Kelly's Kitchen Savvy: Solutions for Partial Kitchen Remodels by Kelly Morisseau

Author:Kelly Morisseau [Morisseau, Kelly]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Springline Media
Published: 2014-07-01T00:00:00+00:00

Beyond the recognizable luxury

Beyond the aforementioned items, there’s a level of quality that isn’t always apparent unless you know what you’re looking for. Some of the most expensive architectural design looks —deceptively easy to achieve but took an army to achieve.

Other design elements

Here are a few other tricks:

Ever notice the smaller the luxury kitchen, the lighter and brighter it is? The cabinets tend to be quite neutral in style—either flat-paneled or a simple Shaker door style—and are usually done in white or cream. It’s not that you can’t use wood in a small kitchen, but wood absorbs light, while bright, light colors reflect it, resulting in a space that looks and feels bigger.

Luxury kitchens have great hardware. I’m not talking about cabinet pulls and knobs; I’m talking about smooth drawer glides and roll-out shelves. If your cabinets are staying in place, can you retrofit interior goodies, such as roll-outs, tray dividers, and other organizational accessories, to make the kitchen easier to work in?

Wallpaper is coming back. In luxury homes, it never really left, especially in those with traditional decors. What we’re seeing in the new, contemporary wallpaper offerings are light-colored, understated designs featuring soft patterns and geometric motifs. Skip the strong, bright, and/or in-your-face patterns left over from the 1970s and ’80s or anything velvet-flocked.

Interior entry doors can be changed to glass doors. Perhaps you have a door between the kitchen and dining room or the kitchen and hall. Consider adding a French door with etched or textured glass. It will let in more light, makes the room feel bigger, and adds an interesting design element to the room.

Designer handles and knobs. Good-quality cabinet handles are easy to spot. In fact, I can walk into a kitchen and tell immediately whether a high-end kitchen has skimped on quality simply by looking at the cabinet handles.

In North America, we don’t favor the heavy use of gilding or gold in our kitchens, although in some countries, some people do. So unless you live in a reproduction of Versailles, I don’t recommend using strong colors or heavy design elements, such as blood red, lime green, black everywhere or an abundance of mirrors. It’s not that they can’t be done well—and I’ve seen a few floor-to-ceiling black kitchens that are stunning—but they just aren’t features that translate well to the general North American audience.

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