Thoughts on choosing dark kitchen cabinets

 Questions  about the wisdom of  choosing dark  kitchen cabinets keep cropping up in my reading and client discussions. Of course there are no absolutes in decorating.  You can make anything work or look good if you have the skills, and using dark cabinets in any room  requires a deft hand.

If you want your dark cabinet choice to work and have the longest style staying power, consider the following:

Let the cabinets shine

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 When I work with clients who want everything that they consider trendy in one space, I always discuss the wisdom of this approach.   Something has to be the star in a space and you should decide in the beginning what the star will be.  When you choose dark cabinets they demand centre stage, and everything else should support them and make them look their best.  Using lots of white or very light colours with dark cabinets is the way to go to get that sophisticated, rich, classy look that many people are after when they choose dark cabinets.  

Use  in open area spaces

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Dark cabinets work well in large, open area spaces where the wall colours are lighter rather than darker. The dark cabinets help to balance and ground the space. .

Have breaks in the dark flow

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 Leaving lots of wall space free of cabinets and/or having glass with light interior cabinets can do a  lot to balance a darker cabinet colour.  Having contrast with the floor is a must to create a lively space.

Mix dark and light together

Braam's Custom Cabinets

 If you are afraid of too much dark but like the look why not do a mix of darks and lights together? 

Questions to consider: 

 Is there enough contrast with the floor? 

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When you choose dark cabinets your floors need to contrast with the cabinets or you are going to have the "bear cave" look that happens when your floors blend in with your cabinets. This is not an attractive look for  smaller spaces.    Even thought the floor above does have some contrast with the cabinets, I would have chosen something a tad lighter to open up the space.  Again, no absolutes, only considerations and photos often lie.  This is a lovely space.

 Is there enough contrast between elements?

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This space is unusually dark.  It is the perfect kitchen for someone, but I would venture to say that it would not be a selling point for many buyers.

Can you have too much  pattern?

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  When you have darker, busy countertops  and then have patterned backsplash you are setting up pattern competition, and it can look very busy in a small space. My rule of thumb is patterned counter, plain backsplash.

Do you have enough lighting?

 LDa Architecture & Interiors

Sometimes it is difficult to tell from a photo exactly how much light is in a space.  This space is reading dark even with the obviously adequate lighting from three (probably four with under counter) light sources and light reflection from the white counter and backsplash.

Who knew there was so much to consider when you decide to go for dark!  Again, there are no absolutes only considerations and balances.   Happy decision making.

Sheepskin stools

I spend a lot "down time" on Pinterest and blogs. What I mean by down time is, anytime I can get to myself! Most of the time thats a whopping 5 minutes but I will take it! And every now and again, I will see a photo that just speaks to me...this one spoke to me!
(sorry about the bluuurrr)

Those sheepskin stools....OMG! 

I mean, I was loving them! This is funny to me because some time ago I read a post on a blog about covering a chair in this sheepskin and well, I wasn't really in to it...actually, I didn't like it at all. How things change. So here I am with this picture and these stools looking so cool and I think......Yup, Im going to need those. 

First, it starts with me searching on line for what would be the closet version....yes, here it is

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That part isn't hard. 

Heres the hard part. $348...for one! Not even two! 

Choke! Why am I surprised?!? I mean, unless I'm on Craigslist the price is never less then I expected. I need to tell myself to stop being surprised, confused, annoyed. 

I digress.

The next step in this process is where my creative mind takes over. How do I make this?

The good thing about a creative mind is it doesn't stay on one task very long, so when the next glossy picture comes along, I'm on to the next thing. But.....it remembers:)

Fast forward a few months and I'm in the aisles of Target looking for absolutely nothing I need and what do you know.... I spot this!

And there are two (I mean I can't make this stuff up) and they are clearanced!!

 Shut the front door!

Okay, so this is the part that is ridiculous...I wasn't sure if I should buy them! Sometimes I kill myself!! But I did buy them, and brought them home, and they sat like this for weeks. 

Until, I finally got my butt in gear and ordered the faux sheepskin.

It arrived and I was surprised because it was actually way better then I had expected. It's super soft and plush. 

Some cutting and stapling and voila!

(yes, sometimes I do these projects right in the middle of the house) 

They are the perfect little accents to the room and make great extra seating for parties. The real truth is my kids won't stay off them which drives me a little batty but at $40 each for all the materials, I can  live with the kids crawling all over them! 

Planked White Walls

I love everything white. True statement. Everything and anything white. 

