Tags
Blue Arnold, Charles and Hudson, Clive Christian, Design Galleria cabinets, Designer kitchens, dream kitchen, Dream kitchens with color, Elizabeth Betsy Speert, Francois and Co., Gary McBournie, high-end kitchens, Jack Arnold, kitchen cabinet manufacturers, kitchen designers, kitchen inspirations, Louise Brooks, Mary Kathryn Timoney, Matthew Quinn, Michael Bell, Michael Oh, Michelle Allman
More colorful kitchens anyone? Ok, ok, so they are out of our budget, but does that mean we can’t look, right?
Plus, this eye candy serves a purpose. Just because we’re not going to run out and replace our cabinetry, doesn’t mean we can’t glean ways to emulate some of the architectural elements, accessories, paint colors, styles, light fixtures and artwork. I mean, look at the painting below:
This kitchen belongs to Brooke Shields. Note the glazed tiles used in the range insert and the chimney breast plate, where she displays a Malcolm Liepke painting – a huge one! Why should the kitchen be deprived of artwork? via Architectural Digest

Clive Christian in a honey oak.
Colors don’t always have to be where expected. This offers the best of both worlds, as the white gives this galley kitchen an open, airy feel, but the color on the floor gives it real character.
A dark, rich brown, offset with white marble and an argyle tile backsplash.
Clive Christian cabinets
The owners wanted a Tuscan glow to their kitchen, so a lot of detail work went into it. Cream cabinets were rubbed with a truffle colored glaze for a golden glow, the cabernet brown granite countertops were distressed with wire brushes and the island’s dark cherry stain is given a charcoal glaze. Gold limestone in on the island top and travertine tiles are on the floor. Designer Blue Arnold.
Designer Louise Brooks added tin tiles (which are normally seen on ceilings) for a backsplash and a glossy black range hood.
Here’s a kitchen with wood planks painted white for a countertop! The cabinetry is painted a vibrant coral. Interior Designer: Elizabeth “Betsy” Speert
Colorful injections in unexpected places! The ceiling is a stenciled medallion. If you have never stenciled before, please practice first on paper!
To keeps costs down, dark-stained cabinets were painted instead of replaced, the hardware was updated and new crown molding was added.
Please see my post on adding crown molding to existing cabinetry! Here a designer did it: Michelle Allman
All red in a small kitchen could be overpowering, but keeping the top cabinets light is a good option…
A true chefs kitchen. With the banquette, this kitchen almost looks like a restaurant!
Designed by Matthew Quinn, photo credit Mali Azima
Designer Gary McBournie
Designer Michael Bell of Design Galleria
Aqua tiles, floor to ceiling.
Design Galleria
Credit: Charles and Hudson
More green from Crown Point Cabinetry
Michael Oh
Yellow cabinets – Shaker from Canyon Creek
Francois and Co.
Clive Christian
Even the walls are paneled in this kitchen with a buttery soft yellow.
Clive Christian
The amazing girth of the range hood is not noticed at first, as it blends in with the walls, but it is massive!! I wish the pictured showed what type of range was used… Jack Arnold
Studio Becker cabinetry in cream with black marble countertops and a back splash tiled in the shape of panels.
Hidden door – who wouldn’t LOVE that??
This is not my personal style, but I put it in because it was an award-winning design. Atlanta Homes & Lifestyles 2012 Kitchen of the Year Winner. Designer Mary Kathryn Timoney.
via Southern Accents
Even in designer kitchens, it’s interesting to see how they saved their clients money. The most interesting solution (that I had never heard of before) was the painted wood plank countertop. It sounds dreadful – if someone described that to me, I’d tell them they were nuts – but it turned out beautifully.
Then, there are the normal savings solutions – adding crown to and painting the existing cabinets. All of them are painted in a flat or matte finish, but wouldn’t it be interesting to have a glossy finish to give a more formal air?
I hope you enjoyed this post and will see you for the next post!
I can’t tell you how much I look forward to your posts!
That is such a nice thing to say!! Thank you very, very much!!
Love the one with the green floor.
My favorite also . . .
Me too!
Thank you, this was fun! Love the Anthony Edwards kitchen, among many. I can reference this for future projects. 🙂
I always enjoy looking through these posts of yours! I share them with my husband as him and I love looking at stuff like this and hope to soon re-do our own kitchen like one of these some day 😀 Love all the wonderful ideas we get!
Hi Vina! That is so nice to hear and of you to say!! I’m hoping to give lots of ideas and inspiration and just love a comment like yours because it appears my work is paying off!! Thank you so much!! I feel like I know you from your blog, which I follow and enjoy very much!!
We want to eat kibble and treats in all of these kitchens! They are so chic.
