Our Cellar Kitchen Remodel :: The Three Biggest Decisions When Selecting Cabinetry – And How We Made Ours

Needless to say, cabinets are the foundation of any kitchen renovation. They are the one thing you don't really want to mess up, the projects you are most likely to spend your time on and die for, and they are definitely where you dive into the details. It's really important. Also measure, measure measure. All of this may be a little overwhelming, but when will you get together and start acting? The reality of your new kitchen has taken shape and is the best feeling. Yesterday, it was announced on Emily Henderson's blog that the basement kitchen renovation was completed (!!!), I think it will be fun and useful! Deep understanding of the thought and design process behind our kitchen cabinets, because this is the source of most comments and questions! For me, designing a cabinet can be divided into three main decisions: 1) design 2) color and style 3) function. So I'll use these top three decision drivers to complete our process. A few years ago when we remodeled the entire main floor kitchen with your Omega collection, I worked with Masterbrand cabinets. We had a wonderful experience so I knew I wanted to work with them again. However, this time, we chose their diamond cabinet series, which is less custom, but the price is more affordable. Although our cabinets are sponsored, as far as the types of cabinets we might choose for the second kitchen renovation, I want to make things more realistic. The lead time for these cabinets is also shorter, which is really great. When we had a preliminary understanding of what the renovation looks like, my husband and I analyzed the way we use this space to see if there are any major reasons for changing the current room layout. I believe many of you already know that one of the most important ways to save money on retrofits is to keep your design up to date so that you don’t have to move pipelines, power lines, or gas too much. But the fact is that we will have to dismantle the cabinets (they are in bad shape) and replace all the plumbing and electrical equipment, which provides us with the perfect excuse to turn things around. But we didn't. The reason is as follows: This is one of the first round renderings we obtained from the designer who worked with MasterBrand according to our preliminary measurement and design requirements. From here you can better understand the space. The door on the right leads to the backyard. If you rent an apartment, you will come and go. Now, this is the door we use to enter and exit the garden. To the left is the open entrance to the living room. There are two doors on the wall we see: one on the far right is the entrance to the laundry room and stairs, and the other on the left is the closet. As you can see... it is a small space and many doors can be used, which makes the design options very limited. I played in the refrigerator for a while, but in the end this was the best place to go. The only major change we initially thought of was adding more cabinets to the left. We repeatedly discuss whether it is an open shelf (as shown in the picture), floor cabinets, etc., and ultimately do not make them at all (I will return to why later!). Here are more perspectives, also from our initial rough representation, with some minor tweaks. Most of the choices we make here are very basic. Replacing old cabinets with new ones always brings more functional storage options, and we make the most of it. Corner unit has removable tiered storage. We added a combined trash / recycle removable device on the right side of the sink (you must like hidden trash instead of leaving it outside!), The cabinet under the floating shelf pulls out the drawers for storing pots and pans, of course. we already have a good option of open shelves! It seems that every time I choose to use the floating shelves in the kitchen and kitchen There are some people in the cupboard who are very dissatisfied with this.

When choosing a cabinet style, the bead board has always been my first inclination. My inspiration came from furniture cabinet pieces that I initially considered for space (was unsuccessful) and had beaded board accents, so this idea has always worried me. But before making that call, I decided to focus on completing. After getting a lot of inspiration, I knew I wanted to make light wood, cream, or sage green for the cabinet color. Once we knew we were going to keep the terra cotta floors, I quickly discarded the wood. Even if the cream is good, it will be exactly the same color as our main kitchen, which feels a bit boring. A quick look at the options provided by the Diamond cabinet reveals three green tones: one is a gray tone with green tones (limestone), one is a mid-green tone with a rather blue tone (seaside), and the other is Classic dark green (Fox Hall). Unfortunately, the two true greens are not the correct colors, and both feel too dark for the space. Although the basement looks beautiful and bright in these photos, I can assure you that it only gets that kind of light for about four hours a day...when it is actually sunny. At any other time of the day or year, the colors will darken quickly, and I want to make things clear. So with the last call, we chose Limestone. The color itself varies greatly in space throughout the day, but I would say that this image more accurately captures the tones of putty and how they change with different light! Some people (not wrongly) think that bead plates and tiles are meaningless. Um. This mosaic doesn't make much sense. I felt that I had to make a complete black walnut or hand-made plaster cabinet to understand this tile, but neither happened. So I did what I wanted to do. I chose the bead board because I like it. This also makes sense for the artisan farmhouse style of the 1920s. So if someone comes over and wants to tear off those tiles (God bless them), the rest of the kitchen still makes sense. Plus, this is also where I started to imagine putting in items that I wouldn't take out of the closet in other ways. The green color comes through the backsplash and other style decorations. Natural wood comes in through the floating shelves and cabinets we brought downstairs. Choosing the cabinets we made gave me the opportunity to use these items elsewhere! I told you at the beginning of the post that we will return to the reason why we ended up not adding another cabinet here. Yes, it is about the function of the room. Yes, we will also discuss some other functional parts, but this is a great part because it teaches us an important lesson. So I initially thought it would be nice to have a cabinet moment here that can also be used as an entrance moment. Part of the challenge of this kitchen is to consider all the ways it can be used. Not only now, as a secondary cellar kitchen. But after a few years (or more), we want to use it as an apartment. Or the moment you serve guests. I realized: If this is my full-time kitchen, I would like to be able to use this wall flexibly to achieve multiple choices. It can easily accommodate some seats and a small table as a breakfast corner. You can bring a kitchen island against the wall and pull it out as needed. Or you can follow what we did here and just add shelves to get more storage space. Chapter People who have followed me for a while may recognize this work as the one in our living room! It is actually only a few inches larger than the space we are in. Once I started to reinvent other ways to use this wall, it suddenly occurred to me: This cabinet is perfect. It brings the wood tones I want, provides more storage space for all my vases and other large items, as well as additional entertainment pieces, such as large bowls and cake trays, that are not actually in the position above. I added a coat rack for my garden hat, and the bench is mostly for visual roundness, , but it has become a good place to drop additional garden gloves and pots. But the most important lesson here is to consider the function of this space not only for us, but also for future tenants, to help us make more informed decisions. Regarding cabinet functionality, for me, this is from the beginning of the process (spatial design and flow) to the end of the process (what kind of plug-ins do we put in the cabinet and where should each project go?) . This time, the process has become very different, and not having an exact plan for everything is a relief. But I'm glad that one of the things we do is open the shelves. Not only on floating shelves, but also on open corner shelves. When it comes to flowers and vegetables, it helps to find what you are looking for without opening the door or sifting through the cabinets. Use shelves and countertops as spaces for vases, flower cutters, and scissors,