Design Help Needed

Glass KnobI am something of a design disaster. It’s not a stretch to say that I have poor interior decorating skills. So when it came to picking out the peripheral items for the kitchen remodel, it was something of a challenge. Knobs. Paint color. Tile. Lighting. I’ve made bad picks before and was going to need guidance, that was for sure.

Tile was the first choice that needed to be made, as that had the longest lead time. Most of our backsplash will be white subway tile, as that is traditional to the period during which our home was built. But white cabinets and white tile is what I call “the blah-sies.” We needed some type of color. So we decided to add some colored glass tile to the mix. Picking the tiles was actually the easy part. Figuring out how to lay them out in an interesting but not weird pattern is the difficult part. Kyle and I thought we came up with a design. But our contractor called to say they were concerned about how it would look. I was happy to hear this. Hey, I’d rather have someone tell me the design is weird before the tile is laid rather than after. We’re still working on the pattern at this point. Guidance is being sought from professionals.

Paint was next. I’m not afraid of color. However, we decided that we didn’t want anything too bold for the kitchen. We also needed to try and get a paint color with grey or green hues to go with the veining in the soapstone counters. I am actually color blind so the color I see isn’t necessarily the color that everyone else sees. All of these things made our trip to the paint store a fun experience for the salesperson that helped us. He would hold up colors that apparently were shaded green but just looked grey to me. Him: What color is this? Me: Grey. Him: And this? Me: Grey. Him: And this? Me: Grey. Kyle swore they were all greenish. I have no idea. We chose a color in 5 minutes and the paint guy told me that I’m unlike 99% of the women he sees that hem and haw over colors for hours. My response? Dude, it’s just paint. I can paint it again if it’s not the right color. This seemed to make him happy. Probably because he charges $65 a gallon for paint. *sigh*

And finally knobs. But what to choose, knobs or pulls or handles? Or a mix? And what color? And what size? And what style? Ugh, the permutations seemed endless. Late night web surfing had my eyes crossing. A friend finally pointed me in the direction of House of Antique Hardware and that made it much easier. I could search styles by period and find options appropriate to 1910, the vintage of our house. We decided to go with glass knobs for all cabinets in the kitchen and antiqued bronze knobs and pulls for the butler’s pantry. The same site then also made it easier to match lighting finishes and styles, so I was able to find an antiqued bronze ceiling light for the butler’s pantry. They also had some nice options for a kitchen chandelier, but Kyle put the ixnay on that so we’re sticking with a light we had replaced prior to the remodel. A small concession, for now.

We are nearing the end of the kitchen remodel and I’m getting nervous once again. It’s time to pick a table and chairs, area rugs (so our dog doesn’t destroy the new floors), and art. Let’s just hope I don’t screw it up. Don’t hold your breath…

Here are the previous posts about our adventure:
Remodeling Our Kitchen
Budgeting for a Kitchen Remodel
Designing a Kitchen
Our Before Kitchen
Our Temporary Kitchen
A Remodeling Surprise
Our Kitchen Remodel – A Progress Update
Beefy Moldings
It’s Like Magic

4 thoughts on “Design Help Needed

Comments are closed.