Sharing the modern classic green kitchen design plans and mood board that is guiding our kitchen renovation!
Some of the products in these kitchen plans are sponsored. I’m so grateful to the following sponsors for helping make these kitchen plans a reality (Silestone by Cosentino, Liberty Hardware, Vigo Industries, Wayfair Canada, Breville, Insinkerator and General Paint). See my full policies here.
Last week I shared aaaall those ‘Before’ photos of our new home and talked a little about our plans for the kitchen. Today I’m excited to share more plans for the kitchen including a design board to help you catch the vision!
The kitchen remodel from these green kitchen design plans is actually underway already and I’m working on a video update of the progress so I thought I’d share the plans with you over here! If you want to see more real time remodel updates- I’m always sharing those on my Instagram Stories!
When we remodelled our last home, I played it pretty safe with a lot of the finishes and design choices. We had never invested money into a house before (other than lighting and paint) and we didn’t want to have regrets. And honestly… we hadn’t grown into our style.
I think it takes testing out some different things before you really figure out what you love for your home style. With this remodel, we have so much more confidence in what we love and are looking forward to making some bolder choices. One of those? This kitchen!
*UPDATE* The green kitchen is complete! You can see it complete RIGHT HERE!
This is the vision that we have for the space. The olive green cabinets, with black accents make it moody but overall still light and bright with white walls, light grey countertops and white oak laminate flooring.
Before I get into the details of the plans… let’s talk about what this space looked like before! I shared all the photos of our home (before) in a post here last week if you’re interested in seeing more of the spaces.
Kitchen remodel before:
So this is what the kitchen was before. The kitchen was definitely functional but not a great use of space. For the size of the kitchen… look at how little useable counter space there is!
Some of the finishings had been updated (it looked like the countertop, sink, flooring, and faucet had been updated since it’s 80’s beginning) but the cabinets, backsplash, and probably lighting were probably original. The day that we moved in, the front fell off that sink cabinet. Which I’m going to take as a sign it wanted to be made over ;)
THE WHY
Beyond the finishes being aesthetically not our style (or up to date in general), one of the things I really wanted in a new home was to be open to the living space. With four young kiddos, I didn’t want to miss out on those special moments (learning to walk!) and I wanted to be able to supervise while I was working on dinner.
This is something that we had in our last place and I wasn’t ready to give it up. BUT on the other side of that wall is a giant brick fire place. The general consensus is that it is NOT structural so we could have opened it up if we wanted to… brick by brick. But then we lose the fire place and we make all that work for ourselves!
THE kitchen remodel PLAN
The solution? We’re actually moving the kitchen- so try stay with me. Do you see how the kitchen has an opening to the dining room? And then at the other end of the kitchen there’s an awkward… breakfast nook? Maybe that’s what it was meant to be? It was totally wasted space for us.
So we are taking out the wall between the dining room and kitchen, then flipping the two. By taking over that wasted breakfast nook area, we gain back that space into the footprint of the kitchen/dining room. Which results in a giant kitchen, honestly… but I’m not one to complain about that ;)
This is a peek of the floor plan… not to scale… because I drew them ;)
We are putting the sink right in that bay window so we can look out to the view and to the backyard while the kids play. We’re disguising the fireplace wall (do you see that there are three different depths of walls there! I did a terrible job drawing it…) with a wall of pantry cupboards and balancing that beast with no uppers (only windows, hood fan and open shelving) on the opposite side. I’m SO excited for this!
Why we chose custom cabinets for our kitchen
So you can see that there’s a lot of weird angles, hiding strange wall depths, and nooks in this floor plan. As much as we loved the challenge and price tag of renovating our kitchen on our own using IKEA cabinets in our last house– we knew this kitchen would need some custom work that we weren’t confident to take on ourselves. If we had a standard box shaped kitchen- we would have happily done IKEA cabinets again, we love the way they function and they look amazing honestly.
I took my sketched out plans to a few shops to get quotes. We weren’t sure what to expect because we’d never done custom millwork in the past. We were pleasantly surprised by a few of the quotes and it came down to flexibility of timeline for us more than anything. If you’re local to Kamloops- the company we ended up going with is Top 40 Wood Works.
They actually supplied and installed the countertops at our last place and we were happy with their work and also their price. We were able to get in on a cancellation which helped fast track the process for us.
Since we had to take down the walls and built in pantry to get the final measure before anyone could order cabinets- we really wanted to be able to turn things around quickly so we weren’t without a kitchen for 3+ months (most quotes were 10-12 weeks minimum after that final measure then countertops are a minimum of two weeks after that).
The other decision maker for which cabinet company to use was their ability to execute my design. I really wanted that sink tucked in the bay window and most companies told me that I’d have wasted space in the cabinets on either side to account for that. Or that I should run the cabinets straight across and have an extra large countertop (and wasted storage space. Terry at Top 40 took on the challenge and those bay window cabinets are custom shaped to maximize storage.
