Cabinetry is very expensive and holds great power when defining a space.
It is well worth your time and effort to do your homework on prices, styles, finishes, quality, and costs.
This project brought interest to both the builder and I because the homeowner’s aesthetic is modern while the home is a traditional New Englander. Often, we try to stay with the style of the home when doing a renovation, so this was a fresh look at space and goals. Upon entering the house from the front door, one can see straight to the back of the house with a hallway of cabinetry and waterfall island. Therefore, we owned the modern aesthetic from the 1920’s front door.
Modern cabinetry is typically defined as framed cabinet with overlay doors. The door style is typically slab with materials such as solid color or a dark wood veneer such as walnut. In this home, we decided on playing with the juxtaposition of white and walnut. With extended styles, the face of the cabinets are a straight clean flat line across the wall.
Hardware is an essential part of defining the modern aesthetic. The homeowner wanted a streamlined finger groove, but since we were using a veneer, we couldn’t create this look. And since there are small children in the home, we also wanted to be sensitive about durability. We decided to have the hardware custom made, and powder coated black to blend into the walnut cabinet doors and drawers.
The hardware on the white full cabinets are a combination of the simple matte black vertical, and in the mudroom, the gold and glass hardware is from Restoration Hardware.
In the master bath, the goal was to have a wall hung cabinet with drawers for as much storage as possible. While a challenge to create, it was a careful dance between the contractor, plumber, cabinet maker, and stone fabricator. While this looks simple, it was a complex process.
This home offered us an opportunity to think outside of the box and create unique custom cabinets to meet the homeowner’s needs. Check out the pull-out shelf for tea in the hallway cabinets and the beautiful lines of the mudroom built-in with slanted walnut back of the bench seat with surrounding storage.