Virtual Kitchen Designing - Frou FruGal

Yesterday was a bear. I won t bore you with the details, mainly because I d have to relive them in order to bore you. Suffice it to say that I was NOT having fun.

Which meant that I didn t get to even think about my blog or home projects or anything of that nature until about 9 p.m. last night.

I thought I would come up with a quick post just so I could keep on my streak. Since I needed to relax, I started thinking about my kitchen and how I want it to look. I have thrown pictures out of what I am trying to accomplish, but no real mock up. Until last night.

In fact, I was having so much fun with my design that I never did finish it enough to write up a post. This morning was more of the same stuff that had me stressed out yesterday, but I finally found some time to share what I did.

Here is what my kitchen looks like now.

I have added a couple of stools since this picture was shot. Sorry for the bad picture. I shot it with my cell and I m not in the mood to shoot a better one right now.

I m playing with the idea of painting these bright yellow. The teal is kind of muddy with all the aging on them and I think the yellow would play nicely off the black and yellow barn wood on the peninsula.

After playing around last night, this is the best representation of where I am heading with my kitchen.

From the beginning I have wanted a blue ceiling in the kitchen. Hubs and the boys think I m insane. They aren t convinced that is a good idea. I kind of shelved the idea for a while and thought I would do the cupboards blue, but after virtually painting my kitchen, I wasn t as convinced that I wanted to go that direction.

It seemed to me like I would get tired of blue cupboards pretty quickly and I still really wanted the blue ceiling.

I knew my basic color pallet would have an aqua blue, yellow, grey and white, but how to use those colors was throwing me for a loop. After much mental debate and back and forth on varying ideas, such as pale grey cupboards and yellow walls.

I also tried  mustard yellow cupboards with navy walls.

Then I tried the same navy walls with the aqua blue cupboards.

None of them ever felt right. After trying all sort of color variables, I realized something. I really didn t like how my cupboards were showing in these pictures. My kitchen has some real dark zones, like that area above the corner cupboard and the area above the fridge. No matter what color I paint those places, it will never look that color because those spaces are constantly dark.

This led me to a couple of decisions. The first decision was something I think I shared a while back. That was to fill in the space above the cabinets. It was a pain in the butt to do, but it s something I m very glad I did.

Imagine this pantry/bookshelf area all white. I think blocking off the top of the cabinets was the right decision. Our less than 8 ceilings are too close to the tops of the cupboards for any kind of decoration above them so it is simply wasted space.

I have to finish planking the ceiling before I can do the crown molding on this section. Even still, I love having that dead space covered up. Weirdly enough, it makes me kitchen feel larger than it did before. It feels much more finished and custom and I m really happy with the decision to fill in the space.

The second decision I made about the space was that I wanted to mix it up. With dark countertops and light floors, I felt like the bottom cupboards need more visual weight.

Naturally, I will try to find a color that more closely matches my counter, but I really love the dark lower cabinets. I have the dark stove top in the peninsula and the black fridge and dishwasher. The stove from the other angle will stand out because it is buff color, but you rarely notice the stove because of the angle. I like how the darker base cabinets will work with the barn wood behind the stove. When I finally figured out that this is what I wanted, everything just kind of clicked for me.

I also love a white kitchen and I think white board and batten area and white cupboards is going to make for a very bright kitchen. It was one of the reasons I thought colored cabinets were the way to go. I didn t want to have to wear sunglasses in my kitchen. Once I decided on the dark gray for the base cabinets, I was completely on board to do white on the uppers. I m thinking that the cupboards will have more of a gloss sheen but the board and batten will be more of a satin finish just to break things up a bit.

I had thought about putting a rich, saturated color on the small sections of wall that will be left without cupboards or board and batten. However, my thought is that I don t want those colors to bounce onto the ceiling and change the blue. I will probably have a light grey for the walls, but I won t make that decision until I get all the cupboards and the ceiling painted.

Okay, so back to my plan for the kitchen and the blue ceilings. Once I started installing the planks on my ceiling, I knew that if I painted them anything other than blue I would be disappointed. Even though my guys can t see it, the blue on the ceiling, with the blue Mason Jar lights above the sink and then, picture this, blue glass knobs for the cupboards awesome, right?

That said, last night I tried to Photoshop all my ideas together and then I got stuck. I m still a little stuck. Maybe you can help me figure this out.

See the light above the sink? That s my Mason Jar Light that I made for my last house. My plan is to hang it in the kitchen above the sink. I will also make the open shelves the second my budget loosens back up. #NoShelvesEqualsNoBueno

We currently have a ceiling fan that is off center in the kitchen. See the rounded open shelf under the counter at the end of the peninsula? The ceiling fan is centered over that. I want to remove the fan, but I don t want to redo all the electrical and I don t want something so huge and commanding (like a ceiling fan) that it takes away from the sink wall.

A couple of lights that I m considering are:

I love the bare Edison bulbs and I love how this light will be similar to the one over the sink, but different enough to not be too matchy matchy. I d have to figure out a way to make this same look, but in a ceiling mount because we just don t have the height for a hanging light.

Another light fixture I like is this one:

I love the different bulbs and the ceiling tin, but I think I would want something with fewer bulbs, maybe barn wood instead of the tin and with not as much length in the bulbs. As a reminder, my menfolk range in height from 6 1 to 6 7 . I don t want them knocking their heads on low-hanging bulbs.

I wonder if I could make something similar to this, but again, mounted to the ceiling and not hanging?

Source

I love how you can turn several of the bulbs on and off right at the fixture. Again, I couldn t have the bulbs as long as this one, but I love the look of the vintage cloth wire and the variety of bulbs.

What do you think? Am I headed in the wrong direction? What would you do with the lights? What do you think of the blue ceiling idea? Do you think it s the right way to go? (spoiler alert. I m gonna do it regardless but I am curious to know what you think). What do you think of the tuxedo (dark base cabinets with white uppers) cabinet design?