An Artist's Guide to Renovating a Kitchen (Part 2)

It was important for us to stay true to our design ethos of a simple, contemporary, west coast home. We wanted to honour nature, by keeping the finishes honed, matte, or textured. Here are a few of my favourite design choices:

— PANTRY – Includes lots of hidden storage, including designated spots for our microwave and coffee maker. – I designed it to have solid doors, keeping it really simple. And long wooden handles that I sourced on Etsy. – Includes open shelving for our plates and bowls, which we have been collecting from local potters over the past few years.

— CUPBOARDS – handleless and knobless, giving it a really modern look. – built in hood fan surround, minimizes the hood fan – Hood fans are required to be mounted a particular distance from the stone top (depending on electric or gas), but uppers are generally 24” above counter. By having custom upper cupboards, I was able to design them a little shorter than standard. This way they are the same height as the hood fan surround, and create a sleek link. They also increases our backsplash height. – went with textured Riftcut oak laminated for the base cabinets along perimeter, and to add some warmth and rawness to the kitchen. This secondary finish is as also repeated in the pantry shelving.

— COUNTERTOP – chose a white quartz for both the countertop and backsplash. – opted for a 2CM countertop — much more slim and contemporary than your standard countertop thickness. – I saved money by selecting 2CM countertop but spent a little extra on the waterfall edge on the one side of the kitchen island. This gave the thin counter more integrity on the overlap.

— EXTRAS – Selected this Blanco single sink in white. – Selected a single floating shelf to house some favourite treasures and give the white kitchen some personality.