Our New Kitchen Inspiration

If you could see me right now, I’d be doing a happy dance. 💃We just had our pre-construction meeting this morning! They’ve already started clearing our lot and our slab should be poured in the next two weeks. Progress!

Want to know what I’m most looking forward to in the new house? The HUGE kitchen. For every annoyance in our apartment kitchen, like the too-narrow pantry door that my shoulders literally get stuck in, I can say, “When we have the new house, we won’t have to deal with this.” I’ll be able to dance in the pantry.

They say the kitchen is the heart of the home. In our new house, our kitchen is literally at the center of the house. It’s open to the family room, dining room, and visible the second you walk through the front door. So, the kitchen is where we started with the interior design.

To get an idea of the kitchen location and layout, watch this video.

Our house is a midcentury modern inspired design. We want the interior design to match the exterior midcentury vibe. Take a tour of the exterior here.

When I think of midcentury kitchens, I think of wood, geometric pattern, and fun color. I want all of those elements to be represented in our new kitchen.

In this post, I’m going to share my favorite inspirations pictures that are guiding our kitchen design. To see all my kitchen inspiration, check out my Midcentury Modern Kitchen Ideas board on Pinterest.

What I’m sharing here is the “dreaming stage.” Before we chose any of the design elements for our new house, we collected inspiration. These pictures helped me start conversations with my husband about the kitchen design and show him what I envisioned. Inspiration pictures were also helpful for communicating our ideas at the design center.

Next week, I’ll share the “planning stage”—what we actually chose for our kitchen. The “dreaming stage” is fun, but eventually, you have to marry up those ideas with your budget and the options at the design center. We made a few minor compromises, but in the end, I think we’re going to LOVE our new kitchen.

Our Midcentury Kitchen Inspiration

Beautiful Wood Element

When we started thinking about the new kitchen, I quickly became obsessed with incorporating some wood cabinetry. I was drawn to kitchens with wood lower cabinets and white upper cabinets or white cabinets with a wood island.

I love walnut cabinetry the most. 

After our first design appointment, where we got a preview of the cabinet options, I realized my dream slab front walnut cabinets were not going to happen with our builder (or within our budget). So, I looked for some other cabinetry inspiration, which I’ll get into below.

But I’m not letting go of my walnut dreams. I’m not sure how it will show up in the kitchen yet, but there will be a beautiful wood element. Walnut may appear on the counter stools, shelves, or wall treatment. I’m waiting to see how everything else comes together.

Geometric Tile

Cool tile is a must-have for a midcentury inspired kitchen. Through pinning, I realized I love geometric tiles, especially hexagonal shapes, and, not as surprising, I was drawn to turquoise, teal, and blue backsplashes.

Our new kitchen is a large u-shape, so the backsplash will be a prominent feature. We want to get it right, and we want the builder to do the tile work.

We DIYed tile backsplashes in our three previous kitchens, but with the size of our new kitchen, we don’t want to DIY. 

The trick will be finding the right tile through our builder’s design center.

Two-Tone Cabinetry

While I love the two-toned walnut and white kitchen look (see above), it’s not something we’re going to be able to do with our builder. None of their stained cabinet options (which are Knotty Alder or Clear Alder) would give us a similar look.

Initially, I was bummed, but then I realized the two-tone look wouldn’t be ideal in our kitchen layout. Because we have a u-shaped kitchen with a large kitchen island, you don’t really see our lower cabinets unless you’re IN the kitchen. I noticed most of my inspiration pictures for two-toned kitchens, either have no kitchen island or are an L-shape where the lower cabinets are more visible.

So instead, we’re going to go with white painted cabinets. I LOVE white kitchens.

I still love the two-tone look though. So, we’re going to do something fun on the kitchen island. 

Fun Color

What I love most about white kitchens is they create the perfect backdrop for color. 

We plan to do a fun color on the kitchen island that will coordinate with another color on the backsplash tile.

I also want to bring in another color on the pendant lights over the island.

Minimalist Range Hood

Our builder offers a choice of three custom wood range hoods. The one style they consider “modern,” has faux cabinet doors on the front of the hood. It isn’t what we envisioned.

We want a minimalist range hood. I love how the smooth white range hoods almost disappear in these inspiration images.

We asked our builder to create a custom minimalist range hood for us.

Kitchen Desk

Our new house has an office, where my husband will work from home part-time. I prefer to work in the main living area, so we want to create a desk area in the kitchen.

Thankfully, there’s no shortage of counter-space in our kitchen, so I’m stealing the 60” counter next to the wall oven to create my “office.”

I’m excited to have an office in the kitchen, but I don’t want it to be an eyesore. I want to keep it clutter-free and simple.

Also, I want the desk area to feel separate from the rest of the kitchen. I want it to look special. The area we are turning into a desk is visible from the front door, so it’s the first part of the kitchen you see. 

I think a special wall treatment, different than the kitchen backsplash, and cool sconces will set the desk area apart.

Coming Soon: Our Kitchen Selections

That’s everything we’re dreaming up for the new kitchen. I wish we were living in it already! I’ll be back next week to share our actual kitchen selections and a 3D tour of the kitchen.