Well, I will divulge that my biggest critic is my son. He is an engineer student at Northeastern University and an avid cyclist. In other words, his brain is always putting things together and doing math.
Now, while I find is questions frustrating, they are also thought provocative and challenging. He hasn’t been home much during this renovation but every time he comes the floating shelves are done just a bit more. He takes one look at the kitchen and asks, “Mom, why are the floating shelves mahogany instead of the oak of the cabinets?” Simple question, long answer.
I have a lot of different woods in my old, eclectic house: maple, fir, walnut, oak, and pine. In my kitchen, I had existing dark antique china cabinet and dark pantry doors. So I used the walnut floating shelves to pull those woods together. I didn’t want to use walnut on the base cabinets since I was trying to keep things lighter (not to mention that walnut is the most expensive wood right now). I think of it more as a fun twist and embracing my love of wood.
Typically, the floor is the darkest and the upper cabinets are lightest. But I reversed the order and the floor is the lightest with bleached cork, oak cabinets, grey concrete countertops and walnut upper shelves and cabinet juxtaposed with the white subway tile. Trust me, it is all carefully thought out even though a 21 year old seems to think differently.
The lesson here is to follow your heart and love what you have created! And that, is exactly what I told my sweet boy!