This is nothing new to those of you that know me or have been in my house. 

I firmly believe that when in doubt just paint it white. Its always a win. 

The only thing is though, sometimes white walls can seem unfinished if they have no visual appeal. Thats where trim work comes in. It adds the depth that a all white room needs. I mean what interior loving gal hasn't walked in to an old house with all the moldings and crown work and stood in awe of it all. Its all in the details my friends.

I love my house and I love that we built it but seriously it was still unfinished when it was finished, if you know what I mean. It needed that extra work to make it more us. More appealing to my eye. 

I struggled with our main living area. Boy did I struggle. I must have changed the one wall in there a gazillion times in the last year and a half. Sorry no pics..this was before I started blogging about the house. I even purchased a giant piece of art for the wall (it weighed a ton) and had Brian hang it up, take it down, hang it up and take it back down again, before it eventually went back to the store! That man loves me is all I can say about that.

Then one day Brian and I were walking thru Crate and Barrel and I saw this awesome planked wall and thought....we're doing that!

Some Pinterest later and I had my sources

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The funny thing is, when I came across those two first photos I realized that this is something I had wanted to do for years because I had seen this photo 7 years ago in a Cottage Living Magazine..look I still have it!

..oh how I miss that magazine, darn recession and all the lovely magazines that went down during it, so sad!
 Anyway, so I had seen it years ago and I love it now just as much as I did then! Which brings me to another point....you want to know what everyone is going to have in their homes 10 years from now? Go pick up a home interiors magazine. Because I will bet you, that what you see will be mainstream in 10 years! Funny how that works. 

Okay back to the walls. After I got Brian on board with the project (again, he's such a good sport) we started doing our research. Thank you blog world and all your lovely tutorials on EVERYTHING! 

This is the one we followed for our walls. 

Side note: we used 2 nickels for the spacing and we used 8 inch planks. I was a little concerned about this but Brian assured me it would be fine and it is. 

A before pic so you can see where the panels started going up. The bookshelves were still charcoal and that wall!! We painted the wall around the mantel grey on a whim...I hated it! 

Let me give you a little tip...see that line where the seams meet.....DONT DO THAT! I would highly recommend you stagger your seams!

Because after all the wood filler and paint in the world it still looks like this

but I will get over it because it doesn't have to be perfect and I'm probably the only one who really see's it anyway.

Then you paint

 ...and paint

...and paint

...and paint it all WHITE

...and then cover up those darn seams with a giant canvas! 

Pillow's

I must confess....I have a slight pillow obsession!

 I love to change them up all the time because new pillow's can bring life in to a room and make it feel completely different. 

The only thing that I don't like is that they can be kind of expensive..ugh! I mean, I find one that I love and it's $108! And that's usually just for the cover! I just love that, don't you? (insert sarcasm) You know what I mean....you see a cute pillow in a store and check the tag and it's $40 and you think, not bad, but then you realize, Oh wait, that's just for the cover! The insert is another $30! That's just crazy to me!!

I know there are plenty of people paying those prices and they seem to be fine with it. Not me! Even if I had that kind of money in the budget, I just can't imagine paying that much! 

Sooooo, I make my own. 

You may be saying....but I don't sew. 

But seriously, if you have even the slightest idea of how to work a sewing machine, you can make your own pillow cover's!

This little tutorial will help and despite what you may have heard....the zipper part is easy!! Really!!

And once you've figured out how to make them...your decorating life will never be the same. 

Which lead's me to buying the fabric.

You don't need to go to the fabric store! In fact you can use just about anything. 

Remember those $5 napkin's I found....

I also happened to be strolling thru the aisles of Target the other night and found this curtain panel on clearance. $7.56....that's what I like to see.

I will admit, I almost kept it a curtain panel...

that lasted for a hot minute and then snip, snip

I was able to get 3 26x26 pillow cover's out of one panel!

I'm loving the blue in here especially since my table is done...

...and they also go nicely with my "napkin" pillow's!

5 Tips for painitng small spaces

 The one topic I've written about on my blog that gets attention from thousands of decor happy readers is decorating small spaces.  I think that is because rooms and homes today are smaller than they once were.  People living in condos or apartments must be conscious of using every trick in the book to enlarge their living spaces. So stay awhile and see how colour can solve some of your small space dilemmas.  Perhaps in these suggestions you will find a treatment for your small space.

Use one colour everywhere

This might seem like an extreme solution but it isn't really.  Using one colour all over a room makes the different planes blend together  to give a more unified look.  You can even use the same colour on the floor and ceiling if you wish.  Since your eye continues to move  freely around the room you have no sense of the boundaries of it.

