a slightly different approach to a modern kitchen...

I think that many folks unfamiliar with modern homes envision the interior of the home to be completely modern - inside and out.  And, many times, these assumption holds true.  However, not all modern home interiors are white, sterile, and uninviting. 

Hey, just because we like the look of century modern architecture (basically, architecture with roots in mid-century modern but built today, get it?  if not, google it...) does not mean that our home will.  We want folks to feel welcome when they walk through our big yellow front door (there are websites devoted to yellow doors...promise!).  I think that the combination of modern with transitional modern will work out quite nicely.

From the entry, you can take in the whole space visually.  And, we really want our kitchen to be spectacular - it is the farthest from the entry, but might be the first thing that folks see when they size up the space.

We have chosen Viking applicances and...come to find out, Viking is headquartered in Greenwood, MS which is not an hour from where my parents live.  Dad has already said that he has heard that Viking has repair problems...we have also heard that as well.  However, comparing all the different choices, we think that Viking will best fit our needs.

In fact, I could take a class at the Viking Cooking School in Ridgeland if I was so inclined. 

For the range, we went with a 48", 6 burner with a griddle - all gas (here).  If the power goes out, come on over! 

For the vent hood, we chose an Air King and will conceal it with the upper cabinets.

For the refrigerator, we chose the Viking 36" with custom panel - meaning that the cabinet builder has to build custom panels for the refrigerator doors.  We will also use the same pulls for the doors as we will use on the cabinets.  This is the stainless model:

The island will house the remaining appliances - we chose an ASKO dishwasher with a Viking front panel and a SHARP microwave with drawer - pretty cool that it doesn't have a door, instead the microwave opens like a drawer.

So, the appliances will fit nicely into the kitchen space.  We want the perimeter cabinets to be painted a light gray color (to be determined based on marble selected for island slab).  Painting the cabinets means that we can go with a less expensive wood like poplar because the island itself will be furniture grade wood and stained. 

Now, we know that our choice of countertops are high maintenance, and we get that...so no need to tell us about all of the negatives about our choices.  The perimeter countertops will be Soapstone:

And the island countertop will be polished carrara marble.  We want to match the perimeter cabinets to the gray streaks that will be in the slab we choose - the photo below is just to provide a visual:



The backsplash will be honed carrara subway tiles:

And at this point, we will paint the walls a couple of tints darker than the cabinets.  So, a hazy smoky color - think a gray color with white base.

Potentials at this point for cabinet and wall combinations.  Classic gray for walls downstairs - kitchen really doesn't have any walls except for the small hallway to the pantry and entry hallway - since it is all open, this color would have to be on all the walls downstairs though:



And a potential for the perimeter cabinets:

Ok...so we will be looking for a slight contrast - on the screen the colors are not really different.  But, we do have plenty of time to make final decisions.  Gray is the new beige, right?