November 27, 2017

The Story Behind Green Cabinets and our Favorite Kitchen Renovation

We did a thing. We painted some cabinets forest green & we didn’t regret it.

You guys know how it goes, you get this cray-cray idea & decide to attempt it & then doubt yourself & then blame yourself & then really, really like how it turned out & in the end you love yourself for attempting it. It’s a vicious cycle that we seem to get ourselves into every. single. time.

These cabinets in particular began with a simple little idea. An idea to incorporate modern elements of forest green, raw wood & simplistic living throughout the Walnut Street house renovation. So, ya know, forest green it was. Front door, living room cushions, velvet blanket, plants out of the wazoo & in the kitchen – forest green cabinets.

Here’s what we had to start with…

And here’s how this kitchen lived happily ever after. But first, the story…

Cabinets: They say “The eyes are the window to the soul” – I think, if they get to say that, then I get to say this: “If a house had a soul, it would be the kitchen” & then I’d probably also say “the kitchen cabinets are the eyes to the soul.” So basically – my point being – cabinets are an important species, yes they are.

Rewind a few months, to when we were crunching the numbers as we designed this house, & not quite sure we could wing new cabinets. We decided to get a few quotes on cabinets, thinking we might have to go with Ikea cabinets or repaint the existing. We randomly decided to check out a cabinet shop just ½ mile away from us. We struck gold, lemme tell ya. We stumbled upon Mark King (who is probably our second-cousin-twice-removed, cuz let’s be serious, we are just 1 mile away from the Lancaster County border) & amazingly, he bought into our “hey do you think you could make us some really modern, really green, really good cabinets for a really good price?” We got an email from him after they were painted – “…they are very green…” *gulp*

Honestly, until the countertops, subway tile & shelving was up, those green cabinets looked super sketchy & crazy.

Countertops: To top off the modern, yet cozy look, we went with a solid white countertop & told them to make it skinnier than normal.

Shelving: Earlier this year, we had designed a kitchen for a client & had incorporated a lot of live edge wood, subway tile all the way to the ceiling & clean whites everywhere. It was gorgeous & we decided to try it for ourselves with our next house renovation!

(s/o to Bradley & Sarah Landis who let us be inspired by their gorgeous kitchen space)

We sourced the live edge from the best of the best when it comes to Lancaster County Amish woodworkers. Our boy Dylan, cut down the wood to create the beautiful shelves you see on the photos, he sanded them & polyed them to make them water resistant & easy to clean. He also created the live-edge waterfall bar that sits across from the cabinets.

Dylan is awesome. Be like Dylan.

Tile: To create a simplistic, yet modern look – we went with subway tile all the way up to the ceiling. Our boy Jer is master of his trade at tile, he slaved away & created this masterpiece. Dark grout completed the look.

Jer is awesome too, be like Jer.

Both tile & grout were sourced from good ol’ Lowes, so you can easily re-create this look.

Lighting: To maintain the simplicity, we went with track lights & simple hanging edison bulbs above the bar. I was pretty set on having lots & lots of extra wire to hang in loops. Not sure how that goes with the simplistic look at all, but I just did it & hoped for da best.

(Edison bulbs from Amazon, track lights from Lowes)

Stove hood: This black stove hood & exposed piping was something Becca & I dreamed up early on. Again, it was inspired from the earlier design of Bradley Landis’ kitchen & we couldn’t wait to try it ourselves. We painted raw hvac piping black & stuck it up top. Hellowww gawgeouss. Most hvac shops carry this, so again, easy to do.

In parting: We love trying new ideas & implementing themes into our houses, this has been our favorite kitchen journey so far & we hope you are inspired to go out & try new & daring things as well 🙂