Reader Project: California Kitchen Joins the Dark Side
For someone who once attended culinary school and enjoys cooking all kinds of cuisine, Ian White’s kitchen was the opposite of what you’d find inside a wannabe chef’s home. He had been in his Aliso Viejo, California, home for 16 years, and the all-white melamine cabinets were peeling, the white tile countertops were cracking, and the grout was beyond dirty. Not to mention that his range top couldn’t simmer and his pots and pans wouldn’t fit in the split-basin sink, which, by the way, was chipping. “It was getting pretty shabby,” he says.
White hired Jaimie Smugeresky of Mr. Cabinet Care, a kitchen and bath remodeling company, to tackle a remodel, doing away with the all-white scheme in favor of dark cabinets and dark countertops. He added a deeper sink, a large range — “with a real simmer,” he says — and a much larger oven, big enough for the England-born White to finally cook roasts that remind him of home.
Project at a Glance
Who lives here: Ian White, who works for a telecommunications company
Location: Aliso Viejo, California
Cost: About $39,000, including a new bar area and a remodeled bathroom
That’s interesting: The project took just four weeks to complete, with a one-week break for countertop fabrication.
BEFORE: Despite the falling-apart kitchen, the layout worked for White. Not that there was much he could do with it anyway, because of the slab foundation. The water pipes running to the island sink were in concrete, so moving the plumbing around would be messy. He decided to keep everything where it was and focus on aesthetic and functional updates.
AFTER: These days you don’t hear too often about a homeowner’s remodeling an all-white kitchen to have dark cabinets and countertops instead. But that’s exactly what White wanted. “I wanted that slightly industrial look with clean lines and just a more sleek look,” he says. In fact, he wanted things so sleek to go with the dark features that he even chose a refrigerator without ice and faucet dispensers and a visible brand logo on the door.
He then used Houzz to find photos for inspiration for the dark wood cabinets and dark countertop he was after. The cabinets are 2 inches shorter than the previous ones, a choice White made to help visually open things up, something he swears the darker colors do as well. “People have this fear that darker cabinets make things look smaller, but it makes it look bigger to me,” he says.
White added a larger oven and range but wanted to keep the counter space, so the cabinets and counter were extended about 9 inches and now sit flush with the window — near White’s dogs, Apollo and Eva.
Refrigerator: Bosch; microwave: GE
The backsplash is a stainless steel and white strip mosaic. “I felt as long as I had a lighter backsplash, it would offset the darker cabinets,” White says. The countertop is quartz by Cambria in the color Daron.
Smugeresky helped White with his options, even noticing that a particular cabinet handle he had picked out would catch on pockets and encouraging him to go with a different style.
The whole process ran smoothly, taking just one month from start to finish, with a one-week gap when the countertops were constructed.
Range: Wolf; extractor fan: Zephyr
BEFORE: Smugeresky also helped White tackle a few other projects around the house, including remodeling a downstairs bathroom and converting this cupboard into a bar and coffee station. The large cupboard originally stored pots, pans and extra glasses, because there wasn’t room in the previous kitchen’s cabinets.
AFTER: Deep drawers in his new kitchen were big enough to take on everything he once stored in the cupboard. He then removed the cabinet and turned the space into a cocktail, wine and coffee station.
White says his contract with Mr. Cabinet Care was for $25,000 and included the demolition of the old kitchen and cupboard, all-new cabinets and countertops, a remodeled half bathroom and installation of everything. White purchased the sinks, faucets, garbage disposal, cabinet handles and backsplash materials, which cost about $14,000, putting the total at $39,000.
More:
See more in the Before and After section
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