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    • I'm Christina, a full-time web developer with a dog sitting business, home renovations, and a blog on the side.

      This blog is about restoration and decorating of our houses, currently a 50s New England ranch, previously an MCM, and before that our Little Victorian...and the homemaking in between.

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Little Victorian

Modern Homemaking

Kitchen style

September 3, 2013 Interior Design, The Victorian

Now that we have removed the kitchen cabinets, we’ve been trying to plan how the new kitchen will look.  I keep trying to make the mood board, but the software is acting up.  So I’m going through all of my inspiration photos on Pinterest.  I’ve noticed that there are basically two ways people design kitchens with open shelves.  One is very preppy, very shiny and crisp-looking.  That way is lovely, but it is just not me.

Like this pretty one, and Young House Love’s old kitchen:

 

I prefer something a little more rustic and natural-feeling, like these:

Open shelving kitchens
Country Living | This Old House

Most of the my inspiration photos also had black window sashes.  Which I love, and have already done in the living room.  But it will be a little trickier in the kitchen since the windows there are vinyl instead of wood.  I’ll let you know how that goes.

We were thinking of painting the walls light blue, but we’re going to go with the same warm white that’s in the living room.  We also decided to stain the wood shelves instead of painting them and we’re going with black metal brackets.

It’s harder than I thought it would be to pinpoint exactly what makes the styles so much different.  What do you think it is that makes the bottom two look more rustic and the first more preppy?

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  1. Katharine

    September 3, 2013 at 2:53 pm

    The colour and style of the dishes impacts on the look, lots brights and modern shapes don’t usually lend themselves to a rustic look and feel (unless very well balanced). White shelves would still fit the rustic look, just make sure the shelves aren’t high gloss or too sharp cornered and you should be fine.

    Reply
    • Christina

      September 3, 2013 at 9:11 pm

      Good points, Katharine, thank you. Good thing all of my dishes are white! 🙂

  2. Leena

    September 3, 2013 at 4:00 pm

    I had to stop for a while before commenting, what a tricky question you placed at the end.
    I too think the colours of the dishes make the first kitchen modern, the other two have more rustic items on the shelves. The tab also makes a small difference and I’m inclined to say that the shade of the metal on the handles of the cabinets on the first picture does not either give a rustic feel.

    Reply
    • Christina

      September 3, 2013 at 9:18 pm

      Good catch with the handles! It’s so hard to believe that such little details can make such a big difference.

  3. Danielle @Storypiece

    September 4, 2013 at 4:16 am

    I love Pinterest for that exact reason… you can really begin to spot what really speaks to you and what doesn’t. So excited for where you are headed with your kitchen. I’m sure the final results will be beautiful.

    Reply
    • Christina

      September 4, 2013 at 9:09 pm

      Thanks Danielle! Sure hope it will be… I wish the results could come as quickly as the demolition went.

  4. [email protected]

    September 4, 2013 at 5:22 am

    I’ll probably have open shelves in my kitchen later and I’m having the same hard time as you making decisions: to paint or not and if yes, what colour? What brackets? What to put or not on the shelves???

    Reply
    • Christina

      September 4, 2013 at 9:07 pm

      I’m sure we’ll keep making a lot of the same decisions since you own my dream fisherman’s cottage. 🙂

Trackbacks

  1. We painted our stainless steel range hood says:
    September 16, 2013 at 9:41 am

    […] we’re going for a slightly more rustic feel in the kitchen, we went with a flat finish instead of glossy to keep it from looking too modern, which is […]

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We had three offers the first day, one of whom hadn't even seen the house in person yet.
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But we're once again with a realtor that calls our house "unique" instead of calling it a Mid Century Modern. 🤦‍♀️
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We can't count how many locals came into this house and mentioned that those windows should be removed and walled up and the beams cut off. And then it would be a "normal" house. 🤯
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Still can't really identify with people in this area. 🤷‍♀️ SO happy to be going back home to the East coast TOMORROW!
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We're getting back into the house restoration and we'll be working on the powder room in the master bed. 
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