Bella and DiDi
Beautiful stuff. Im so glad you found my blog because now I get to see yours, and we are actually remodeling our kitchen, on very modest means, and this is giving me great ideas! Thanks!
I’m glad!! On another post, someone commented about doing that too and I gave her some suggestions, if you want to look back through.
One was getting things through builder surplus places, like Habitat for Humanity has a store called Restore, where they sell builder extras for deep discounts. I don’t know where you are located, but here is a link for them to look up the stores by state: http://www.habitat.org/cd/env/restore.aspx
Also, painting the existing cabinets and adding crown to them is super easy and inexpensive. I did a post about adding the crown to the cabinets a few posts ago.
Do you need any ideas on countertops? Good luck and I’m sure it will turn out great!! Thanks for the nice compliments too!
Fantastic tip on Habitat…thank you. And yes, I absolutely want to hear any creative countertop solutions! That will likely be where any color “pop” is in our new kitchen. My house was built in the 40s, and in most areas I’ve opted to stick with the plain and simple feel of that time I realize this is the opposite of your fabulous design leanings, but there are still lots of great ideas for me on your blog too. (Stencils!)
Reblogged this on purpleplusdesigns and commented:
Great inspiration! keep them coming.
The stenciled medallion… the aqua tile… however to choose a favorite?!?
Isn’t that medallion a great idea? I just loved that too!
I Love it 🙂
Gad; if your post came with calories, I would have–happily–just gained a ton! Thank you for the wonderful inspiration and fun!
I love the floor to ceiling tiles!! Beautiful!
Beautiful kitchens one was more beautiful than the next.
Great post
“so they are out of our budget, but does that mean we can’t look, right?” Totally agree! 🙂
It’s fun looking at kitchens. Maybe because I spend so much time in it, when I am not working. I do like a few of the ones that you posted – ones that look very “homey”.
Woah! That’s a lot of kitchens. My fav is #2 – I can’t help but love the bright bright color! I feel like kitchens deserve color and kitsch – they’re the heart of the home. 🙂
Great post!
I pinned your pic of Brooke Shield’s kitchen on pintrest. Loved all the kitchen eye candy in this post 🙂
Pingback: 7/11 of Fantasy « Trowel anyone?
Stunning as usual! Just divine. I cannot even pick a favorite – they are all just amazing and I would be more than happy with any of them as my own 🙂
Thank you!! You are always too kind to me!!!
The Clive Christian ones make me wild with desire. I’m not kidding. I’ve seen their ads before and I just fell flat in love with all of them.
I came close to buying a house two years ago which had a kitchen really close to those, but, I came to my senses and decided I should stay in my (our) current house and save the bazillion dollars! **it sure was pretty though** *sigh*
Regards, D
http://dmagazine.me/
Me too!!! I don’t know if you read my first couple posts, but the buttery yellow Clive Christian kitchen was my inspiration and launched all my adding molding everywhere!! I still have the original magazine page that I tore out 13 years ago!! Just love them! (Price tag, not so much!)
Love the aqua tiles floor to ceiling!
Love the Chef Kitchen. That was my favorite!
I traded my AD subscription for Coastal Living this year, which I love but miss the AD. This post was just what I needed to fill that void!
Oh, good!! I’ll also be moving on to other rooms too, so I’ll be sure to get your AD fix addressed!! Thank you very much for the compliment on my post and I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
I loved the argyle tile backsplash! That was very unique!
I am in love. I love all of these kitchens, but that black and white kitchen design just stole my heart. I really enjoyed this post
Thank you very much!! I’m so glad!
These kitchens are gorgeous. I’m trying desperately to save up so I can redo mine. At the moment, I do love my decor (well, at least the colors). I have white cabinets, a salt and pepper laminate counter, and the walls are painted a bright grass green. The inset for the lighting is a dark teal, to match the living room. I wouldn’t have thought green went in a kitchen, and a few of my friends would still argue it doesn’t, but I loved the color and had to try it out. All my artwork in the kitchen matches too, and it feels so homey too! That being said, when I redo everything, I don’t see myself getting bright green accents. The artwork can stay though.
Loved looking and dreaming….put a few away for a possible redo in a year or so! Love “window shopping”! Thanks for a few minutes of down time today!
Thanks for sharing such beautiful & inspirational kitchens – I just love a chandelier in the kitchen they add so much sparkle and the hidden door is awesome! Another favorite of mine is the glass upper cabinets.
I went back and forth trying to pick a favorite. Forget it. I have about 6 favorites. They are all beautiful.
Brushed steel and red cabinets, who would of thought.
I would looove to redo my kitchen but until the budget allows i will adore your images for inspiration.
As a comment above noted, the Anthony Edwards kitchen is particularly nice and refreshingly colourful.
Normally, my taste in interior design begins and ends at very posh high-end cinema rooms, but these kitchens had little aspects that even a more realistic budget could aspire to include in the heart of the home.
