The 90s called — it wants its kitchen back

By Debbe Daley

Remodeling a kitchen is intimidating to most homeowners. From cabinetry to appliances to surfaces to floors to furniture, dollar signs pop up everywhere. Deciding whether to keep existing cabinets or rip them up can have a big impact on both the design and the bottom line. If they are made of solid wood and in excellent condition, consider doing your redesign around them.

Some clients of mine in North Andover wanted exactly that -- to update their kitchen and keep their pickled-finish cabinets, which were in excellent condition.

The kitchen not only had pickled cabinets with plain white cabinet pulls, but also white Corian countertop, white backsplash tile, white 8-inch floor tiles and white appliances.

In addition to the cabinets, the homeowners also decided to keep the layout of the kitchen, which helped them further save on remodel costs since major plumbing and electrical work would not be required.

Not only did keeping the cabinets save money, it also saved one headache in the design process. Figuring out what color floor tiles and countertop would work with the pinkish tone of the cabinets would be the challenge.

Appliances and cabinet pulls would be updated to stainless steel. Being a larger kitchen, the floor could accommodate an 18-inch tile. Using a cabinet door as an in-store color reference, I selected four samples with gray and green tones.

The countertop would be the focal point of the kitchen, so the homeowners really wanted something fantastic. After looking at many options and samples, they chose Crema Bordeaux. Variations of grays, blacks, rose and pink tones would make a statement, pulling the pinkish cabinet finish together with the stainless appliances.

For the backsplash, a 6-by-12-inch subway tile of Classic Marble Pulpis Grey would bring up gray tones from the floor tile.

Once the granite slabs were ordered, the only major choice left was the template placement -- which portions of the slab would become the surface and which would be cut out for the sink and cooktop areas.

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The 90s called -- it wants its kitchen back