When I moved into my apartment over a year and a half ago, I knew I’d renovate the kitchen (and bathroom). The new layout would be pretty straight forward, as I can’t change the location of the sink or range. But the aesthetic took a little longer for me to develop.
I’ve always liked the look of white kitchens, as they’re timeless and versatile. Since this is a starter apartment with (by some standards) a small kitchen, I decided to go with white high gloss cabinets to help bounce light around.
At some point, I stumbled upon an NYC coop kitchen renovation that also used Ikea’s high gloss white cabinets!
I liked the clean and modern look of her kitchen, though I’m not fond of some of the details. I then found other kitchens with glossy white cabinetry that I felt were more my style.
Photo by Natasha Habermann Studio
Even though the craze for herringbone tile is mostly over, I’m drawn to this herringbone tile every time I walk into Lowe’s. In person, it’s much more white and grey than the yellow-ish tone it has online.
For counter tops, I’m going with a light to medium grey quartz. It’ll tie in nicely with the veining in the marble.
a quick “mood board” with the marble herringbone tile, grey quartz counters, and high gloss white cabinetry
Though I’ve had a tough time finding a place to get the counter tops! Lowe’s and Ikea both have minimum requirements for square footage (25 square feet), and since I don’t meet that requirement (I’m estimating I’ll need about 17 square feet), I have to pay a penalty (to the tune of $250). Home Depot just has a minimum charge ($1200) regardless of square footage needed, and the price per square foot for their grey-colored counter tops is about $1200 anyway. I’m still planning on talking to a few stone yards to see if they’re able to help me out.
In the mean time, I’m still meeting with contractors and sub-contractors to satisfy the board’s requirement of me not doing it alone. Right now, it looks like I won’t be starting on demo and construction until September.
