A Kitchen Update, Keeping the Travertine Floors

I have one of my Designed in a Click™ consultations to share here today, a kitchen update where the homeowner wants to keep their travertine floors and reface the existing cabinetry.

They had already made up their mind about a few things, but had questions about the materials, hood and island.

Come and see this kitchen.

Existing kitchen to be remodeled, keeping the travertine floors.

Existing kitchen to be remodeled with cabinets to be refaced.

Existing kitchen as viewed from the dining room.

Here were her kitchen design questions:

Question #1)

What would you suggest for the cabinet re-facing material? Some ideas are a light white oak, a wood with a washed light grey finish or a light taupe painted cab.

My response:

I like the white oak, but then a painted finish would be the second option if you had budget constraints. I like to use rift cut oak with cabinetry, it makes for a tight grain, not the more wild grain of oak that you often see in flooring. It is more expensive, but really nice for cabinetry. Here's some more info on rift cut oak.

Rift cut oak on kitchen cabinetry. Carla Aston, Designer | Colleen Scott, Photographer

With paint, it really depends on which countertop material you land on for sure. Some good taupe paint colors are SW Balanced Beige or Pratt and Lambert Pebble, but first, select your countertop material with your flooring tile and work off that.

I feel like this will be a budget based decision and you can evaluate that once you get some numbers and weigh what is most important to you.

---

Design Tip - For the record, I think going with either the white oak or taupe color is a good option here because of the travertine. So many times people want to go white, keeping their travertine floors, but that really depends on the undertones of the exact travertine tile you have and it can then come across as a dirty looking tile floor if you aren’t careful.

Giving an exact color to use here or in any situation over email or online is a little risky too. Colors are best matched up with the exact products used in the space and travertine tile can vary a lot in color.

When I think of taupe cabinets here, I’m thinking of the painted cabinetry of DeVol and how they would look with some light, off-white countertops with taupe veining.

BTW, have you seen their tv show on the Magnolia Network, on Discovery Plus? It will make you rethink your kitchen cabinets AND make sure you address your outlets and switches in a remodel. :-)

---

Question #2)

What would you suggest for the countertops? We are thinking a simple white quartz for the perimeter and a more dramatic quartz for the island and backsplash (going to the ceiling over the cooktop and behind the new vent hood). We liked Calacatta gold/taupe quartzite as it would tie in with the floors but maybe that is too much?

My response:

If you are doing quartz (man-made) or quartzite (natural stone), in your kitchen, I would do it in all the same product. Your kitchen isn't huge and I think it would be better to keep it to one material. It would create more of an impact.

It looks like you are talking about quartz (man-made) instead of quartzite (which is a natural stone, denser than granite), from your inspo pics you sent. You can read more about different natural stone countertop choices here.

There are some quartz products that look really fake and some that look really great. The pics you sent me look nice, so those would be fine. Go with something pretty realistic and not too crazy of a pattern.

This one is rather popular but I think it just looks super fake and think you'd get tired of it fast.

Don’t use this quartz, it looks too fake.

Don't go up the ceiling with your splash, there is no need. Since you are keeping your upper cabinets, you just don't have much space there and it would be a waste of money and product as it would be hidden behind the hood. I would go up just underneath the hood that would fit between the two cabinets on each side.

Also, I never like to see the transition of material above the cabinets, between hood area and sheetrock wall, which is why I'm more of a cabinets-to-the-ceiling person in most instances. :-) It just provides such a clean transition of materials.

Question #3)

What type and style of custom vent hood would you recommend and where should it start and stop? We like the idea of a stainless or a zinc hood with aged brass vertical straps.

My response:

Try Vent-a-hood for a stainless hood. They have straps you can add in their custom program and various metal finishes. Ferguson's Enterprises reps them in local showrooms, so you can go there for assistance.

Vent-a-hood stainless hood for kitchen update. Contrasting metal straps can be added for detail.

You can also try local custom metal shops, but this gets the venting system in there too, so it is nice to have it all in one package. Zinc will likely be cost prohibitive, so I’d keep it to stainless.

Question #4)

Tying in some dark wood tones – the family room across from the breakfast area has a dark brown mantel, fireplace door and bookcase, so how do we tie in some of that brown into the kitchen for a cohesive look across the three spaces? Either build a custom dark brown wood island or reface the existing island cabinet in a dark brown wood?

My response:

I like the finish of your dining table in the pics, I would go for a finish like that and would do a new island. That color feels more neutral and up to date.

The tv cabinet seems more red-brown stained to me and it is beyond the dining room area, so not sure it is that important to tie it together.

In this kitchen, below, you can see how we've set it on legs and done end panels, etc. This would be a style to emulate for your island, although I’d likely go to smaller legs, like 3” square. These are 4”.

Rift cut oak cabinetry with contrasting wood tone island. Designer: Carla Aston | Photographer: Colleen Scott

Add a runner and some glass pendants over the island and your kitchen will have a whole new look!

Partial Kitchen Remodel Sketch | Carla Aston

See more of my consultations and projects below that had partial kitchen remodels.