What is the secret to a beautiful kitchen? Is it the cabinets, mouldings, colors, tile, lighting, counters? Well, it’s all of that and much more. While I think it’s pretty easy to put a nice kitchen together, a knockout kitchen is something else. And sometimes what makes it a knockout is not what you might think.
Before I go any further however, I want to add, that none of these are my work, except for one. I do not claim ownership and I also move heaven and earth to find the ORIGINAL source. Someone gave me flack for putting “source unknown.” Please. If it is your image and it is not credited, I want to know and I will add it! OR, if you see something and know for sure the original source, then also, please let me know.
My Top 25 kitchens on Pinterest
…it might be 26 kitchens that are the most popular kitchens that I’ve pinned. There are many others that I love on my kitchen board, but these are the most viral.
Furlow Gatewood’s kitchen with blue and white chinoiserie and transferware – photo Rod Collins
This is another kitchen which has had several hundred repins. I featured it once before on a post about kitchen hardware. This is a sublime example of the classic white kitchen. White cabinetry has always been and I suppose at this point, my favorite cabinet color. It never goes out of style. It always looks fresh and what I always recommend.
Some people think that white kitchens look cold.
The trick there, is with the lighting and varying the shades of white slightly for a rich, white on white look. Of course, as in the next kitchen, you can also either add color with wallpaper or paint.
Yeah… that’s my kitchen. It’s had 10 repins, so it qualifies. Do you like my watercolor rendering?
You mean, you PAINT too?
yeah. :]
But, not that well! haha! I did it on a free program for PC called Fotosketcher. Yep, folks. THAT is a ‘puter generated water-color! Is it not the coolest thing ever? It’s a free download! And, in addition to watercolor, you can do pencil sketches, ink and oil techniques.
If that’s not enough, you can tweak the effect very easily, changing things, like number of brush strokes, intensity of effect, light, dark. It’s more fun than I care to admit.
Below, is the original photo.
And for y’all who have photos of your work floating out there, uncredited, not to tell you how to run your business, but it is extremely helpful if you watermark them. I use picmonkey now. It is very easy!
BTW. The kitchen is FINISHED! There a few minor things and the furniture is coming soon. I feel so privileged to have been a part of this project. More photos will be coming, but not for a few.
This and the next 2 photos are from the IKEA IDS show in Canada. yes, the cabinets are from IKEA
This splendid beauty [this image and the next four] is by Libby Palmieri
Love those pull-out spice racks flanking the range!
Love the soft, pale, pale gray here.
Rue Magazine | Interior Design-Tonya Olsen-Photography-Lindsay Salazar
Mckee Patterson and Kathleen Poirier – photography: John Bessler
Talk about your labor of loves. This is one of the most extraordinary kitchens I’ve ever seen!
lucky doggie!
copper backsplash. very cool
love the pantry!
similar to the one we did for the Bronxville, kitchen
Another shot of the Bronxville kitchen looking at the pantry.
For more wonderful pantries, click here.
A recent pin that’s being repinned like crazy!
original source unknown
this is the kind of drama I like!
fabulous website to check out
original source unknown
source unknown
I made a watercolor of this one too!
Traditional Home
original source unknown
original source unknown
what an architectural gem this is.
 Again. ;] I adore the work of Steven Gambrel!
xo,
Want more kitchen ideas? This will keep you busy for a while. :]
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19 Responses
Laurel, I have a new white kitchen with a mocha brown Island. I need help with lighting over the island and kitchen table. Plus we haven’t painted yet and not sure what color to go with. Can you give me the links to what you have for those.
Terri
We are renovating our entire first floor. Everything is gutted. I have to choose a color for our custom made cabinets and am so afraid of making a costly mistake. Only one shot at it. I was going for an off white upper with light to medium gray lowers and a calcutta looking quartz countertop. What do you think? Is the two toned cabinets still in style? Or should I go for all off white? I have to make my final decision this week.
