For those of you who read my blog regularly, you know that we are planning to move at the end of April. While we are thrilled for the actual move, we were both a little blue when we made the decision to postpone a kitchen renovation for the (more practical but admittedly less sexy) central air installation. As is the case for many buyers, for us, a limited renovation budget meant making a sacrifice to avoid breaking the bank.
That`s not to say that we won`t renovate our kitchen soon - Our plan is not to wait more than a year or so. Still, I thought that in the meantime, we could paint cabinets, perhaps invest in the odd new appliance and change the light fixtures. I already have a list of ideas...
This brings me to the topic of this blog post: Do you prefer a dramatic, dark kitchen or a bright, white kitchen? Home design magazines and websites are filled with inspiring photographs of both. We selected dark cabinets in our current condo (with butcher block counters to maintain some warmth) to provide a contrast against the light floors and walls throughout the rest of the unit. You can see pictures of our current kitchen here. While I like our current kitchen, I have wanted white cabinets for ages. Our new kitchen will be roughly the same size (perhaps slightly larger) than our current kitchen and it is visible from the living room and dining room. Eventually, I would like some open shelving since the space feels a little closed off.
I`ve been using the following two pictures to gauge my reaction to light vs. dark kitchens. While neither kitchen is exactly my taste, (I like a little more colour and fun) they are both lovely. I have some copper cookware from my father, which I would like to display and I`d like to add some warmth with wood shelving and a faucet in a brass tone. Apartment Therapy also has several articles on kitchen trends which serve as inspiration.
I`m leaning quite heavily towards white. I may paint the existing cabinets white and live with it for a while to see. Feel free to let me know which you would choose.
