Weird Corner for Cabinets (Part Tres)

     Look at me being better about posting *wiggles eyebrows* I know. A day late, but still. I'm new. I'm trying... Anyway, moving on to the fact that with our appliances picked, it was time to finalize our #cabinet layout.

     Like I said in this previous post, the layout of our kitchen was pretty obvious to us, and not much room to speculate other options for our layout, but there were some things we had to think about:

• We were getting rid of our massive pantry, and opting for a floor-to-ceiling pantry;
• We will finally have a refrigerator in our kitchen (yay);
• Do we do roll-out trays for our base cabinets?
• What about drawers instead?

     There were a lot of little options that started to become quite apparent to us when we started looking into our cabinets, which was fine - and exciting - but still, a lot of little things to decide about is harder for me, than one big thing (sometimes).

     We I started doing a lot of research into cabinet companies and seeing what our options were out there: some people we're insistent on using Ikea, some insisted Cabinets-To-Go, others said mom and pop shops... Well, we knew we didn't want to do Ikea cabinets, because while they're beautiful, they're made out of MDF (Medium Density Fiberboard) with a melamine finish, and we didn't want MDF. No knock to those who have redone their kitchens with Ikea. They're gorgeous, and I'm always jelly of the results (because I do love me some Ikea. I do #LadyDates there often with my friends). However, this is my forever home (in my mind, while Nick has a different opinion on that), so I needed something that'll last me. I needed solid wood cabinets.

     Before we started actually going to shops, we looked at the different types of cabinet styles, and I knew instantaneously, I wanted #shaker cabinets. Timeless. Classic... And my friend's in real estate said they have great resale value.

     So that was one thing checked off the list.

     The next stop was to actually go to the stores to look at the cabinets in person, and I'll spare you the details of our day-long adventure of cabinet shopping, by summarizing this:

• All the places we went offered all wood cabinets, so no need to tell you much more about the materials of the cabinets we looked at;
• Some of the mom and pop shops were outrageously priced;
• Cabinets-To-Go had three shaker style cabinets that all looked cheaper than Ikea's cabinets;
• You'll always find a diamond in the rough when you go mom and pop (plus, you're supporting local so that's always a bonus); and
• Be specific on your style and wants, otherwise it's easy to get distracted.

     ... Enter #PremiumCabinets *clouds part and angels sing* Seriously yall, these guys are so professional, so quick to respond, and just a dream to work with (special shoutout to Lane). I cannot thank these men enough, nor can I not hype up their company enough either. They dealt with my constant emailing of questions and crazy ideas, and handled it all with patience. Also another super cool side to them? They were less expensive than everyone else! I love them. Plain and simple. If you're in Houston, don't go anywhere else. I promise.

     And my cabinets? L-O-V-E! However, I don't want to give away the surprise, because that's for the unveiling, but man they're beautiful.

     Anyway, back to Premium Cabinets and what they have to offer:

• One year warranty;
• Everything is made from birch;
• Soft-close all doors and drawers;
• Drawers are full-extension;
• UV finished on the inside of the cabinets;
• Formaldehyde-free;
• Cabinets are full-overlay; and
• No charge for knob and/or pull installation on the cabinets

     They're cabinet selection was amazing:

Photo Source
In the photo to the left, that's our Brooklyn Slate in the top left corner

     We fell in love with their #Brooklyn #Slate shaker cabinets, and while Vinny suggested us doing the Brooklyn Slate as our base cabinets and then white on our wall cabinets, Nick and I both agreed that while we like that two-tone cabinet trend, it wasn't our style for the long run... Then there was the suggestion of just making our island white, and that was a winning idea for both of us, because our island helps connect our kitchen to our dining room, and white does go with everything, soooo...

     We had our cabinet colors picked up, and we were told that our cabinets were about a 4-week assembly time, with a 1-2 day installation time, which gave us plenty of time to demo out all the existing cabinets. A-mazing!

     Next up: figuring out the layout.

