Category Archives: Kitchen Design
The Age Old Pantry Off of the Kitchen
The pantry was always a main staple room in many of the older homes that many of us grew up in. These pantries varied in look and function. I grew up in one where the sink and fridge resided. It had the old style metal cabinets with the full porcelain sink/top. The stove sat by itself in the kitchen area where the kitchen table was. Our pantry didn’t have a lot of cabinets in there but it served its purpose for function and some storage. Many other pantries boasted a lot of open shelving where you stocked the foods and…
Designing Different Textures Together in the Kitchen
When it comes to remodeling your kitchen, what matters the most is what style (taste) you are trying to achieve. That should be your first thought before you travel through the jungle and myriad of products and textures. As soon as you get overwhelmed, your mind will get confused and shut down. Not a nice place to be when excitement should be the emotion choice. Once you determine the style you want your space to breathe, product becomes an easy puzzle to connect together. Transitional seems to be the style of choice lately and many styles and colors can happily…
Caring for Your Kitchen
Caring for your kitchen can sometimes be a pain and time-eater. This is especially true when we wait till something breaks or when we wait too long between cleanings or maintenance. Most people own some sort of wood cabinetry whether they are a stained wood variety or painted, and they need to be cared for. It doesn’t matter which finish they have; they all need cleaning and remoistening. Wood needs to breathe just like our bodies do. All woods, whether painted or stained, take in and let out moisture. When wood is initially prepared and dried to use for furniture…
Fit for a Magazine
Downsizing can be a daunting project. It helps when you’re a contractor and the ideal land comes onto the market at the right time. But that was just the beginning for this Cape Cod couple. The empty nesters hired an architect to design the home, a landscaping company to design the grounds, and Wood Palace Kitchens to design all of their cabinetry. The completed home was featured in the Fall 2014 issue of Home Remodeling magazine. Here are some images from this stunning project.
Shades of Grey
With today’s busy and hectic lifestyles, life in general becomes a life on the run for most families. With email, cell phones, tablets, social media, and everything else that we use every day, it’s tough to have one place where we do our work and think. The old desk area in the kitchen has become obsolete, and the way we think and feel about the island in our kitchens has turned it into a multi-task space. Colors come and go just as fast as the old desk. The lighter and airy colors that are available now, the brighter our moods…
A Place You Call Home
Home, home on the range. There’s no place like home. Home is where the heart is. I could go on and on with the many sayings that relate to home. No matter who you are, there is always that one place that we will always call home. My brother Jon always says that home is where your bed is. I have to say that after a week or so when we are on vacation, I can’t wait to get home to my own bed. No matter how comfortable those beds are when I am away, and I have spent many…
Mixing Colors and Materials in Today’s Kitchen
I get asked that question a lot from my client’s on mixing up the colors and materials for their new kitchen design. I can usually answer their question rather quickly after being with them for a half hour or so. You basically have to have a tolerance for change and with the questions we ask in the beginning, a clients personality becomes very clear to me. Conservative personalities tend to not want to mix up colors and materials, where more dominant and extroverted personalities have fun mixing them up. You have to be used to change and if so, the…
The New Normal in Home Fashion
I can still recall the day not so many years ago when everything had to match in your home when it came to decorating or remodeling it. It was a no-no to mix white and off white in the same room. I also remember the different eras where bold colors like avocado green, harvest gold and bright oranges dominated our kitchens. When you look back at it, were those colors much different than today with their bold statements? Bold color introductions will always come and go in different palettes. Purple seems to be on the rise these days. Different shades…
Kitchen Storage Ideas (Is it One Size Fits All?)
There is a fine line in remodeling your kitchen when it comes to function and looks. I love to cook so function is the #1 thought when I’m designing someone’s kitchen. Looks are also important to me but never more important than how I will be working around in my space. Every person has their own preferences so that is usually my suggestion that I like to stress to a newer client that has given me their trust in guiding them through the many mazes of choices and decisions. I’m amazed at some of the opinions that I see throughout…
The Small Kitchen
Your kitchen may have limited workspace and square footage, but you still long for the cooking and entertaining capabilities of a much larger space. Your mind races as you envision yourself in that glorious large culinary space, cooking and creating those recipes from those unused cook books sitting in some drawer or cabinet. Your stove, fridge, dishwasher and microwave are from pre-Flintstone era and you can already feel those new appliances fitting in this god-awful space that you call your kitchen. Does this sound familiar? I’m asked by many of our clients that walk into our showroom with “what is…