Great post.
I LOVE that tin tile backsplash. What a great idea.
Eye candy is right! I currently rent a small apartment in a city with a tiny kitchen. So probably the biggest jealousy I have is the space and the ability to customize at all! My favorite is by far the one with the green floors- so fresh and unexpected!
The buttery yellow kitchen with the lavender checked banquette is one of my all time favorite. i love jenny’s work.
Great post!
xo, Lissy
Wow…must be nice to have one of these truly beautiful kitchens.
great cross-section of color!! You are a permanent fixture to my blogging world… you may be painted and re-painted, but never will I throw you out! lol 🙂
The last kitchen is my DREAM kitchen!! 🙂 I love everything about it! Especially how high the ceiling is!
Wow, a lot of very interesting designs! If I can make a small suggestion – please add Pinterest button ( you can do it on wordpress)- I’m sure lots of people would love to “pin” your stuff!
Cheers!
If I had a kitchen like that, I’d be in there cooking all the time because I’d WANT to!
Great blog you’ve got here. I actually work for a remodeling company in the Chicago suburbs. I’m going to share your blog with my co-worker. 🙂
My Kitchen is officially Dull and Boring after looking at these pictures! I think it’s time for an upgrade. Thank you for sharing!
Patti
Oh my gosh, what beautiful kitchens!
You got me dreaming~~~ 🙂 The first is my fav.
Certainly have kitchen envy now, but lime green?!? Not so much…
Great post and photos!
I just sat with tea and looked through all of these Kitchens, wonderful! Gives me some great ideas – thanks for sharing.
Wow! I love the use of color!!!
This is like porn for the housewife. I love these kitchens! In fact, we are in the process of redoing our kitchen. Not a major change, but we are updating our cabinets and giving the walls a fresh coat of paint.
Amazing stuff! Very nice collection.
Love the green floor and tin tiles.
Fantastic, Kearney ! Thank you for this wonderful post.
Reading your blog, you’re writing about things I need to know! I have to decorate my new apartment.
NICE blog…love that lime green kitchen! My house is 1849, but takes to color very well…hmmmmmm…thanks…will be back!
After seeing all of your pics, I might just have to move! My house and decor just can’t compete with your stuff. My favorite is the spacious kitchen with the built in bench on the other side of the island. I love built-in anything!
Wow, that is quite a selection of kitchen designs. Can’t say I am too keen on the lime green! 😉 Do quite like the Michael Bell one.
Well, it’s easy to design with a huge amount of space. I’d like to see how to design with a limitation. Now THAT’S a challenge versus carte blanche space and bugget!
The first is my favourite.
Makes me miss my old home where my wife and I designed a gorgeous, practical and colorful kitchen. Sadly enjoyed it only 2+ years before moving.
awesome post! so much variety!!
I like the one with the massive arched window at the sink best. I think the sink just has to be at the wind ow in a kitchen. Which is your favourite?
Love Clive Christian designs!! love your blog
Gorgeous! I can’t get enough of looking at kitchens and I love the ones you posted here.
cool. I like interior design and seeing the different colors and textures that people come up with.
especially love the crisp white kitchen with the lovely green floor.
Great post! Lots of kitchen inspiration… My favourite would have to be the darling one that you credit Charles and Hudson for! Although, I wouldn’t complain if I had any of them..
Kaila
Pingback: Week 28: A Glimmer of Light | Andalus Road
The painted ceiling medallion is amazing! I love the lime green kitchen – super brave choice and they pulled it off awesomely!
Beautiful! I’m particularly enamoured with Louise Brooks’ design with the tin tiles. They remind me of childhood summers spent in Maine (the general store on the little island where my aunt lives had a gorgeous original tin ceiling, and now I have a soft spot for them).
Oh I love that green floor! Now I want one. We need a new kitchen floor and have been weighing many options the last of which was a neutral carpet but I am crazy about that green floor. It would give such life to the room.
And it’s so unexpected! You can also “paint in” a rug or patterns!
Yes! I have already tried that. Even in my small kitchen I got tired really quick. So I have a boarder of various size stones and little bits of tiny flowers growing out of the edges here and there on two sides of the kitchen floor. The rest is not going to happen, I don’t think. It would be great but it was a lot of work.
I hear you! I painted stripes on our powder room wall and thought it would be the death of me 😉 A border sounds great!!
I love the kitchen with the pewter cabinets and the Francois & Co. hood.
Can you please guide me to the resources for the cabinet builders? Thank you!
Hi! I emailed the designer to find out for you…hopefully, I’ll hear back tomorrow 🙂
Reblogged this on celiabediliadesigns and commented:
This is a great blog! I really enjoy reading it. I like this post as it inspires me to use more color.