Purple, green and blue may sound at first more like colours for a lady’s room than for a classy California kitchen. But with just the perfect grey undertones along with a timeless mixture of materials, this palette feels clean, fresh and even understated.
Interior designer Kathy Farley combined two 640-square-foot cottages to create her new home, bumping out the rear space to create this purple, blue and green kitchen. Timeless materials and easy fixtures equilibrium out the rich purple cabinetry and bold mint shelving, as well as the result brings the preceding cottages’ kitchen style into the 21st century.
Kitchen in a Glance
Location: Berkeley, California
Size: Around 200 square feet
Cost: $85,000, including the build-out
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“Among the things I loved about those cottages was that the kitchens were so tiny but so functional,” says Farley. The brand new kitchen, while more spacious, maintains the same simplicity and performance. Farley acknowledged the first cabin kitchens’ mixture of paneled cabinetry with flat-paneled and tongue and groove closets.
White oak floors in a habit grey stain adds to the trendy color palette. Farley used Flos light fixtures since they’re modern but have a traditional shape.
Countertop: Carrara marble; pendant lighting: Romeo Moon, Flos
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Farley’s husband, a painter, chose the blue wall color based on a classic bowl. Mint green shelves display dishes for simple access. “I like to keep things out that are pretty and functional,” says Farley.
Wall paint: Boca Raton Blue, Benjamin Moore; shelf paint: Apple Blossom, Benjamin Moore
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The carefully chosen materials palette allows Farley to alter her cabinetry and wall colours later on and still possess a great-looking kitchen. White subway tilegranite countertops and oak flooring go with just about anything.
The habit stains on both the upper and lower ash closets match different Benjamin Moore paint colours: The uppers are matched into Purple Haze; the lowers to Amethyst Shadow.
Backsplash tile: Riverside 3- by 6-inch area tile; oven-range: Viking; hood: Windcrest
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A built-in cutting board has slots for knives, whereas vintage flower frogs sit on the windowsill — that which falls right into Farley’s method of practical and fairly displays. Old-fashioned materials — subway tile, marble, butcher block and zinc — honor the cottages’ first kitchens.
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The kitchen has among the house’s just available spaces for the laundry. Custom cupboard space on the rear wall hides the washer, washer plus a tiny broom cupboard. Custom doors for all these awkward-size openings would have been expensive, so Farley needed a metalworker attach a path to the top of the storage areas and place together slats of stained cedar for its sliding doors.
Wall treatment: habit plaster, matched to Shenandoah Taupe, Benjamin Moore
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Farley always desired a window over the kitchen sink, so she had a large window with a transparent view into the yard punched out.
The habit zinc-topped island, set on casters, allows for versatility when it comes to entertaining. Once static, it functions as storage plus a place for casual meals. But in addition, it can be wheeled outside on the adjacent deck to clean the kitchen out and eventually become a pub.
Refrigerator: General Electric; dishwasher: Bosch; faucet: Chicago Faucets