As I’m thinking and dreaming about our next house, a room I’m particularly excited about is the kitchen. So, let me share some kitchen inspiration I’ve been rounding up.
We were fortunate to have very nice kitchens in our last two houses. Both have been a nice size with tons of cabinetry and good counter space. Here is my PA kitchen (and you can read more about the transformation of that kitchen HERE.)
And here was our Minnesota kitchen (you can read more about that makeover HERE)…
Buying a home with a nice kitchen is definitely a blessing, but it also felt like a bit of a limitation for someone like me. I want to customize each space and when you already have nice, hardwood, built-in cabinets, it just makes sense to work with what you have. We made a ton of upgrades and put our custom stamp on each of these kitchens, but it was largely cosmetic work. The footprint and layout of both kitchens as well as the large built-in elements remained the same. Call me crazy, but I am ready to rip out a kitchen.
So, as we’re looking for a new home, I get pretty excited about kitchens that are dated, duck-taped, and desperately need some work. It’s not that I’m looking forward to washing dishes in the bathtub or using pieces of plywood as temporary counters, but I want to be able to design a kitchen from scratch. I want to be able to adjust the layout and add in all of my preferences, like drawers instead of base cabinets, and taller uppers. I know it’ll be a lot of work, but it’s very exciting to me. I mean, we don’t even have a house and I’m already planning things out!
Here are some things I’m inspired by and I would want to incorporate in our next kitchen if it works…
kitchen inspiration | Ilve range
I am already set on this one! I have several friends who own Ilve ranges and they have nothing but glowing things to say about them. I had a wonderful dual fuel range in our last house and I definitely want one in our next house. Since I want to do a complete kitchen reno, I am excited about the fact that I will be able to get a larger range. The one I have my heart set on is the 40″ Ilve Nostalgie range in stainless steel with brass trim. It’s exactly like the one below…
Photo via @Johanna Bradford
I am over the moon at the thought of having a griddle (I’m a big breakfast fan) and two ovens. It’s a big range, but not enormous, and Ilve ranges are very reasonably priced when compared to other ranges with similar features.
I get fluttery just thinking about that range in my very own kitchen.
kitchen inspiration | mixed finishes
In our MN kitchen, I did mix white cabinets with a green island and I like the idea of mixing paint colors and or painted wood with stained/natural wood. It offers the functionality of built-ins but gives the custom look of a freestanding kitchen.
Kitchen: @ArcadianRevival. Photography: Elizabeth Haynes Photography.
I also love this take on that idea by Number 131. She found an antique dry sink on Facebook Marketplace and rebuilt it to fit a modern sink. It looks so good and I immediately went onto Facebook Marketplace to search for dry sinks in my area.
kitchen inspiration | painted cabinets (not white)
My last three kitchens have had white painted cabinets. I mean, it’s classic and you really can’t go wrong with white. But, I ventured into colored cabinets with my boxwood green island and butler’s pantry in my MN kitchen and I’d like to go with full-on color in our next kitchen. I’m not sure what color it will be, yet, but it will likely be blue.
Photo via Plain English Kitchen.
That is also why I like the idea of a stainless steel Ilve range, although they come in so many amazing colors! Stainless steel will reflect the colors around it, allowing me to pick any color and change my mind. It’ll also complement a stainless steel fridge. (We’re looking at THIS ONE by Forté.)
kitchen inspiration | incorporating antique pieces
I am already hunting for large cabinets, cupboards, and counters that might be incorporated into our future kitchen. Of course, I can’t buy anything until we have measurements and a plan, but it’s fun to bookmark things that might be worth revisiting when the time comes.
This cabinet salvaged by NorEast is so amazing, but it’s 8′ tall and it’s not likely to fit through very many doors! It would be amazing to find something similar, though, and plan modern built-in cabinets around it.
Architectural salvage from NorEast.
kitchen inspiration | brass pot rail
You may have noticed from my last two kitchens that I am a fan of pot racks. Even in our first townhouse, I had a rail from Ikea running across a kitchen window so I could store my stainless steel pots and pans there. It is just such great storage! I don’t know if I’ll have a place for my beloved pot rack in my next kitchen, so I am already thinking about alternative ideas. I absolutely love this brass pot rail and how much visual warmth it brings to this space. I can definitely see doing something similar for storage and display.
Photo via @rebeccaandgenevieve
I think the most important thing I want from our new kitchen (and the entire house for that matter), is that it feels very much like us. I received a wonderful compliment from someone the other day who said that she loved that my style and home didn’t follow trends. I’m sure I’m swayed by the prevailing looks of the day, but I try to draw inspiration from a variety of places to it does look unique to me.
Our homes and rooms should show who we are, not who we follow.
So, the only problem with buying a house that needs a kitchen gut-job is that we will likely have to live with a pre-gutted kitchen for a while. But, I know it’ll all be worth it to get to go through the process of making a kitchen completely my own.
My realtor is going to love me… “Oh, the kitchen is dated and awful? Perfect!!”
You can find more kitchens I find inspiration on my Kitch-inspiration board on Pinterest.
I understand your desire to design a kitchen, and I hope you get to do that. It will be inspiring to see what you dream up.
I’m smiling here, fully agreeing that planning and shopping is half the fun. Enjoy! 🙂 And, we get to enjoy along with you.
I’m excited to see what color cabinets you use. My husband handmade shaker kitchen cabinets and we painted them white. I love a basic white kitchen but I often think of going with a color. I’m just afraid after all that work repainting them I may regret it. He also built me a step back shaker cabinet and since I’ve always admired your Boxwood color that’s what we finished it with. I truly love it.
