[dbelin]

Hello everyone:

This site is phenomenal--tremendous collective knowledge and experience! I'm really glad I found it, but my wife isn't because of all the hours I spend trolling for ideas.

I have been putting off the kitchen remodel in our first home for 6 months, and my wife is getting impatient. I would like to finalize the plan (current version is attached) and order already. I installed carbonized strand-woven bamboo floors (really a medium tone like chestnut or Adel Medium Brown). My wife has always wanted a white kitchen, but we aren't particularly fond of the foil finish on the Adel white or the Stat, so instead we decided on Adel birch. I also wanted to set off the island in Nexus brown-black and possibly raise island counter height to 40" by building a platform underneath. We will see. Don't think we could get away with all dark cabs. I have attached a picture of the existing space is a state of mild disarray/preliminary demo. One can see that the layout will not change much. Here are some features/constraints of the future kitchen:

• All SS Appliances include 36"W cooktop, micro/wall oven/warming drawer combo
• 30"W SS single-hole sink under 48"W window spanning two 24"W base cabinets (simple mod I understand)
• Soffit over fridge wall that makes useable wall height about 84"--should be tight!
• Ceasarstone countertops
• Light, nuetral wall paint TBD (trim is already BM White Dove)
• East exposure
• Open shelves in island for books, etc. (cabinet #7 in plan)
• Beverage center or pull-out trash/recycling center is slated for the 15"W end cabinet on the sink wall (cabinet #11 in plan)
• Appliances can't move from their current locations, since I don't want to replumb water or gas lines

Any feedback or insights would be greatly appreciated, as this is my first kitchen redesign. How are the choice of cabinet sizes/configurations? Enough drawers? Did I miss any storage solutions? Any glaring mistakes or problem areas? I am trying to figure out how to best center the wall cabinets on the window and started another forum thread to that end: http://www.ikeafans.com/forums/kitch...-new-post.html

I would welcome any ideas on mixing the two cabinet styles and colors. Originally I had thought dark countertops (Ceasarstone Raven) on the Adel birch, and whitish countertop for the Nexus BB island, but since we are mixing styles I thought perhaps one countertop color would tie it together.

Thanks to all the mods/admins/contributors/members for your efforts that make this site such a wonderful resource! --David

[torrus]

I've installed a Nexus Birch kitchen with a Nexus BB island - black granite tops on both - looked awesome (I'll try to get some pictures posted), so the combo makes sense to me. A 40" high island may be awkward for many...reason?

[dbelin]

Thanks Torrus, for your response. If you get the chance to post your pictures, I look forward to seeing the results.

The reason for a 40" island: we are a tribe of sasquatches. Men in my family range from 6'2" to 6'8". The wife is used to tall counters as well, since we used to live in a house with 40" counters. We are remodeling for us more than for the next owners. Thanks for the inquiry --David

[LMeckler]

Originally Posted by dbelin

Hello everyone:

This site is phenomenal--tremendous collective knowledge and experience! I'm really glad I found it, but my wife isn't because of all the hours I spend trolling for ideas.

I have been putting off the kitchen remodel in our first home for 6 months, and my wife is getting impatient. I would like to finalize the plan (current version is attached) and order already. I installed carbonized strand-woven bamboo floors (really a medium tone like chestnut or Adel Medium Brown). My wife has always wanted a white kitchen, but we aren't particularly fond of the foil finish on the Adel white or the Stat, so instead we decided on Adel birch. I also wanted to set off the island in Nexus brown-black and possibly raise island counter height to 40" by building a platform underneath. We will see. Don't think we could get away with all dark cabs. I have attached a picture of the existing space is a state of mild disarray/preliminary demo. One can see that the layout will not change much. Here are some features/constraints of the future kitchen:

• All SS Appliances include 36"W cooktop, micro/wall oven/warming drawer combo
• 30"W SS single-hole sink under 48"W window spanning two 24"W base cabinets (simple mod I understand)
• Soffit over fridge wall that makes useable wall height about 84"--should be tight!
• Ceasarstone countertops
• Light, nuetral wall paint TBD (trim is already BM White Dove)
• East exposure
• Open shelves in island for books, etc. (cabinet #7 in plan)
• Beverage center or pull-out trash/recycling center is slated for the 15"W end cabinet on the sink wall (cabinet #11 in plan)
• Appliances can't move from their current locations, since I don't want to replumb water or gas lines

Any feedback or insights would be greatly appreciated, as this is my first kitchen redesign. How are the choice of cabinet sizes/configurations? Enough drawers? Did I miss any storage solutions? Any glaring mistakes or problem areas? I am trying to figure out how to best center the wall cabinets on the window and started another forum thread to that end: http://www.ikeafans.com/forums/kitch...-new-post.html

I would welcome any ideas on mixing the two cabinet styles and colors. Originally I had thought dark countertops (Ceasarstone Raven) on the Adel birch, and whitish countertop for the Nexus BB island, but since we are mixing styles I thought perhaps one countertop color would tie it together.

Thanks to all the mods/admins/contributors/members for your efforts that make this site such a wonderful resource! --David

Hi David,
We are planning to use Adel Birch with a Nexus BB island as well. Our reasoning is because we would like to use black quartz countertops for the wall portions and Numerar wood countertop for the island. I thought the wood top would look nice on the Nexus BB. Please post pictures when you're done! I would love to see how the combo turns out.

Lindsey

[dbelin]

Lindsey-

Well, we got the Nexus BB and Adel samples (med brown, white, birch) finally. We think the Nexus BB is really a gorgeous dark slab door, but the rather deep grain conflicts with strand woven bamboo. And we found that we thought Nexus is too dark for the dark bamboo floors.

We have modified our combo to include Adel birch for the walls and Adel white for the island. We may use contrasting Ceasarstone countertops or still go with Pebble, Raven or Concrete throughout to tie the two cabinet colors together. We will order at the beginning of next week, and hope things will move quickly. We will post pictures as things develop.