The Meeting.

Our clients for the Mid-Century Harvest Blue kitchen came to us back in December asking for a consultation. A little funny, but not funny story about our first meeting. During this time, we had about 4 consultation meetings with different prospective clients. I just started sending out mid-way Google Calendar invites to keep my head straight with all the dates. Half of them were on the calendar. I was really excited about this consultation since it was a kitchen, and I thought for sure it was the following week (you get where I am going with this). I checked my email at 11 pm on that first Monday, and I had a work email that said, “Are you still coming?”. I.about.died. I had confused my weeks and thought they were the following Monday. Anyone that knows me knows I can be a “dweller”. I instantly freaked out and thought, "Oh, no they are going to think we are the stereotypic contractor and just ghosted them". I told David about it right then and instantly wrote them back about how I forgot and we can rearrange our schedule to come the next day. Whew, thank goodness they didn’t judge us and said sure, and no sleep was lost that night.

The next day we walked in, and David joked with them that I was ready to come at 11 pm in my pajamas I was so worried. Thankfully, they laughed and didn’t seem phased. Turned out, they had a couple of bad contractor experiences in the past and didn’t seem too bothered by it.

We sat down and went over what they love, what they hate, and ideas they were thinking of. I shot ideas over to them to see what they would be open to, such as the layout. Our client based her design off her childhood and wanted to resemble the vibe. They were concerned since mid-century modern was trendy right now that it would feel dated soon. I told them as long as they design it because it brings them joy regardless of if it is trendy or not, then they should do it. They agreed that it would. I love a challenge and something different, and I was very excited to start designing this mid-century inspired kitchen.

Believe it or not, their kitchen was only 4 years old, and the cabinets were coming off the walls! They didn’t want TFL or melamine cabinets, and I came up with all plywood cabinets, which is also a sustainable design choice.

The Design.

We had many design meetings showing them three original different layouts; almost always, it is one they suggest during our first consultation meeting. I also showed them a variety of cabinet colors and backsplash options. From all green cabinets and a wood island, to all wood cabinets, to what we settled on, wood cabinets and a blue island. During our many meetings, we narrowed down the stain and paint color for the cabinets, backsplash, layout until we had it just perfect for them. We saw them so much by the time we started the job we were cracking jokes and sharing stories.

All wood cabinets with a gray backsplash option.

This was definitely more of a design challenge for me, since I didn’t have any inspiration photos from online that match exactly what I was envisioning. I would throw in many colors in my computer program until I said "ah, that is it". I would show them different ideas, until they also had an aha moment. To me, if you are going to spend a lot of money on your renovation, it doesn’t take up much time for me to swap out colors and tiles, but it makes a world of a difference for the person who gets, especially since they only get (usually) one remodel to get what they want. I was even able to take the actual stain cabinets (“Harvest” on hard Maple plywood), different tiles that they saw online and upload them to my 3D program so they could see what it looks like in a virtual setting. Our clients were torn between the backsplash too, one wanted white and was afraid of colors being too risky and the other wanted anything but white. I had the challenge of meeting in the middle. We decided on tile from Genrose, the Leighton series, a suggestion from Jenny from Tile and Design. We settled with Light Blue. The island color we changed last minute to a shade called Gale Force by Sherwin Williams. We were originally were going back and forth between Cascades or Dark Night by Sherwin Williams.

The Renderings.

Here are the renderings we created for our client. The lighter stained cabinets are actual pictures of the Harvest stain on maple hardwood, while the darker cabinets are generic plywood generated by the program. All tiles shown are real, either cataloged within the 3D program or uploaded from various tile websites. For instance, the Mercury Mosaics, Medium Diamonds - Eichler Blend (top right) is cataloged, and the Genrose Leighton in multi-color or blue square (bottom right and bottom middle, respectively) are photos from their website.

It's important to note that none of these options are what we ultimately decided on. What's fascinating is that if you present the same options to different people, you'll get a different answer every time. This highlights the diversity of taste, and our designs are tailored specifically to each individual client. The paint colors are a mix between Cascades and Dark Night by SW.

Functionality Before Aesthetics.

To me, the most important thing isn't necessarily the aesthetics but the functionality. If the kitchen isn't functional but is pretty, does it really serve its purpose? We moved the microwave from above the stove to next to the refrigerator. The fridge panels stuck out 24” (6" of the refrigerator is back past the wall), and the microwave cabinet was flush with the microwave, making it 16” deep. I told them it would have a step look since upper cabinets are 12” deep and the entire side was only just shy of 9-FT. We decided to remove the corner cabinet and put in a blind cabinet making it 16” deep, the same as the microwave, giving it an illusion that all the uppers were the same depth, eliminating the awkward step. This is one reason why I absolutely love custom cabinets. The options are endless. We also were putting a hood range above their cooktop stove since they love to cook.

The pendant lights were not centered on the island. They were centered on the stove, which made one side 9 inches from the edge and the other 24 inches from the edge. It took extending the island 15” to the left to make the pendant lights centered. Weird, right? Then we had to shift the sink 4" to be centered on the updated pendant lights. We also added a new 33" pantry at the end with sliding pocket doors for their coffee and tea station. Our clients LOVE tea and hate clutter, so this was a must!

I can’t wait to show you the all plywood, retro-style custom cabinets.