I had my own kitchen design dilemma…

My house. My kitchen.
It felt like there truly were at least a million possibilities of cabinet materials, or paint colours to choose from. This is how my clients must feel until they work with me who helps them to edit and streamline these overwhelming choices down to a few only. They hire me to solve their design dilemmas.

How was I going to solve my own design dilemma?

This was indeed a challenging project especially because I was choosing the colour and style palette for my own home - and I was creating a specific mood in my new kitchen that I wanted to make me feel excited everyday. With the new kitchen, my goal was to add to the well-being in my home.

Us designers always find it more challenging to decorate and design our own homes because we know just how many choices there are…
And, we also know that if we wait just a bit longer, our sales reps will want to show us new finish options; inevitably, we’ll find yet another option to consider. This was becoming quite a dilemma.
At some point, I had to tell myself to stop looking, but I had to be excited about the choice I made.

With every project I design for my clients, my goal is always the same: I hope that my client’s hearts will sing with joy. I had to also ensure that my heart would sing with joy, too.

Well, it took me many, many months to select the final palette. It also took longer due to my actual client design projects that were my main focus and my livelihood.

When I started to create a mood board for my own kitchen design, I first thought about what colour palette will I enjoy seeing everyday? What design style was I aiming for? What would I get excited about? I want a design that will make my heart sing.
I thought about having an Italian aesthetic of moody neutrals - you know, as in Giorgio Armani chic
and sultry serene colour palettes - the cashmere grays, mushroom brown, ivory, metallics, moody charcoal and midnight blue. I couldn’t get this palette out of my mind - I had to find it.

I initially thought that I could achieve the midnight blue with painted cabinets; well, that took me
down the rabbit hole of finding just the right tone of navy blue. I looked at eight paint manufacturers: Benjamin Moore, C2, Farrell & Ball, etc.., and thought I had found two possible blues with Sherwin Williams.

I did a test patch on my old cabinet door…left it for several days to look at how the natural light and night time lighting would play with the paint undertones. I pondered, looked again at it and finally decided, nope, that hue is still not right.
So I shelved the decision making for a short time; I needed a mental break from looking at so many colour options. I knew that I would eventually find the right hue. I wasn’t in a rush to renovate my kitchen thankfully.

A cabinet laminate manufacturer contacted me to show me their new line of finishes. We met, I looked at the samples, and almost instantly found my Armani-style kitchen colour palette – and they weren’t paint colours after all.

My heart fluttered each time I looked at the two finishes I chose knowing that these were exactly what I had in mind originally and that it would be perfect for me.

Now, everyday I see my kitchen, I’m giddy, it makes me smile and most importantly, my kitchen functions well for my family and me.

My heart is singing with joy!!

See my new kitchen here.