Hi Georgia,
I can’t see your kitchen so it’s impossible to say. However, as a rule, I prefer that look when there are very few upper cabinets over the counters. I also prefer it when it’s high contrast such as dark blue on the bottom and white on top.
In any case, a light gray could end up looking almost like the same color. Usually the island (if there is one, of course) looks more pale compared to the perimeter cabinets.
Laurel, do you know if pics #32-34 are White Dove cabinets? They all look creamy white. I have the same color cabinets in my kitchen with subway tile that is Shaw Baker Street Biscuit, so it blends with the cabinets. Our trim is Alabaster SW. Walls are Accessible Beige and I can’t stand them. Not sure what to try for the walls, but it’s dingy in a dark house. We have quartz that looks like the granite picture, and it’s so busy I can’t live with it anymore, so we are changing them out! My dream is to have a marble look, but it has to be quartz, since that is what our builder provides. How do you pick a countertop like that without making your cabinets look yellow or dirty/dingy? I’m afraid I’ll regret changing them. Our island is a large dark island the color of the hardwoods,so I want a clean simple and classic look on the island, without all the squiggles of black, taupe, gray everywhere. I can’t see if they’re clean or dirty either! And it’s hard to decorate around that, it’s so limiting. I’m at my wits end second guessing myself. We have to choose from Cambria. Another reason why I want to change it, is we get no natural light in there, and it’s so dark and dreary. I want to lighten it up, and want it to be a classic/timeless look. Any suggestions? I’m pretty desperate! Your blog is beyond amazing by the way. I love starting my day reading it. You are a very good writer and hilarious!
Hi Hope,
Thanks for the kind words. They make my day.
Please try looking here:
https://laurelberninteriors.com/marble-countertops/
And there may be some useful information in some of these posts.
https://laurelberninteriors.com/?s=kitchen+counters
If you can’t find what you’re looking for, then I would seek out the services of a design pro.
Could you provide the source for the wallpaper in YOUR kitchen? Love it! Thanks! Cindy
Hi Cindy,
Oh how I wish that MY kitchen would be amongst these beauties. It’s not. Not even close.
I imagine that you are referring to the one I designed for my client. That paper is from Cole & Son.
I noticed most of your sources are unknown – there’s a simple google image search tool you can use to locate them https://images.google.com
Hi Julie,
I actually have a shortcut to google images. I take great pains to find the *original* source.
http://jarred.github.io/src-img/
And that is sometimes impossible. But thanks for letting me know because a lot of bloggers do not.
Thinking of painting my cabinets white. Any Benjamin Moore color suggestions? Thanks so much!
Hi Suzanne,
Well, if your trim is white, it makes sense to paint it the same. Since I don’t know what your other finishes are, or other colors, it would be difficult to say, but the ones I talk about on the blog are all great shades of white Paint.
https://laurelberninteriors.com/great-shades-white-paint/
https://laurelberninteriors.com/great-shades-white-paint/
5th picture up – do you know where they got the latern pendants?
thank you foryour help
frieda
Hi Frieda,
I’m sorry I don’t know and I was curious too and checked out several sources.
I was wondering if you ever found the company that makes the lantern style pendant lighting in the picture
Hi Lynne,
Sorry, no idea.
Thanks for including us in your list. We designed and built the wine bar with the tall SubZero’s and Walnut countertop.
Thanks again!
Thanks for stopping by Cyndy. Gorgeous work you do and a wonderful website!
Hi Laurel,
Wow – what a page! We are just in the planning stages of a new home, so of course the kitchen is the most important! I was wondering with your love of kitchens if you happen to have a resource for the tin screening in the hutch of the Libby Palmer kitchen (3rd pic down)? I went to her site, but that page is no longer there.
Thanks!
Linda
Sorry, I don’t have a source, but whenever I’m stuck, I use good ol’ google and sometimes search under images.