Kitchens

Cream and Blue Family Kitchen

Update the cabinetry, update the lighting layout, rework the island, design a built-in table.

Family kitchen with cream cabinetry, a travertine backsplash, herringbone floor, lantern pendants, and a blue farmhouse table

Location: Arizona
Project type: Kitchen and casual dining
Scope: Update the cabinetry, update the lighting layout, rework the island, design a built-in table.

The challenge

A large and structurally sound, but dated space, with an undersized island and a lot of dead space between it and the breakfast nook. The goal was never a tear-out; it was to update the space and make it work better for a family that cooks, hosts and gathers.

Functional requirements

Keep and improve what was sound rather than replace it
A table that seats the whole family and takes daily wear
Storage to the ceiling without a top-heavy look
Task lighting that still feels warm at dinner

The approach

The existing cabinetry was painted a creamy beige. Faceframes were built above them with frosted-glass fronts and backlit. A travertine backsplash brings natural stone and texture, a herringbone porcelain wood-look flooring adds movement underfoot, and matte-black-and-brass pendant lighting adds a transitional feel — with linear hardware that nods to the lines of the pendants. The existing island was modified: a bookcase on one end, a pull-out trash and recycle on the other. It was painted blue, with matching detail added to coordinate with the legs of the custom table built onto the end of the island.

A place to gather

The move that made the room was the table built onto the end of the island — blue-detailed to match, sized to seat the whole family and built to take daily wear. It turned the dead space between the old island and the breakfast nook into the part of the kitchen everyone actually uses.

The blue farmhouse dining table under lantern pendants, with cabinetry running to the ceiling — The blue island and its built-on table — the room's one confident color.

The reworked island refinished in deep charcoal-blue with a granite top, against white perimeter cabinets and a wood-look floor — The reworked island — deep blue, granite-topped, with the built-in table.

Before — the kitchen with cherry raised-panel cabinets, tan granite, an undersized white island and a tile floor — Before: cherry cabinets, an undersized white island, and a lot of dead space.

Kitchen with glass upper cabinets, lantern pendants, and the herringbone floor

Attention to detail

Island reworked with a bookcase on one end and a pull-out trash and recycle on the other
Island painted blue, detailed to coordinate with the custom table's legs
Custom table built onto the end of the island
Pantry door reworked with a frosted-glass insert, painted to match the blue island — and used as a family message board