Let’s take a look at that design board again and chat at details.
The Choices
The first thing we decided is that we wanted coloured cabinets this time around. We went white in our last place and wanted to have a bit more fun. We chose a beautiful medium dark greenish grey. The colour we chose is called Dakota from General Paint (see comparable paint colours here). That was the start of these green kitchen design plans- everything worked from this decision!
Since the cabinetry is painted in lacquer, we had it colour matched. Because we were going bold with the cabinets, we wanted to keep everything else pretty light and bright. We chose a nice bright white paint that is really clean (no weird undertones) called Expert White, also from General Paint.
We had actually planned on keeping the flooring that was in the dining room (and the whole rest of the house) but we needed to get a couple hundred square feet to put it in the current kitchen and entry way where there is that vinyl tile. I called over 30 places and every one (including the local rep for the company it’s made by) told me that it’s been discontinued for years and I will not be able to find any of it. We were so bummed!
But now that we’ve chosen a new flooring… we’re loving the contrast of the darker cabinets against the light floors. The flooring we purchased on case sale from The Home Depot Canada (no help here since it was one of those one off case deals!). *Update- the flooring held up so poorly and after a flood, we upgraded to vinyl plank. Highly recommend!
We’re also keeping it light with our countertop choice. We chose this goooorgeous Lagoon quartz from Silestone and not only is it beautiful, but it’s also super durable which is HUGE for us with little kids who love to help out cooking. I really love the look of marble but after using it in the bathroom of our last house- we found it super hard to maintain with kids around.
When I was looking at quartz in a more prominent veined look- as soon as anyone saw our kitchen plans, they advised against it. Since we have so many angles and bump outs, they suggested a more subtle pattern that was random instead of linear. I think this Lagoon design by Silestone is the perfect mix of what we love and what we need.
The other thing I LOVE in these green kitchen design plans and am going to carry through the whole house is black hardware and fixtures (I am putting together a series of it! See the first right here). We are so in love with the pieces we’ve chosen (these are all sitting here waiting to be installed. Anything that will be counter mounted is at the counter place or I would have photographed those too!). We looked at a lot of different options and here’s what we’ve decided on.
We’ve chosen these sleek North Dalston cabinet pulls from Liberty Hardware for all of our drawers and cupboards. I love that there’s no sharp edges for me to get clothes caught on or kids to knock their heads on and they will be so easy to clean.
We also went black for our faucet and hot water dispenser as well as our lighting. The faucet is SO darn gorgeous, you guys! It’s a new one from Vigo Industries (sold at Home Depot) called the Greenwich pull-down faucet. I love the matte black of this baby and can’t wait to see it installed! We paired the sleek lines of this guy with an under mount stainless steel sink also from Vigo Industries.
I really wanted to have an amazing coffee bar in this kitchen. We love our coffee and have been dreaming about this since we started looking for houses.
*UPDATE! The coffee bar is complete- see more about that and our choices here.
Our old Breville espresso machine has lasted since our wedding 9 years ago (you can see it in this coffee bar post) and it was slowing down to the point that we really wanted to replace it. I’m excited to be partnering with Breville to be sharing our coffee bar once it’s said and done and it’ll be featuring the same espresso machine I’ve fallen in love with using at my Dad’s… the Barista Express.
The other thing my dad has for his coffee bar that we just love is a hot water dispenser to make americanos a breeze to make. I’m not sure about you… but hot water dispensers aren’t usually a look that I love BUT that’s changed. Isn’t this sleek and modern hot water dispenser gorgeous?! Did you even know they made ones so pretty!? I certainly didn’t before walking through a local showroom and setting my eyes on this beauty from InSinkErator (H3300 in black).
Speaking of InSinkErator and my Dad’s coffee bar… We’re also partnering with them to put in a garburator (this one!). Coffee grounds… right down the sink! Can you tell how excited we are about this coffee bar idea? Ha!
The lights are also black… ish. We really wanted matte black lighting but the selection just wasn’t as big unless we opened our parameters up to rubbed oil bronze. And you know what… even having them here and holding them next to the black things… these lights are pretty close to black! I am in LOVE with these arm lights you guys! These lights are from Wayfair Canada and are seriously beautiful! We are doing open shelving in part of the kitchen and will have a couple arm lights above them. We’ll have pot lights through the main of the kitchen and then above the sink, a semi flush mount. Specifically THIS pretty little thang (also from Wayfair Canada).
We’re also working in a little peninsula to separate the kitchen from the dining and are using these modern leather stools. We put a little cupboard in the back of the island for the kids to store all their art stuff and playdoh- so these stools will be heavily used I can already tell! They’ve arrived and I haven’t assembled them but couldn’t help but open up a box and they are SO pretty! They are also from Wayfair Canada and were really affordable compared to some of the other leather stools I’d found. Shopping online for this remodel has been such a life saver- dragging my 4 kids around to all the kitchen appointments has been enough of a challenge, let alone driving all over to pick out these pieces!
