Designing my kitchen... please advise!

eschaya

Thu, Nov 24 2016, 9:08 pm

So b'h we recently bought a new home, and we are trying to redo the kitchen "ourselves" on a budget.
We've already bought cabinets (on sale) and they are a warm brown (see Westminster Toffee at cabinetstogo.com). Now I"m trying to decide what to do about granite and flooring. Since price is our limiting factor, we only have a few granites to choose from, and we are also planning on doing the floor ourselves with peel-and-stick laminate tiles that are groutable (hope this will make it look more like ceramic tiles).

The big issues I am debating over are...
dark vs light granite
dark vs light floor
floor and granite to coordinate, or ok to be totally different

I found a beautiful granite (Sapphire blue, which is really a combo of charcoal, blue, and brown) that matches perfectly with a dark "tile" (also charcoal, blue, brown) and they both go really nicely with the cabinet color. BUT... the kitchen is small with only 1 window. Will this be too dark, and make the kitchen even smaller?
Also, I've been told conflicting things... which shows dirt more, dark or light granite?
I can go with a brown/white granite that is much lighter, and then I can do a beige floor. THis will probably make the room look bigger, but is it too monochromatic and boring, and also will the light floor make me crazy?

If any of you have dealt with this - and either are happy or unhappy with what you've done, please weigh in. Pictures would also be greatly appreciated!

imeinu

Thu, Nov 24 2016, 9:13 pm

I say go with the lighter counter and lighter floor but not too light on the floor. Dont worry about dirt on the counter - if you get a granite with natural speckles it will hide most everything.
One of the most overlooked aspects when redesigning a kitchen is enough lighting. I have over the counter lights, under the counter lights and a big light in the middle of the room and chandelier by dinette. it makes a world of a difference in any sized kitchen.

SingALong

Thu, Nov 24 2016, 9:15 pm

I would go with slighter counter top and flooring. Lighter than the cabinets for sure. Floor and counter don't need to be perfect match, just coordinate. I wouldn't do stark white...but light beige, maybe marbalized a little? With specks of brown in it to tie in the cabinet color?

Go to Houzz.com to look at kitchen pics, that will give you lots of ideas. If u sign up, you can ask your questions in an advice post and some designers may answer. There are also newsletters on various topics to give you ideas

rachel6543

Thu, Nov 24 2016, 9:59 pm

If you haven't yet, My recommendation is to take samples of the granite/flooring/tile to your kitchen and put against the cabinets. Putting it in the room will actually give you a better idea of how it will look together. I did that when I redid part of my kitchen. I put in new flooring and granite countertops and a new tiled backsplash. My kitchen cabinets are in good shape so we kept those as is.

I was also on a very tight budget and limited to color choices for granite that fit our budget. I have a small kitchen too.

My kitchen cabinets are a light birch color. We ended up getting a darker gray granite counter top that has specks of black. For the floors we did a light gray stone pattern tile. I'm really glad we chose a lighter floor color because it really brightened the kitchen and made it feel so much bigger. Also I love having a stone pattern because it hides dirt!! My previous floor was white and black and always looked dirty, it was impossible to keep clean.

What really made the room was the tile backsplash. We found a pattern that came with tiles in black, different shades of grays & light tan. The backsplash really brought the room together with the different colors and it looks great. I always get compliments from guests when they see the backsplash.

eschaya

Thu, Nov 24 2016, 10:06 pm

Rachel6543 - I've been avoiding anything without a brown tone in it... but maybe I shouldn't be. Did you find that your wood cabinets look fine with grey. It's so funny that you mention the backsplash... I've been picking out backsplashes and trying to coordinate "tile"/granite to it, and everyone tells me I'm doing it backwards, but I find that a really perfect backsplash has the ability to tie everything in the kitchen together! So maybe I really should go back to that way of thinking.
Imeinu - did you find it expensive to put in lighting? That is something we really can't do ourselves, so I don't want to rely on good lighting unless it wouldn't cost terribly much to have an electrician do it.
Thanks so much for all your advice... after hearing your replies I'm starting to rethink the double charcoal idea in such a small kitchen

imeinu

Thu, Nov 24 2016, 10:44 pm

eschaya wrote:

You can do lighting without spending too much. A quick search on amazon will bring up a lot of under the counter lights. many LED that you dont even need to plug in - just mount.
https://www.amazon.com/Electri.....;th=1

as for the rest of the room, consider switching the fixture to one with more bulbs or just changing the bulbs to brighter.

pause

Thu, Nov 24 2016, 10:53 pm

Between floor, backsplash, and granite countertop, you will have the least options in granite especially if you're on a tight budget. Start there. Take a cabinet drawer with you when you go choose it. Then choose a floor. Last choose a backsplash.

rachel6543

Thu, Nov 24 2016, 11:09 pm

eschaya wrote:

Yep, my light birch cabinets actually look just fine with the gray.

