I’m super excited to start sharing our home with you all and, since the kitchen is the heart of the home, it seemed like the perfect place to start. If you’ve been following my Instagram stories you may have caught some glimpses here and there. In today’s post you will get a closer look of some of my kitchen must haves and tips if you're going through your own kitchen design or renovation.
Before we get started, I wanted to give you a little background on how we got here. My husband Nick is a custom home builder, and I work as a Realtor — given the two professions, we move A LOT. In our almost fourteen years of marriage we have moved 9 times — yep! We have done countless renovations and built two custom homes together. This home is a true labor of love and probably my favorite project we have done together. When people ask if this is our ‘forever’ home, they are usually surprised with my response — no. I typically get the ‘itch’ for another project every two years so when the time comes and the perfect property presents itself, we will just do it again and I look forward to the ride. So without further ado, let’s get started.
When we designed our kitchen there were a few things that I knew I wanted —
Appliances - This is something you're going to want to know early on in the design process. When you select your appliances it’s important that you give the appliance spec sheet to your kitchen designer. This is going to be key when laying everything out. We decided to go with a smaller refrigerator so we could have more storage and also add a built in coffee maker.
White Everything - There is something about an all white kitchen that is so timeless — crisp, clean, with plenty of opportunity left to add pops of color with accessories. Our kitchen cabinets are Benjamin Moore Simply White in a semi-gloss finish.
A fun twist to your average fruit bowl — use a large faux shell to display fruit.
The Cabinets - We went with a shaker cabinet with small detail that mimicked the trim throughout the home. The real customization came when we designed the hood. We included both upper and lower pull outs for spices and oils. The glass upper cabinets with X pattern is the perfect place to showcase crystal glassware. Both the glass cabinets and under cabinets have LED light strips that can be dimmed for mood. An important feature to note is that the cabinets meet the ceiling. We used two pieces of crown molding to create a polished look. You can say good-bye to greenery on top of the cabinets!
Dry Bar - My goal here was to create a hutch-like upper cabinet to serve as storage for our wine and crystal stemware. We brought back the glass cabinet door with the X pattern in order to tie everything back to the main kitchen. The bar is an extension of the kitchen in the most perfect way. For our backsplash we used an antique mirror that was locally sourced and installed. The Island - We love to entertain, and when we do, everyone wants to hang out at the center island. Our island is not overly big in size, 4.5ft x 9.5ft, and this is partly due to the quartzite slab we selected for our kitchen. I wanted to avoid having a seam and, since natural stones vary in size, I allowed that to dictate the size of our island. If you’re looking at man-made quartz such as Cambria etc., you should be fine as they are standard sizes. You may also notice the difference in thickness of the island. The edge detail is called a mitered edge and gives the look of a thicker counter top.
Family Dining - In our past homes we enjoyed family dinners sitting at the island, however, as the kids got older I wanted to be able to sit across from them rather then sitting side by side. Our 48” round table is the perfect size for our family of 4 during family dinners and also serves as the perfect ‘kids' table’ during holiday gatherings. Cabinet Color: Benjamin Moore Simply White semi-gloss Wall Color: Benjamin Moore Simply White flat Cabinetry: Custom Backsplash Plumbing Fixtures: Gormans Plumbing Supply, Sarasota FL Appliances: Mullet’s Appliances, Sarasota FL Kitchen pendants, dining table and chairs, and shell chandelier were all sourced by Melissa DeMore Designs. Accessories: Linked below Builder: Nick Ferguson, NC Ferguson Construction www.ncfergusonconstruction.com
Interior Designer: Melissa DeMore Design www.melissademoredesigns.com