I think you could do it in your space w/o the island but not get the same look - or "feel" with honey oak floors.

Part of the beauty of this kitchen is the high contrast between cabinet color and counter/floor color. It won't be the same, imo.

Check out the KWL (Kitchens We Love) Albums.

I've linked to the home page, which has the same style as the one you posted, but with honey floors!

Love that color yours has on the walls.

Here is a link that might be useful: Kitchens We Love at Attic

ok allison, I think I know the answer to this question, but I will ask anyway because I love this kitchen so much. Can I have the dark wood in my kitchen and not the rest of the house. The main living areas are all hardwood but not as honey colored as the kitchen. They are a shade darker.

Thanks!

i hope you love cleaning with all that white. I have white counter tops and they are faily new and i am sick of them already. One crumb on the counter and it looks a mess. LOL But I have to admit that white kitchen is boootiful

Allison said what I was thinking: It's the high contrast, the vastness and the green walls that marry the high contrast with all the light of a bright sunny day.

I just love that kitchen so much!

I love this kitchen that someone here posted a LONG time ago. What elements do you think are important to get this look?

Money...lots and lots of money! ; )

Susan

I too am with allison. What makes this kitchen so eye catching is the high contrast between the floor/counters and the cabinets. I'd add the bronze drawer pulls and knobs in there too, since I don't think it would be quite the same without that contrast too.
As far as having an island goes, if you do enlarge your kitchen you could always have a table built with a black top to match the counters and the base/legs painted white. I think the pale gray walls are very important too. You could get by without the subway tiles and beadboard, but they do add texture to the mix.
The style of cabinets would be concidered Mission or Craftsman in style. They are also seen in many Victorian homes. It's not Victorian in style at all, but since it was the common cabinet type used when kitchens first had built-ins, many families updated their Vics using that style.
Personally I see no difference in having different colored wood floors than having different colored carpet from one room to another as long as they are not completely open to each other. Even that could be pulled off if you used the darker wood as a border in the lighter wood floored adjoining rooms.
Do you have pictures of your kitchen you can share. It would be much easier to help you pull off this look if we knew just what your kitchen looked like now and maybe even drawings of your plans to add on to it.

Check out Behr Mountain Haze for the wall color. I have that in my kitchen, it's very close to that color. ;)

"What elements do you think are important to get this look?"

I was thinking first you'd need to remove two walls, and in their place, set up some photographer's umbrellas to bounce light around. ;^)

That said, what I think makes this kitchen stand out from all the other white cabinet/black countertops/white tile backsplash kitchens really is the amount of natural light. I don't think the color of the flooris as important as the finish; that semi gloss shine is reflecting *alot* of light and so are the smooth countertops.

Certainly a beautiful room.

Did anyone mention the cabs are inset? Inset cabs have a strong period look.

This is a classic "something's gotta give" kitchen from the movie. I heard an editor from a magazine say that it is the kitchen that all decor mag editors are sick of because they all got thousands of letters about it.

I think there are pics from the movie kitchen on line if you do a search.

fwiw, the something's gotta give kitchen is on the KWL link.

Also, don't overlook the abundance of white. The fixtures, plates, accessories. No color to interrupt the flow.

And I'm with the others that mentioned the photographer's lighting.

"Did anyone mention the cabs are inset? Inset cabs have a strong period look."

And they're *very* expensive! That is one beautiful kitchen!

Just looked up the properties info on the picture you posted, and here's the article about the kitchen.

And what do you know....it mentions Something's Gotta Give..

Here is a link that might be useful: The kitchen

Ok, where's the fridge?! The article mentions a second one in the pantry, but where's the main fridge?

Wow - great kitchen! I can see why you love it. It is so clean, light, and open.

I think the link tryin2grow posted, showing the same concept with pine floors is gorgeous too. It actually warms up the look, IMO. It may not be the identical look with as much contrast, but it's beautiful too, so I think you could go for it with the floors you have.

As for the island, it would be nice to have it, but if you don't have room, there's no reason not to go with this look in the rest of the area. You can play up your table instead. We saw a great kitchen on a parade of homes tour, and I wanted ours to be like it. But after all was said and done, the parade home kitchen was really just an inspiration, not something to be copied exactly. I added things that were of my own choosing (i.e. substituted warm brown in the cabinet glaze and countertops over the deep gray from the parade home). And, now the kitchen looks even better than I had imagined it would. You can use this kitchen you love as an inspiration and make it yours with the space you have and the things you love.

Jan

Yes, I think you can get *the look* without exactly replicating this kitchen.

If the rest of your floors are a bit darker, why not darken up the kitchen floors?

tina

ok, what are inset cabinets? I tried to look it up, but am not sure. Here is a pic. (from Woodmode) of the cabinets we currently have, which I was hoping to have painted. The oak cabinets on the bottom right. Would they work???

