Kitchen of the Week: Warm White-and-Wood Style for Empty Nesters

Photos by Kassi Mihm of K. Andrea Creative

Kitchen at a Glance
Who lives here: An empty-nest couple
Location: Lakeville, Minnesota
Size: 280 square feet (26 square meters), including a butler’s pantry
Designer: Stephanie Morris of Titus Contracting

Morris expanded the kitchen into the den to increase the footprint by 112 square feet, creating room for a larger island and a spacious butler’s pantry on the other side of the range wall. (See before-and-after floor plans below.) “In order to have an island with seating on two sides, we had to relocate a load-bearing wall into their front home office to accommodate all the appliances,” Morris says. “If we didn’t do that, the appliances would be on top of each other.”

Morris reviewed the homeowners’ inspiration photos of kitchens they loved, including some from Houzz, and discovered that many featured white oak cabinets. She and the couple decided on a two-tone scheme with lots of white oak cabinetry balanced with some white upper cabinets and a white storage wall surrounding the fridge on the right. Existing red oak flooring grounds the space in warmth. “When you introduce white oak and have a red oak floor, you want to study the finishes,” Morris says. “We probably gave [the homeowner] eight white oak stain samples to pick from and did multiple renditions before making the final selection. We created 3D imagery to study where all the white and the oak would be set.”

A china hutch with glass doors offers an elegant way to display everyday dishes and collectibles. “It was a feature to see coming from the front door of the home,” Morris says. “We also recessed it a bit because we wanted wider traffic flow for going out to the deck.”

Paint colors: Revere Pewter (walls), Pure White (ceiling), Cloud White (trim and upper cabinetry), Benjamin Moore

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The 3½-by-8-foot island features a 15-inch countertop overhang that allows the upholstered counter stools to be pushed in all the way to maximize circulation space. The countertops are a durable marble-look quartz. Brass dome pendant lights with a handmade look complement other brass details to bring additional warmth to the space. Zellige-style backsplash tiles in varying white tones add a touch of shimmer.

Backsplash: Villa Zellige Pearl Opal polished ceramic tile, Floor & Decor; countertops: Calacatta Idillio, MSI

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A 30-inch smart slide-in front-control range offers convection and the convenience of two independent ovens. The custom wood hood includes an insert with dimmable LED lighting and a powerful blower. “We widened the hood to be proportional with the space,” Morris says. “I wanted it to have more presence without being too big so it would dwarf the range.”

The interior side of the island has 12 drawers. Across from the island sits a repurposed stainless steel dishwasher, next to a stainless steel double-bowl sink. A champagne bronze pull-down faucet coordinates with warm brass cabinet pulls. “Because we were keeping some of the existing appliances, all the appliances coordinate together and then the hardware is like the jewelry that has a warmer look,” Morris says.

Three brass cone wall sconces provide light over the sink area. (The kitchen also includes LED ceiling lights, which were digitally removed by the photographer to help highlight other design details.)

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On the kitchen storage wall, a flip-up, slide-in door opens to reveal an appliance garage. “[The homeowner] does a lot of small-appliance cooking and wanted them in the main kitchen but not visible,” Morris says. “We measured all her small appliances to make sure it would accommodate everything.”

Cabinets above and below the appliance garage have deep adjustable shelves for items like platters and large bowls. A stainless steel smart four-door refrigerator stands nearby. “They wanted a counter-depth refrigerator,” Morris says. “We were able to jog the wall a bit, but they wanted a built-in look since it’s in a high-traffic location.”

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A utility closet to the right of the refrigerator has open cubbies for household items like garbage bags and rolls of paper towels. A tall section stores a cordless vacuum. “It was an awkward space but now feels useful for storing cleaning products there,” Morris says.

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An upper cabinet above the refrigerator has inserts for cookie sheets, baking pans and cutting boards. “The cabinets on that wall are hiding a beam without compromising storage,” Morris says. To the far left is the opening to the new butler’s pantry.

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The butler’s pantry features mostly repurposed cabinet boxes from the original kitchen, but with new doors. “Reusing items like this takes thoughtful planning from everyone involved,” Morris says. Three new cabinets fill out the rest of the storage. A dark stain on the lower cabinetry gives the pantry space a distinctive look. “Everything coordinates with the kitchen itself but doesn’t match,” Morris says. Floating white oak shelves visible from the main kitchen offer a spot for display storage. To the immediate right is the coffee station.

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The built-in coffee station has a microwave, upper cabinets for cups and bowls and drawers for items like utensils and tea bags. “With the original kitchen so small, all the appliances the homeowners actually used were on top of each other,” Morris says. “We put the microwave and coffee machine together here and made everything much more convenient.”

Shallow open shelves on one side of the pantry are lined with clear glass canisters that make it easy to find the contents quickly.

The other end of the pantry has an undermount stainless steel bar sink and a repurposed faucet from the original kitchen. A trash pullout sits beneath the sink.

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Before: This floor plan shows the former kitchen (top center) and the unused den (top right) that offered potential to expand the kitchen footprint. A home office (bottom right) also offered an opportunity for adding square footage. “It was a large home with a small kitchen,” Morris says. “It was very crowded when they entertained.”

After: Morris used the den to expand the kitchen and create a butler’s pantry (top right). Space from the home office allowed her to create the hardworking storage wall that also contains the fridge. The large new island offers seating for four people. “It’s warm and bright at the same time,” Morris says. “Space planning to fit all of her things and give her the kitchen she wanted was [how we solved] the puzzle.”

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