Another thing that I wanted to point out in these green kitchen design plans is that the range area has been a fun design challenge. I really wanted a pot filler (we found this one on Amazon!) but it was on an exterior wall where we wanted the range. I think we’ve come up with an amazing solution and I can’t wait to share this with you! I’m planning to do an entire post on this solution/design decision but for now… here’s the plan!
We are building out a faux wall. A bump out of sorts and have the range hood being built to the size of that bump out (cabinets around the slide in range also bumping out). We’ll tile all the way up and this will keep the pipe from freezing. Because we have a window on that wall and this bump out- we decided upper cabinets were too much, so that’s where we chose to do open shelving. Does that make sense? I can’t wait to show you how it’s all coming together!
Alright SO those are the finishes that we’ve chosen!
Still to be chosen?
Backsplash! I have a meeting with a local flooring company to look at some options tomorrow and I can’t wait to wrap my head around how it will look! I also need to find some window coverings and would love to get a beautiful runner for the floor. But I still have time… right?! Ha! I’d love to hear your thoughts on the design! I am really excited to have this space finished… not just to get my kitchen back, but also to see this green kitchen design plan come to life!
PRODUCTS FROM THIS POST
- Arm Lights – Wayfair
- Flush Mount Light – Wayfair
- North Dalston Drawer Pulls – Liberty Hardware
- Silestone Lagoon Quartz Countertop
- Dakota (cabinet colour) & Expert White (Wall Colour) both from General Paint
- Suffolk Undermount Stainless Steel Sink – Vigo Idustries
- Greenwich Matte Black Pull Down Faucet – Vigo Industries
- Matte Black Hot Water Dispenser (H3300) – InsinkErator
- Garburator with black deckmount button – Insinkerator
- Matte Black Pot Filler – Amazon
- Tiles featured in post are just some example ones I’d borrowed
- Leather Stools – Wayfair
- Espresso Machine – Breville Barista Express
*UPDATE* The kitchen is done! You can see it complete RIGHT HERE!
Enjoy Design Plans? You can see how I make them RIGHT HERE.
Here’s more I’ve made for remodels over the years!
DIY Metallic Leather Passport Holder with Cricut
Love the cabinet color!! It seems General Paints no longer sells it?? It’s not listed on their site :( so bummed. You wouldnt happen to still have a paint can with the paint code on the lid would you? I’d love to have our local paint store replicate it
Thanks!
If you do have a general paint, they do have it! They use the colour journeys system so you need to search their colours in there: https://www.colorjourneys.ca/en/cj_bucket_3_column_foyer_nuetralground/neutrals/#422F IF you don’t though, sherwin williams thunderous is almost identical!
Perfect plans and design, very classic, modern, and realistic. Can you also share the link on where to buy the rug with tassels?
I wish I could! I want to buy it again- ha! It’s from HomeSense
Hello! Do you happen to know the brand of teh rug? Maybe its on the back of the rug? Thank you!
Hi Rhonda! Colleen got it from Homesense, sorry there is no tag.
I clicked on this because I love the tile in the picture. Any chance you happen to know what it was and/or where it was from?
Sorry! We’re not sure
Love this post! I just painted my bottom cabinets a similar smoky green (from a lighter green) and LOVE them. We also have dark hardware, a white backsplash and wood elements, and (most importantly) the same espresso machine, which makes my mornings so enjoyable. Our walls are currently painted a terra cotta color, which I feel is too bold, but my husband likes. I’ve been looking for a good white (with no undertones), so this post was very helpful in that regard. I plan to paint the kitchen sometime when my husband’s out of town. :) Thanks for sharing!
This is truly a great read for me!! Once again, thanks for the quality articles you post on your blog!! That is a very interesting & awesome post. I am always searching for informative stuff like this!
Do you have any product info for oak floors? Brand or color type? Love the darker grains showing through
Colleen got them from Complete Floors in Kamloops! Here’s the details: Supplier – Golden Moulding, Product Line – Mega Plank and color is White Oak
Do you have an after picture?
Here you go! https://www.lemonthistle.com/modern-olive-green-kitchen-before-after/
Any photos of the finished product ?
Here you go: https://www.lemonthistle.com/modern-olive-green-kitchen-before-after/
These are realistic plans without really sacrificing any resources. I really love your color contrast choice! Some people have a hard time mixing and matching colors so I’m really glad it worked out for you. I remember reading a blog that gave an example: dark appliances, fixtures, and flooring can offset the overwhelming white of the kitchen. And I plan to do the same. Thanks for your kitchen remodel posts!