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If I could change one thing about this room above, I would paint the trim a soft pink too to keep the eye moving. Painting  trim white creates vertical and horizontal lines that your eyes automatically go to and follow. You can see the difference in the room below where the trim is painted out.  The room has an unbroken field of colour that is certainly expansive even though a dark colour was used.

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More blue, but the trim is painted a coordinating colour that is closer in value to the walls decreasing the emphasis on  the trim which seems to just blend in.

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Use cool colours 

 The rooms above are using the same colour almost everywhere, but they  are also utilizing another colour trick. Cool colours like blues, blue grays etc. make the walls of a room recede thus making the space appear larger than it actually is. Blues are an excellent choice for small bathrooms, laundry rooms, spare bedrooms, etc.  When walls recede you tend to notice the furnishings rather than the  "box" that contains them.

There's nothing like a cool lavender with white and light grays to expand a space.  

 

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Use a dark colour on the walls

That's right, a dark colour!  Would you ever think that would work?  It does because  the corners disappear in the shadows and your eye moves around easily. Darker colours are often perceived as  visually deeper. There are  decorators who take the opposite approach to keeping walls light in a small space.  And the final trick with dark colours in small rooms is to paint them in a semi-gloss or gloss to reflect light.  This approach is not for the faint of heart,  but it can be quite stunning.   If you're afraid to go really dark choose a mid value gray or taupe.

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Use a colour you see outside

Blues and greens give the impression that the room continues beyond the windows. You can paint the walls an outside colour or use one  in your fabric choices.  I love the freshness of the room below. It certainly is reminiscent of  plants.

House Beautiful

Designer Christina Murphy uses green to great effect  to visually extend this room by connecting it to the view outside the window.  Keeping a simple colour scheme is also visually enlarging.

 

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Everything about this room invites the outside in and blends the two together. Lighter floors always enlarge a space.  There are no dark hardwoods in my life, I like light and airy all the way.

Keep walls and furniture a similar colour 

 When you keep the furniture and walls close to the same colour you are blurring the lines between them. As a result the mass of the furniture is decreased and the overall volume of the room is increased.  If you don't wish to have all the furniture the same colour consider having at least  the bigger items like armoires and chests close to the wall colour so they will begin to blend into the room and widen it out.

Jennifer Brouwer

I also want the cabinet for the TV to be a lighter colour, but it is undeniably a focal point in the room  and every room needs one. I'd also skip the dark wood rods which your eye travels to automatically because of the contrast, but I also understand why the decorator chose them (all the woods in the room are dark).   Overall I love these two rooms.  They are warm and inviting.

Laura Bielecki

I equally love the cool minimal look  of this room, but it isn't for everyone.

Paint a Focal Wall

 

 I'm not a large fan of painting a focal wall.  I think sometimes it works to great advantage, but most times it is a less than creative solution in a space. This strategy  can work wonders in a small space, Don't be afraid to paint an accent wall a darker receding color thus  making the space look larger.

Harrell Remodeling

 And there you have it.  The only thing left to do is decide which of these solutions will work in your space. 

 Happy painting.

$5 Napkin's

Sometime's I get lucky enough to stumble upon a really good find. A quick trip out last night found me these adorable napkins. I wasn't looking for cloth napkins at all, but at $5 for 6. I couldn't pass them up!

Although, I love the thought of using these for a lovely dinner party or ladies brunch one day. The truth is, they will probably go in to the drawer with my other cloth napkin's....see you at Christmas or not. I mean they don't really scream the holidays and there are only six, so it would have to be a pretty small brunch. Hmmm, what to do?

This is not my best attempt at a beautiful place setting but I'm a visual person and I need to see what thing's are going to look like! I alway's take a slew of pic's of a room while I'm arranging it. It gives me a way to see the room from another perspective and then I can study it and make changes. Sometime's I will see an old picture of a room and think...Wow, I really liked it that way! Which makes me want to change it back again....I have problems, I know.

After looking at this....I am not impressed. I mean I'm sure with the right table setting and all they could be darling but this is well, BLAH!

So....

I thought maybe this is the way to go? 

I haven't exactly made them in to pillow's yet, this is a napkin just laying on top of a pillow to get the effect. What do you think?

I kind of like it and I'm never opposed to more pillow's around here!

I think my mind is made up....I would love to hear what you have to say!

Leave me a comment and let me know which way to go! 

Thanks:)