{{!gwi}}

Also, here is a horrible rendition of the hardwood color I have with the kitchen. Makes you appreciate the talented folks here, lol.

trying2 grow thanks so much for that link. I have it bookmarked now, I looked all over for it last week & couldn't find it b/c the search engine is working right.

msjay, don't like cleaning, but I guess I will have to deal with it to get the look! Will be just as fun as the stainless is now, I guess!

moonshadow, thanks for the color. Looks very similar to the RH silver sage I have in MB. Tried to find yours on the Fin. Kitchens blog, but couldn't.

Lots of people have mentioned the lighting & my kitchen gets lots of it. It has 2 large windows 60X30 & 63x 51. (no umbrellas, though!)

In terms of the floor the kitchen is not open, but similar to the door in the picture it has two smaller opening. I will have to take some pictures.
I also love all the rooms in Something's gotta give!

Thanks for the info... I will try to post pics. if anyone can give me suggestions. We are definitely widening the one end for a table and I have the pottery barn chairs like in the picture.

Thanks!

dekr8, anytime you want to find the original location of a picture, you can right click the pic, and click "properties"
and find the URL. That's what I did with your inspiration pic.

dekr8, these are inset cabinets doors. The doors fit inside the frame of the cabinet instead of resting on the edge of the openings. Usually when you see inset doors, the drawers are inset as well, however the drawers in this pic are not inset, so hopefully this illustrates the difference. It's also referred to as "flush inset" sometimes.

In the article it says she used Sea Glass Blue paint. I tried to search for that color and the closest I could find was Sea Salt from SW.

Ahhh, I get it now bungalow & wow I guess that is why I always like kitchens like the one you posted, but didn't know why. Uh yeah, mine are NOT like that. Shoot.

Thanks for the tip trying to grow!

lol about the fridge. Maybe it's just a drink fridge in the island???

Here is a blog about that kitchen and how others have interpreted it.

Here is a link that might be useful: Real Estate Blog

We remodeled our kitchen last year in a similar style. Our floors are a medium stain oak to blend with the rest of our 1930's house. Our cabinets are white painted maple, inset uppers but we saved money by using full overlay lowers. {{!gwi}}

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Oh, it's gorgeous. It's also my DREAM kitchen. I'm so glad you posted this picture, so now I have something else to go off of! Kitchenkelly's kitchen (look on the kitchen forum at the FKB) is similar, with the shaker cabs and black (soapstone) countertops. Her wall color is Moss by Devine Paint. It's gorgeous. A grey-ish green that really sets off the white. Very subtle.

I have that SW color in my upstairs bath. I love love love it! I will send some pics.

bath pics

That is definitely Sarah Richardson of Design Inc. style. Most of her makeovers are of that colour palette. Try googling her name and go through a couple of pics in season four of Design Inc., it may help you work with what you have. Very clean looking, a look that can never happen in my home, sigh,

It is very close to "rainwashed" by Sherwin Williams. My son's room is rainwashed and is a ringer for the kitchen.
Jo

michelleback your kitchen is beautiful! I LOVE it! Did you use soapstone? This house was built in the 50's, but the floor color looks pretty similar just more of a honey color. Do you use your island as a table?

cdecker thanks for the link to your bath. The color looks perfect. I am assuming that was the sw sea salt that lindy posted (thanks lindy). I love your mosaic tile.

I will check out kitchenkelly's kitchen too.

Off to look up Sarah Richardson.

Thanks!

Besides the contrast of the floors and cabinets, I think what makes this kitchen look so "open" is the HUGE amount of space. Not just the kitchen itself but the surrounding area. There is a ton of open space surronding that kitchen. I wonder what the dimensions are?

I don't know if these pictures are helpful....I did a similar style kitchen with white inset cabinets shaker style, wood floors (english chestnut color) and honed black granite).

I'm still pondering the backsplash....open to any ideas. But hope the pix are helpful. I've been a lurker for a number of years and do appreciate all the info and ideas on this forum.

I hope you can retrieve these pix...(although I don't know how good they are taken at night).

/Users/Sharon/Pictures/iPhoto Library/Originals/2008/Jan 25, 2008_2/IMG_0773.JPG
/Users/Sharon/Pictures/iPhoto Library/Originals/2008/Jan 25, 2008_2/IMG_0773.JPG

jojoco, Thanks for the color. Rainwashed is exactly one strip over from sea salt that lindy posted!

Here is a link that might be useful: colorcharts.org

Good point, Amylville. I didn't realize it until you pointed it out, but that large expanse of open area sets the stage for that gorgeous kitchen!

dekr8 - thank you for the nice compliments. I was hoping you could see the floor color. We are really enjoying our kitchen. The counters are a honed granite Virginia Mist. Our soapstone quote was quite a bit higher and I loved the Virginia Mist when I saw the slabs. We do eat at the island although it also houses refrigerator drawers (at the range end) and a shallow cupboard plus wine storage (on the sink side). The wall color is bluer than your inspiration kitchen; I will post a couple of pictures that (hopefully) show the wall color. We took down the wall between our kitchen and formal dining room so we eat most of our meals in the dining room. Taking down the wall enabled us to double the size of our kitchen.
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amylville, my sister said the same thing. Lots of space.

sstett, Thanks for your post. Unfortunately I was not able to access your photos. Can anyone access them or are they linked to her computer?

michelleback, Thanks for the photos. I really like the look of your counters. Have you had any problems with the "honed" granite? I have heard they are to be treated differently than "regular-don't know the term" granite. The blue is also very pretty, what color did you use? We were thinking about bumping out our kitchen to widen it, but that requires moving the stairwell to the basement, so I am not sure it will be worth the cost involved. But maybe we could do a set up like you have done instead with the island. You are lucky your house has so much character to work with.