I like the advice from "Pause". Start with selecting a granite color you like in your budget, that will be the most $$. Then from there pick your flooring & backsplash. That's basically what I did. If you're buying stuff from Home Depot or Lowes you can always buy a sample of the tiles you are considering, bring them home and whatever you don't like just return. I did that a few times until we figured out the exact flooring & backsplash we liked.

rachel6543

Thu, Nov 24 2016, 11:37 pm

If this helps you, the granite I ended up putting in (because we got a crazy good price at the time) looks similar to this, mine I think is a slightly lighter gray undertone http://www.homedepot.com/p/Sto.....71013

The flooring we put in was a light stone gray pattern ceramic, similar to this, I'd say mine is a little more grayish color https://www.lowes.com/pd/Style.....72851

This is the actual backsplash we put in and it looks really amazing once installed. We used a light gray grout between the tiles. http://www.homedepot.com/p/Jef.....85319

I hope these links give you some ideas.

Lady Bug

Thu, Nov 24 2016, 11:59 pm

I wood go with white countertops with gray texture/marbellization and a light floor, either in gray family or on the natural wood family. Light floors don't show dirt as long as the color isn't flat. As long as it has some texture, the dort will blend in. I definitely wold not do dark floors.

I agree that you should look into a proper tile. Peel and stick in a kitchen can be a real pain to clean. In a tile, I would go with the wood look floor.

I don't think formica for the counter tops will make much of a difference money wise since your kitchen is so small.

33055

Fri, Nov 25 2016, 12:09 am

Have you considered buying directly from a "quarry"? They are not really quarries but big warehouses. We paid a quarter of the price local contractors quoted us for my kitchen. It was way cheaper than Home Depot with much better quality.

You mentioned your kitchen is small. You could save even more by buying pieces left over from a big job. We did that with my pesach kitchen and a couple of smaller areas.

Lady Bug

Fri, Nov 25 2016, 12:24 am

I just checked the website for your cabinets - nice choice.

Definitely white and gray counter tops and light floor unless you really like the dark dark kitchen look. If you do decide to go dark, then you definitely need to upgrade your lighting.

this look:

http://www.houzz.com/photos/19.....cisco

eschaya

Fri, Nov 25 2016, 6:57 am

Lady Bug wrote:

I wish we could afford to do real tile. But we actually weren't going to do the floor at all, because although the current floor is old and ugly, it's in fine shape so can't really justify the expense. But when we found out about the grout able peel and stick tiles, we recognized that we have the option of doing a floor for approx $300 (because cheap materials and no labor costs) which is the only reason we are even considering doing it.
If I didn't have such a limited budget... gosh, I could have such a gorgeous kitchen 😐.

eschaya

Fri, Nov 25 2016, 6:59 am

Squishy wrote:

How cheap could this be? We found a local granite place that has some options for $35/Sq ft, installed, plus a free sink.

pause

Fri, Nov 25 2016, 9:02 am

eschaya wrote:

How cheap could this be? We found a local granite place that has some options for $35/Sq ft, installed, plus a free sink.

Double check that there are no hidden fees such as delivery, installation of the sink, and know that tax will be charged. And if it makes a difference, in some of these cheap places you cannot pay by credit card. Also, be clear in advance about what happens if the granite cracks during installation, if they will service it free of charge.

Formica isn't as cheap as people think it is. Cheaper than granite, yes, but depending on size of kitchen, it can be a difference of only a few hundred dollars, and granite increases the value of the home by a few thousand dollars.

Also, the countertop Ladybug posted is marble. Granite in that color/style will be $65/sq ft. If you like the look of light color counters but want something cheaper than granite, consider quartz.

pause

Fri, Nov 25 2016, 9:10 am

Another thing to keep in mind, Rubber Ducky's advice: vertical surfaces have a greater effect on the overall brightness of the room than horizontal ones. So light-colored backsplash is more important than light-colored countertops if you don't want it to be too dark.