The Willow Lane home tour has arrived! Dreaming of a farmhouse life in the middle of the city, this custom new build on private acreage was interior designed from the blueprint stages with durability, high-fashion style and chic liveable luxe materials that support this busy family's active and minimalistic lifestyle. At the heart of this home is the open floor plan kitchen and it abounds with intentional details and massive functionality.
Understanding how the client is going to function in the space is our first priority, second to that comes the aesthetics! For this family, having a work station island separate from seating was critical to keep the kitchen functioning, aka full of food prepping, while there was still plenty of space at the second island for kids to sit and hang out. In order keep the area from feeling too heavy, a waterfall island was added with space to comfortably seat six for casual morning breakfasts and after school homework.
When designing open concept spaces, we always look for ways to create focal points to help anchor zones. For the kitchen and dining areas, we made a major statement in color and scale. The kitchen’s primary focal point is the oven range wall, and we did it in ALLLLL black! The hardware? Black. The pot filler? Black. The backsplash? Black. The hood? Black. (and custom fabricated of stone, swoon!) The gas range? YES, even that is Black. We wanted this to make a statement and it does!
To help balance the kitchen’s feature, we added a fireplace feature in the dining room in the same hue. It really turned out so stunning, modern, fresh and timeless.
TIP: When adding this much black, consider lighting! Black will absorb any ounce of light. This home has plenty of light from the natural light exposures along with overhead recessed lights and ambient pendant lighting.
We kept the area surrounding the sink and paneled refrigerator in classic white, the color is fresh and helps to balance the waterfall island and makes the rift white oak island more prominent!
Like the color black, rift white oak was a key element in the design. We added a beautifully detailed layer of it to the waterfall island, just under the stone and at the back. It adds a thoughtful touch that we love adding to create a distinguished design.
For the working island, the graining from the rift white oak is so beautifully showcased.
TIP: To keep investment pieces, like cabinets, timeless, avoid going trendy. We selected a cabinet face that has some detailing but pays tribute to the simplicity of a shaker style.
The final stop on the tour is the pantry, it is a hybrid between a messy kitchen and butler’s pantry, hidden behind the feature wall in the kitchen. Here we played with black, warm wood butcher block counter tops, brass and glossy shades of black for the backsplash tile to help bounce light!
It was such a joy to design for Willow Lane, we can’t wait to share more of the home with you. Until then, design your day fabulous!™
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