Thanks for your help and the inspiration photos!

It is a beautiful kitchen, but I wonder how many of us could restrain ourselves from introducing any color? The bit of apple green is carefully staged for the photo and adds to the overall harmony in the room. The effect would be ruined as soon as someone set a lunch box on the counter. I can see those floors looking dusty mighty fast too.

[IMG]http://i27.tinypic.com/nr0phk.jpg[/IMG]

Here is a link that might be useful:

beautiful kitchens! How do you like the black counter tops with kitchen mess? I cook and bake a lot and would worry about the black staying clean and neat. I am a bit of a neat freak about my kitchen. I have black granite on my linen cabinet tops and they are always dusty and show every speck of lint! Are there any special "tricks" to keeping the black "black" and the white cabs "white"?

I also did these last night to show a lighter, oak colored floor. It's hard to change the wood color, so maybe these are a bit darker (and greener :) than yours. But maybe that would be an option.

Maybe there are other things you like about the kitchen that would make it still work for you. Maybe a few warmer ceramic pieces around or a little more color on the chairs, as in maybe you like that punch of chartreuse on the kitchen flowers.

Simple clean lines, texture, and use of color. As far as materials go, I see lots of smooth and sleek and shine -- lots of smooth reflective surfaces and glass (vs much of a mix of textures). Lots of hard edges and geometric shapes. The vintage feel of the cabinetry would be important, too, with hardware and furniture feet. Of course, white, white, white, bright white. Except for a very few punches of warm color (and softer lines), it's all very cool. Also, it actually looks like the paint color is only used in the adjoining area. The kitchen looks like white beadboard and small areas of white paint, aside from the ceiling.

I tried some solid black rugs in there too, if you don't mind vacumming a few times a day -- although the dark floors would be the same. They show lots of crumbs and stuff even when much lighter than those.

Oak floor:

With a few other saturated, warm punches of color:

With black rugs:

Black rugs and a few other soft, warm punches of color:

squirrel, thanks for the mock-ups, I think I will delete my earlier post!! I wish I knew how to ps. But at the same time I think takes a lot more than computer skills! I really like the black rugs & since my kitchen is not very wide right now I think that would help. As far as the dirt showing, I have small kids so it's always showing anyway & even though I am far from neat, I have to sweep in there constantly.

I am going to try to post pics. today of my current kitchen which was done in 1990, but since it is so dated & the layout will change (a bathroom is going to be removed) I don't know if it will be much help.

Thanks for your input.

Dekr8 - The kitchen photo you posted is another one patterned after the Jack Nicholson/Diane Keaton film "As Good as it Gets."

Actually, I feel it's a much prettier kitchen than the one in the film. It's a great inspiration piece and perfectly done.

Oh, dearest dekr8, I'm sorry, I could have spared you some searching. You didn't find my kitchen in finished kitchen blogs because the room is not even close to being finished! :o
If DH and I don't come to a meeting of the minds soon I shall be forced to take matters into my own hands ;)

Here's a pic of the cabinets after I painted them showing the paint on the soffit above (no overhead light on in that one):

For me, the different heights and trims of the upper cabs is what really makes this kitchen stand out.

True. I think the room size and ceiling height helps to carry off that sort of thing, though, as it can get busy and choppy in a smaller space. In that this is a very open and airy, serene look. At least some variation be good though, in a smaller space, as the look is very architectural and furniture-like.

I have posted these before,,,this is the kitchen in my previous home. I called it French Country. For the next house, I will do something similar and use the inset paneled cabinets.

The floors were suppose to be a bit more brown, but the floor guy didn't listen. The counter tops are Tropical Brown granite, so it had a mostly brown/black background, with specks white and gold. It was to be a perfect match to pull together all colors, until the floors didn't come out dark. :( Still I loved the kitchen!

{{!gwi}}

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The black reflective floor and the large open area combine with the tall ceiling to give a sense of drama and volume. Volume is impossible to fake in this case; you either have it or you don't. Unless you have the terrific natural light that they do, the black (well, very dark) floors will be more of a light-sink than an asset. I think natural white oak with a gloss finish could be just as dramatic. Or, B&W checkerboard marble tiles.
Casey

I don't cook. But I'm "in charge" of clean up. Let me tell you... there is no way on this "blue marble" I'd want to be in charge of keeping that Taj clean. LOL

It looks great in the picture, but I know too well the reality of the helpmeet's cooking habits...

;)

A white kitchen is really not hard to keep clean. I liked it, because I could see where the soil was, unlike my latest kitchen with the dark wood.