Oh no. I’m sitting here worrying about my future. When you updated your MN kitchen I was coming up on a reno of my own. I used several of your ideas and loooove my kitchen. Now you’re talking about a gut job. What if I fall in love with your new kitchen? ?
Love your inspiration board! And I agree 100% with doing all drawers instead of lower cabinets with shelves and doors. It is live-changing!
We completely gutted our kitchen including eliminating a double slider door to a single door. This allowed for another bank of cabinets including a pantry with slide out shelves. I chose Indigo blue. I found this company that would paint their cabinets any Sherwin Williams color. I then found antique indigo tiles for back splash that were about 50 years old. The shape was not always consistent to the chagrin of the tiler and they sometimes had little bubbles in the tile. I love them. Then I went with primarily white marble countertops.
Marian, I’d love to see you also use some artwork in your new kitchen….I loved when I saw you’d painted fruits and garlic. I have a smallish landscape in my kitchen along with a pretty still life and I get a lot of compliments for adding paintings in my new kitchen. I feel like it gives the kitchen a more European feel, too. 😉
Love ? all the kitchens on your Kitch-inspiration board!! They’re old style kitchens that are modernized, but not too much! We live in a 160 yo stone farmhouse and will be renovating our kitchen soon and this gives me inspiration…so thank you ?
Can’t wait to see the journey to your new kitchen.
This post was such fun to read! I love thinking outside the box. But my experience is not as vast as yours. Still, I love your ideas. They also have me brainstorming! And I LOVE the range. 🙂
The pot rail is very DeVol. I love the Discovery+ channel show “ For The Love of Kitchens”! Hope they make more episodes soon.
Me too — re DeVol kitchens and episodes!
I follow Devol on Instagram and they’ve said they’re working on Season 2!!!! Cannot wait!!!
Marian, I agree with you about not following trends closely, but I believe you SET trends with your incredible ideas and taste!
We lived through a 6 month long kitchen/family room remodeling that started July of 2020. Microwave, coffeemaker and dish washing station in the laundry room, fridge in the library, grill and camp stove in the garage. I was supervising my 5 and 7 year old granddaughter’s online schooling in our house that fall due to Covid. I have traditional raised panel cabinets painted ivory with Taj Mahal quartzite countertops. I bought two wrought iron circa 1900 chandeliers and a fire back mounted over my cook top from France. Not the popular white shaker cabinet kitchen but I love it. I don’t regret a minute of the disruption. I encourage you to go for the kitchen you dream of!
Such beautiful inspiration photos. I know wherever you land will be a home you can make your own with all of your artistic talent. The best part, we’ll get to watch the design work as you complete it. 🙂
Karen B.
Marion, you have some wonderful inspiration photos in your blog! I hope you will find the perfect house to have your wonderful kitchen in! So exciting for you. I bought my current 43 year old home and gutted the old kitchen. I had such a great time remodeling it to my specifications. Good luck!
I look forward to seeing how you make your next home “yours”. I love the way your personalize your homes to fit your style. I can hardly wait!
Kitchens are so important. Not only are they the place to cook meals, but also to gather, socialize and manage the home. Here are my kitchen wants:
1. NO STAINLESS STEEL! I have an aversion to sinks and appliances that look industrial. Sure it’s a practical metal, but it’s ugly, never giving off a homey feeling.
2. I don’t like black appliances either, in fact, dark moody kitchens are not my cup of coffee. Give me light, airy, breezy and nostalgic. Color is good; all white is a little too stark; I’ve had yellow in some form or fashion in my kitchen for fifty years. I’ve never tired of it.
3. Nothing says kitchen like curtains. I have used sheers, prints, solids, Cape Cods, and my favorite, heavily ruffled Country Curtains with big headers and sash-bow tie backs. Today mine are yellow.
4. My husband and I had a pull-out shelf and drawer combination installed by a local carpenter a few years ago. I love that thing! The older I get the harder it is to dig into those lower cabinets.
5. I think soffits are a waste of space when you could have cabinets going all the way to the ceiling. Give me storage! I am saddled with mine for the time being so I have them painted in a neutral creamy off-white called “Camelia” which is my go to neutral house wide. We have added narrow metal shelving in the same color and in various styles to hold dishes. It’s not too heavy and it’s a great accent which is easy to change.
6. My secret trick is to decorate the inside of the kitchen cabinet door. There is some good space there, and when you live in a small house, space is at a premium. I have metal signs carefully installed inside some of my upper cabinets. Magnets stick to them. One holds a big calendar.
7. I always have some antiques in my kitchen. Right now there is a corner holding my husband’s childhood desk and a child’s chair I bought at an auction. It’s set up for the grandchildren to color, paint or play with clay.
I love your ideas. I hope your dream kitchen will be just what you are hoping for, and who knows? There might even be another book about it!
Agree with Lynnet! NO stainless steel! So many other people have that and it’s so ugly. My friends have a while Ilve range and it is beautiful. I have a copper Blue Star range and love it. Yes to antiques in the kitchen. Marian, I love the dry sink idea; wish there was a way to look at more pictures, but I am not on Instagram and don’t want to be. Best wishes on your new kitchen; I know it will be beautiful. Thank you for encouraging all of us to dream.
Good morning, Marian!
Loved this post!
Yes to skipping the stainless, using curtains/vintage textiles, cabinets all the to the ceiling, and antiques in the kitchen!
The look of a freestanding (furniture) pieces in mixed materials is completely charming and homey at the same time.
I’m also interested in the Ilves ranges and would love to learn more. Thank you for sharing the photo inspiration ~ we have many of the same pins!
Warmly,
Rachel