add to firefox and chrome to pin with the right clic of the mouse, may try…

      I should have thought that there was another reason for note having it… silly me… it might be a matter of tastes :)

      xx

  19. Fantastic kitchen, the contrasting colours are amazing. And the gold details pretty spectacular. It’s a fab space that works for the owners and that’s the most important thing; authenticity. For me, the most beautiful spaces are the honest ones. And that hidden TV is an awesome idea.

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  20. Rita has made the kitchen look so fresh and modern – it can be difficult to make a kitchen look stylish, homely yet functional all in one, but she has really nailed it!

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  23. Wow! Beautiful transformation. Love it.

    That tv above the fridge is enough to make a grown man shed a tear of joy. I hope it plays some sort of angelic hymn when those doors open and the tv slides out. It’s only appropriate.

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  24. Love how they shortened the window to extend the countertops. I smell insipration for the kitchen in your new hosue!

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  25. Love how they shortened the window to extend the countertops. I smell inspiration for your new house!

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  27. Love it all, it’s beautiful.

    I’m a sucker for hidden, smart solutions. I had a verbal reaction to the tv cabinet – very clever and while I have no need to a tv in my kitchen I want to emulate this just because!

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  28. AWESOME job Rita! I love this look and this is very much what I’m wanting to do to our too dark kitchy! I’m going to share your kitchen with my husband in hopes of inspiring some droooooool!

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  30. The kitchen looks great! Love the cabinets. Where did they relocate the hot water baseboard heat to though?

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  31. oooh, I’m in love with the gold hardware on the cabinets! So simple and classic. I’m adding those to my list!

    I really love simple kitchens with toned down colors (but extra detail). This one hit the spot! :)

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  33. A really beautiful kitchen! I had fun checking out her blog also- she is from CT also- just like me! :-)

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  34. Hey, are you guys going to update today? No big deal if you are or aren’t, I just don’t want to keep checking :0)

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    • We did! Here’s the link for you. Maybe it’s a computer cache issue on your end if it hasn’t shown up yet? We have 103 comments so it seems to be visible to most people. One way to fix that is to empty the data/cache/cookies on your browser and it should pop up :)

      xo
      s

    • That was totally it, thanks!!! You guys are always so prompt that I was totally confused, then concerned! Lol!

  35. OMG this kitchen is gorgeous! I haven’t always been a fan of the dark/light kitchens, but they are definitely growing on me. I just about died and went to heaven when I saw this one recently: http://pinterest.com/pin/194288171397169422/ These kitchens have brass hardware in common too, I guess brass is finally making a comeback after all these years! Also, I am DEFINITELY pinning that TV over the fridge idea for my dream kitchen down the road…

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  36. Love this! I recently took the plunge and painted my cabinets like this and I’m in love. And I’m getting my new quartz counters installed next week (!). This post gave me some great inspiration for those final touches. Thanks!!

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  37. So pretty! I love all of the natural greenery and artwork. I think, though, what I like best about it is just the layout. Everything is in just the right place, there’s plenty of space to move around, and I honestly prefer peninsulas over islands – so much more counter space! Great job!

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  38. capturing this in my memory when we re-do our kitchen. I love it! And the secret TV is awesome: I can’t reach that area anyway, and what an awesome use for it!

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  39. Yay brushed/antiqued brass pulls!! I’m so excited that this look is becoming popular again because that means more selection and easier to find products.

    The whole kitchen is lovely, going into my inspiration folder :)

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  40. YES! This is perfect! I’ve been looking for inspiration on my kitchen reno for almost a year. It’s been about that long since we moved in and tore out the wall between the kitchen and formal dining room. I’ve already got some beautiful white cabinets that I’m using for storage as we live in the house and cannot go without a kitchen. Your before picture is almost exactly my before also, and I LOVE how your kitchen turned out! Thanks!

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  41. I’m almost gasped when I saw the first photo! I thought the cabinets on the stove side of the room were mint green! How awesome would that be? Even though they are white I still love this renovation :)

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  43. So pretty, and functional! THis is really inspiring me to take the plunge and update our oaky 80s kitchen.
    QUESTION FOR RITA – How did you deal with the baseboard heat? I have it, too. And, it is really limited my ideas for improved layout.

    Reply

    • Hi Joanne,
      Because we removed the wall between the dining room and kitchen we lost the baseboard heat that was on that wall. My plumber installed a new baseboard heater under the dining room window which gives off double the amount of heat to make up for the loss. So far it seems to work well.

  45. I am totally late to the party of loving this kitchen, but I do. I love everything, especially those handles (will have to go to my local HD to take a looksie), and that dark gray color – are those a stock cabinet color, or were they painted? If painted, I would love the know the color, thanks!

    Reply

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