     Again, when we started this process we had a really set idea - given our space - of what the layout was going to be for our kitchen:

Open shelving, with a wine fridge and KitchenAid appliance lift, next to a floor-to-ceiling pantry, then the refrigerator, and then regular wall cabinets and base cabinets that both had roll-out trays in them

Corner sink base cabinet, with the panel-ready dishwasher next to it, drawer base cabinet for pots and pans, and the wall cabinets were standard wall cabinets and a corner cabinet with a door

Same corner wall cabinet with a door next to the range, and then the island would have all drawers

     It was pretty obvious from the get-go this was our layout... And it was perfect... Until it wasn't.

     First hiccup was that we didn't account for the size of the range hood (don't ask how we forgot that), so that affected the corner cabinet, because the door wouldn't be able to open. So that idea was gone and quickly replaced with these three options to choose between:

Option #1: Expand the width of the original wall cabinets and then doing a regular, one-door wall cabinet for the corner

Pros: Clean lines with a uniformity for wall cabinets

Cons: Were we really going to be able to reach into our cabinet and use it without hurting ourselves (myself) on the range hood?

Option #2: Keep the original width of the wall cabinets, but instead replace the awkward corner with open-shelving, with the option to go straight to the wall, or curve it around towards the range hood

Pros: The open-shelving mimics the other open shelving on the other side of the kitchen

Cons: Are we really the type of people to keep open-shelving looking nice?

Option #3: Keep the original width of the wall cabinets, but instead replace the awkward corner with a single-door and a blind corner cabinet, which will have the floating shelves coming out from it towards the range hood

Pros: The open-shelving mimics the other open shelving on the other side of the kitchen, without committing a whole corner to open shelving

Cons: There was no way to make the shelving symmetrical on the range hood, so would that look weird?

Option #4: Opt to stay with the original design of a corner cabinet, but just remove the door to the corner cabinet

Pros: It was our original design with a slight change to it

Cons: The inside to all the cabinets is birch, so we would have to paint/stain the inside of the cabinet, and there's no guarantee that it'll look right

     It was a lot to decide and we had to make the decision pretty fast, because we were running out of time to place our order to ensure it all was arrived and installed before our annual New Years Eve party. With our time crunch at hand, I turned to the #DecoratingLove group on Facebook and proposed the dilemma to them to get their opinions, which there was 8 opinions in total given:

• Option #1: 2 votes
• Option #2: 4 votes
• Option #3: 0 votes
• Option #4: 2 votes

     With that information, Nick and I weighed all of our options and how each cabinet layout would affect us:

• Option #1: While the lines were clean, I was scared that I would have to be climbing on the counters every time I wanted to get something out of that back cabinet - Yall, I'm a tall woman (5'8" to be exact), and I have very long arms, but even I was nervous with that back cabinet being able to reach it = Our fear was while it would look beautiful, was it actually functional to use?
• Option #2: The open shelving would mimic our already open shelving, which was great, but do we really have enough stuff to do open shelving without it looking messy - what about cleaning = Again beautiful, but was it functional for our lifestyle?
• Option #3: It gave us the clean lines of Option #1, but the convenience of Option #2, but we worried about cleaning again and whether the lack of symmetry would bother us = It wasn't symmetrical, but offered us a lot of convenience
• Option #4: This was a modified version of what we originally planned to have, but Lane informed us that the inside of all the cabinets are birch, and not painted, and painting the inside of the cabinet cannot be guaranteed to look right = It was our favorite option, but a huge gamble if we couldn't make the inside of the cabinet look right

    Drum roll please... Shockingly, we opted for Option #3.

     Yup, we opted for the non-symmetrical random floating shelves next to our range hood. We just realized that a lot of times when we're cooking (mainly Nick cooking), we want to reach for things, but they're in cabinets, but with this option, we get a chance to have them readily available.

     The truth be told, we would've done Option #4 if we felt like we could've painted it enough to look like the outside of the cabinets, but with no guarantee, it was too big of a gamble to take... And I'm happy we didn't. After the cabinets were installed and looking them over, I don't think they would've looked right with paint - or even stain - on them.

    I'll update later about how the weird corner cabinets are working out for us on a later post, but for now, that's all I got for this week... Next week I'll dive a little more into applying Feng Shui with the use of decorating and color, and then the following up, I'll start to actually reveal the demoing of the kitchen process.

Sarah

#MeAndVinny