My house is one of the few on the block that doesn’t have white shaker cabinetry.
Not that I have anything against the trend. It’s clean. Simple. Feminine. But I wanted a finish that would stand the test of time.
The last time I chose cabinetry was in the mid-1990s. White-washed cabinets were the trend. I loved it. And as soon as I had the chance to decorate a kitchen, I picked it. But as soon as I did, I felt that white-washed cabinets were on the way out.
That’s how I think of white cabinetry. Beautiful today. But who knows tomorrow? Already we see blue and green cabinets taking over the design world of kitchens, laundry rooms and baths.
So when it came time to selecting the cabinetry for this house, John and I went with standard maple in a sable-colored finish. The cabinetry complements a man AND a woman.
It sways toward the masculine but not as much as, say, the espresso finish.
It says a man lives here but so does a woman.
It evokes Mother Nature but dresses up well. It’s neutral and serves as the perfect backdrop to any style.
The other factor was cost. We didn’t even ask how much an upgraded cabinetry would set us back. Instead, John and I put the money toward 42-inch uppers with a 3-inch crown molding.
And from what we could tell from peeking into the other houses during construction, molding and cabinet size made the kitchen more than the color of the cabinet. I think we chose well.
Designing Goldilocks 