Our New Green Kitchen

Welcome to our new kitchen! I thought it was fitting to share our GREEN kitchen for St. Patrick’s Day. 

We’ve officially been in our home for two weeks now, and our kitchen is the only somewhat organized space in our new home. For how many times we’ve moved, I always forget that moving is a lot of work and requires multiple months to unpack, especially with four kids.

Designing Our Kitchen

When building with Jordahl Custom Homes, we selected one of their pre-existing floor plans and customized that floorplan, even adding additional square footage to the middle of the home to allow for a mudroom and home gym located in our basement. The kitchen was a standard L-shaped kitchen with no pantry. You can view my original design inspiration post here.

Below are a few things I had on my wish list when meeting with our builder for our dream kitchen:

• Green cabinets
• A large island that would fit four+ stools
• Cafe appliances, including a gas range with custom hood
• Walk-in pantry with cabinets/countertops
• Adding a window and sink to the pantry

And here’s our kitchen! I honestly can’t believe this is our home. It still feels surreal that we get to live in this space. The kitchen turned out better than I could have ever imagined. 

Sink

Having sink in the island seems to be a hot topic; either people love it or hate it. We’ve never had a sink located in our island, but it was the most functional with the layout of this kitchen. When designing, we first moved the kitchen sink from the perimeter to the island. So far, I love it! The sink we picked out is out of stock, but here’s a similar option. It’s granite composite and feels much more durable that the fireclay sink we had previously. Another favorite feature, our faucet.

Cabinets

We added floor-to-ceiling cabinets by our fridge to create a built-in look. The bottom cabinet is our pull-out trash. After building a few homes, we’ve learned that putting the garbage in a high-traffic area like the island causes issues. Usually, someone is standing in front of the trash and recycle bin, which drives me nuts, so we opted to put the bins off to the side. 

The original cabinet layout included upper cabinets, but we’ve always opted for a more open look. We have eliminated upper cabinets in all three of our homes. Having upper cabinets is a personal preference, but we were going for a European-inspired kitchen. We opted for a countertop pantry cabinet. The cabinet offers a ton of storage, and it’s another item we waffled on, but so glad we added it.

‘What color are your cabinets?’ They are Sherwin Williams Pewter Green in a lacquer finish. The finish is so smooth and velvety; I could not be happier with the look. Our walls are Sherwin Williams Pure White.

We opted to add cabinet hardware after we moved in. I wasn’t sure if we wanted to go with an unlacquered brass or an antique brass. We opted for unlacquered brass, and I’m impressed with the quality. The knobs and pulls are very heavy, and I love how the brass patinas over time. Some of the pulls were in back order so ignore the painters tape.

Window

I was worried about the amount of natural light in our kitchen and opted to add a window. It wasn’t supposed to be a countertop window, but it turned into one and I love it. Our builder suggested carrying the countertop into the window, and it’s one of my favorite features of our kitchen.

Island

I’m also obsessed with our island design. I originally wanted open shelving on the far side of the cabinet but realized we wouldn’t be able to fit four counter stools, so I nixed the shelf idea. We added shaker-style paneling to the sides and front of the island. It’s the little details that make our kitchen look custom.

Range Hood

Our range hood is another favorite feature (I’m probably going to say that about everything in our kitchen). I shared inspiration pictures, and our designer at Jordahl made it happen. Again, I wanted a European-inspired range hood made from drywall and contrasting molding. If you haven’t checked out Devol kitchens, there is an abundance of moody kitchens that I used for our main kitchen inspiration. I highly recommend checking out their Instagram. 

Appliances

We chose the Cafe appliances in black (you can read my review of our white Cafe appliances here). I’ve already received a few questions on why we chose black over the white finish, and it was a personal decision. The black finish against the green cabinet is pretty and is the look I wanted.

Countertops

We had the happiest accident with our countertops. I originally picked out creamy quartz that was very subtle, with no veining. When it was time for the countertop company to fabricate the countertop, they noticed some slight defects in the slab, so I had to pick out new countertops last minute. I opted for Calacatta Laza quartz countertops, and they are oh so beautiful. I think this was the happiest accident I’ve ever experienced. 

Lighting

I picked out these sconces to flank the range hood. They are subtle yet add some depth and interest. 

I purchased these pendants last September, and they were on back-order for five months. We just had them installed last week, and they are better than I could ever have imagined. If you buy these, keep in mind that they are 75 lbs. each. They are so heavy to hang! We hired electricians to install them because there’s no way Nate felt comfortable hanging them up.

The Details

Here’s a recap of our kitchen details; feel free to screenshot and save it for your future kitchen inspiration.

• Cabinets are SW Pewter Green
• Walls are SW Pure White
• The countertop is Calacatta Laza
• The kitchen island is 7′ long x 4′ wide
• Our kitchen is approx. 14’x11′

What other questions do you have regarding our green kitchen? Pantry details to come, so stay tuned!

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