Kitchen Mood Board

I've got kitchens on the brain today. High-gloss, bright, white kitchens to be precise. Ryan's apartment, for all its charm, is painted a creamy off-white that borders on banana in the right light. And it drives me bananas. Whites that verge on yellow tops the charts of my design peeves.

I so desperately want to submerge everything  in Benjamin Moore's super white. But until we work our way through a number of other priorities higher up on the list (e.g. air conditioning...78 degrees today!), I will content myself with day dreams, mood boards and a blog post.

In my very own personal apartment (yes, that's an Infinite Jest reference), I have an Ikea kitchen. And it's a dream-come-true. Even though it's a rental, I couldn't love it more if I'd designed it myself. Most of all, I love the akurum cabinets in abstrakt high gloss white. They look great and they're a breeze to clean.

So what about Ryan's kitchen? Here are a few inspiring high-gloss kitchens that signal the general direction in which I'd like his kitchen to mosey:

Source: DesiretoInspire.net

Source: Canadian House & Home (Sept 2011)

Source: Madebygirl.blogspot.com

Source: Housecrush.blogspot.com

Source: Lovehousedesign.com

The shared characteristic of these kitchens is the high-gloss cabinets, of course. But there are two additional trends represented towards which I'm gravitating heavily. The first is brass fixtures in a white kitchen. It's unexpected and tends toward either formal or funky, depending on how it's executed. The second trend is white tile with dark grout. Not only is the contrast cool, it's immensely practical! (Dare I say dark grout might even merit a post of it's own? I'll mull it over.) White grout just gets nasty. I'd post a real live example if I weren't so embarrassed about the mold with which tolerantly I co-exist.

If I had to break down my vision for the kitchen, it would be thus:

1. Subway tiles with gray grout;
2. Carrara marble countertops;
3. A splash of color, perhaps in the way of a rug;
4. High-gloss white cabinets*
5. A funky light fixture;
6. Sapele and/or Walnut wood accents; and maybe, just maybe:
7. Campaign Style Hardware.

*But how to make them shiny? Professionally applied spray lacquer ($$$$)? Replace the existing cabinet doors with glazed MDF doors ($$)? DIY paint job in super white followed by 4 coats of Benjamin Moore clear gloss, sanding in between each coat ($)? (Groan.) TBD.

In other words (or the value equivalent of 1,000 words), something like this:

Sources:
1. Backsplash - Subway tile with dark grout;
2. Countertops - Carrara marble;
3. Clock - Schoolhouse Electric, $275;
4. Stool - Kurf Stool, Organic Modernism, $450;
5. Rug - 5 x 7" Entwined Leaf Rug, Anthropologie, $398;
6. Cabinets - Akurum Wall Cabinet in Abstrakt High Gloss White, Ikea (price depends on size);
7. Campaign Style Hardware - Paxton Hardware in Nickel, $26.99 ea.;
8. Pendant Light - Pil Hanging Lamp, DesignTree, $770 - $857.