Award-winning kitchen, bath design firm serving the DC Metro area. Complete showroom featuring 4 unique cabinetry lines. This Blog will highlight kitchen trends and keep you up to date on product offerings, kitchen gadgets, and general KDG news and events.
When I help clients in the showroom with their kitchen and bath selections, I find some have some trouble making hard choices. How will this cabinet look with that floor, and which granite looks best if I use Stainless Steel appliances? What if I like green glass tiles? What color grout should I use in my shower?
My training is primarily in space planning, although I have seen plenty of beautiful kitchens, and am happy to share my opinion of a particular combination. I tell folks that it’ s a lot like getting dressed to impress. (The decorative hardware is the earrings.) I also urge them to buy lots of kitchen/bath magazines and put sticky notes on any page that catches their eye. Maybe it’ s a light fixture, or the bar stools they like. Make notes, as later you might not remember why you liked something. Eventually, you will start to see a pattern develop which should help you to know you will love your final choice and not get tired of it.
In over 30 years of working in the building/remodeling industry, I have seen amazing changes in styles of everything from appliances and flooring to decorative hardware and countertop materials. One thing that has blossomed into particular focus is the assortment of moldings offered by manufacturers to “accessorized” your kitchen cabinetry.
20 years ago when I remodeled my own kitchen, 42” high wall cabinets were getting popular. Elimination of the need for the bulky, boxy bulkhead, and gaining another 12” of dish storage was here to stay. Cabinets were set clear up to the ceiling, which was never exactly level, and some type of molding was required. I used a small but decorative cove type molding, and I thought it looked great. Nowadays, we have many more choices of not only moldings, but even combinations of moldings. Why do we have so many choices to make?? Just look at the yogurt section of the dairy case in your grocery store. We demand variety!
Another addition to the arsenal for a designer, is the introduction of an idea which beautifully highlights the shapes of crown moldings. We call this “Staggered” moldings. This technique places several taller, deeper cabinets clear to the ceiling only in strategic locations. Often they are the diagonal corner wall cabinet, the refrigerator cabinet, and perhaps an oven or pantry cabinet. I then use somewhat shorter wall cabinets to fill in. The result is more mitering of the crown molding which truly displays their shapes and beauty much more than just running it across in a straight line of cabinets. This creates visual interest and movement and prevents the doors from becoming a “wall of wood”. It’s tricky though, and does take careful planning.
