If you read my post from a few weeks ago, you know I’m helping my friend Monica with her home reno, as her ceiling turned waterfall wreaked havoc on her house. I’m calling this project the Allandale Project, and my have things started to pick up.
At the time of writing this, the drywallers are at the tail end of the tape and float process, and we are 5 days away from cabinet delivery. The general contractor is moving things along quickly and the spaces are starting to take shape. You can read about the initial cause of this renovation and the floor plan changes here.
As we are getting close to installing all the fun and pretty things, like flooring, cabinetry, backsplash, etc, I wanted to share the mood board for the Allandale kitchen. Large items have already been chosen and we are in the process of finalizing smaller items; but let’s start with a few inspiration photos.
When planning her kitchen renovation, Monica knew two things for sure, she wanted dark hardwood flooring and dark countertops, which the photo above marries beautifully. When designing a new kitchen, I like to start from the ground and work my way up, so, we started with choosing the flooring, then cabinets, then countertops.
The flooring, Westridge Mocha Hickory Hand Scraped Engineered Hardwood, has a beautiful wood grain and is not nearly as red in person as it is depicted online. In person, it appears to have no red undertones at all, which is why we picked it. To balance out the dark flooring and countertops, we chose a basic white shaker-ish style cabinet, Brooklyn Bright White cabinets by KCD. The cabinet doors are very similar to a shaker style, with an extra cove detail around the door panel. And the countertops will be a granite by the name “Steel Gray.”
Monica’s second inspiration photo has dreamy wood tone accents (in the shelving, vent hood cover, and island), along with a white subway tile backsplash, and glass pendant lighting. Because Monica’s new kitchen layout doesn’t allow for a window above the sink, we are utilizing open shelving there. And to draw contrast from the white cabinets, Monica chose oil rubbed bronze cabinet pulls for all of the doors and drawers in her kitchen.
The lighter wood tone white oak shelving will be a nice compliment to the richer wood tone of the floors. Along with mixing wood tones in this room, we are also mixing metal tones. While the appliances, sink, and faucet will be stainless steel, the cabinet hardware and metal accents on the pendant lighting will be of the oil rubbed bronze family.
There are so many pendant lights to choose from and I’ve narrowed it down to a few options.
The Arsos Cylinder Glass Pendant (1) has a sleek, more modern feel to it, while the Kichler Everly Black Pendant Light (2) has a more playful feel. Then, the Prism Drop Pendant (3) has an industrial vibe with the mixed metal and glass. We know we want to stick with a mostly glass pendant to keep the space feeling light and airy.
We are still waiting to hear if Monica’s old faucet can be reused (they bought it less than a year ago) but until then, I have my eye on these two faucets.
The new-ish ShieldSpray technology in the Delta Coranto Kitchen Faucet (1) is a total game changer when it comes to washing dishes, and the touchless motion sense feature of the Moen Arbor kitchen faucet comes in really handy, especially with kids.
Choosing a backsplash has been the hardest decision so far, but we’ve narrowed our focus down to a subway tile in the white family (but could lean a little blueish-green). I’ve pulled a few samples that might just make the cut:
Since the cabinets are a bright white, I want the backsplash to be a warmer compliment, but still stay neutral. You can’t go wrong with the Cloe Tile in White (1) – my friend used this recently in her kitchen remodel and it turned out stunning. The Zenia matte tile in Moon (2) is another great choice because it has color but its very subtle. The Zenia matte tile in Moon (3) also comes in a 2″ x 6″ size that seems to be slightly more muted than its larger counterpart. Then there’s the classic 3″ x 6″ subway tile in a slightly off white, the Traditions matte tile in Tender Gray (4).
We will be choosing our final paint colors after all of the fixtures have been chosen and Sherwin Williams Stardew is catching our eye. Are you dreaming up any kitchen renovations lately? I’d love to hear about them. Comment below or connect with me on instagram @elleandjaydesign. You can hang out with me on Pinterest now too!
