Category Archives: Kitchen

White Cabinets Make a Bright Kitchen

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Cooley-Station-106webThere are as many options for kitchen styles as there are cooks. Many people love a dark Tuscan look, with cabinets in a rich stained wood and darker countertops in stone that echo an old-world look. Others lean toward a contemporary option that includes lighter stained cabinets and a solid-surface counter.

But if you want your kitchen to capture a bit of a farmhouse feel while staying light and bright, you may want to consider painted cabinets. This kitchen’s cabinets are ever-so-slightly off white, which provides a cheerful mood.

Notice that overall this kitchen’s other elements keep the painted cabinets from feeling bland. The rich gold granite countertops add enough interest and contrast to make this kitchen pop. And the darker mosaic over the stove adds another inviting element of contrast.

With this light a kitchen palette, the choice of darker flooring is smart. It grounds the room with its strong contrasting element while encouraging the lighter choices to shine. Maroon leather-topped stools and other maroon accessories also contribute to the sophisticated color choices of this space.

Notice the glass door on the corner cabinet. While many people would rather not have a lot of glass doors in order to hide not-quite-tidy cupboards, one glass door adds a special charm to any space. This is the perfect spot to showcase glassware or nice serving pieces.

So when you’re planning your kitchen, don’t just skip over the painted cabinets. Consider whether they would fit the kind of kitchen you want – light, cheerful and bright on even the darkest days.

Mosaic Art Backsplash

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Cooley-Station-024-webKitchens are primarily functional, but just a few special touches can also make them stylish and interesting. In today’s homes with a focus on open floor plans, it pays to take the time to make your kitchen stand out.

Choosing just the right tile backsplash is one great way to add style to any kitchen. Your backsplash doesn’t cover a large square footage, so you can select a more expensive tile option without spending a lot of money. The rough-edge subway style backsplash shown adds vintage charm and texture in this kitchen.

Many kitchens take advantage of the generous space between the stove and hood to position a backsplash focal point. You have a lot of choices for this spot. Some people choose a pictorial option, available in both tile and stone. But more often a mosaic adds personality.

Notice the raised framing around this mosaic. It coordinates well with the rustic-edge subway tiles, and the white frame integrates with the painted cabinets. But it all comes to a head with the dramatic mosaic.

The super-small squares combine with a three-tone semi-random geometric design to draw the eye. Its surprising contemporary flavor brings this kitchen into a more modern mood without detracting from the appealing old-world style of the space. It’s interesting how the canisters to the left echo the colors and shapes brought out in the mosaic, providing another integrative element.

A backsplash may seem unimportant, but this kitchen shows the power the right choice can have in making your kitchen uniquely yours.

View from a Kitchen

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view-from-kitchenwIf you are someone who wants to eat healthfully, and your family to eat healthfully, unless you can afford a personal chef chances are you spend a lot of time in your kitchen. Whether you are one of those well-organized cooks who plan ahead and spend the weekend cooking and freezing meals for easy warming up during the week or if you’re inclined to throw together a salad at the end of a long day, your kitchen often becomes the place where you spend much of your family time.

So when you choose your next home, be sure to consider what you will be seeing when you spend time in your kitchen. First, is the kitchen itself appealing? Will the cabinets make you smile when you open them? Will the countertop you chose feel nice under your hands when you set out your ingredients? Do you like your faucet handle? Will your refrigerator and freezer be large enough to hold what you need it to? What extra features such as under-cabinet lighting would make your work go smoother?

Next, stand in that future kitchen and look out. How do you like the view? We think this view is pretty nice. You may see your kids doing homework at the dinner table or your spouse reading the paper, or even better helping with the dishes. You may be alone in your home and just find enjoying the view out your back doors, or appreciating how your furniture suits your new dining and family room.

When you’re choosing your next home, take a few minutes when walking through our models like this one at Cooley Station to savor the views from various locations, because they will be a big part of your life once you move into your new Fulton Home.

Hang Out in this Kitchen

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One advantage to an open living space is the opportunity it gives you to spend time as a family. This cozy kitchen from the Capital model at Seaboard in Cooley Station is well set up for chatting with family and friends while cooking.

The island has plenty of room for a couple of kids to sit at the end and talk over their day while munching on an after-school snack. No worries about their tendency to kick into the island base with a tile background that is sturdy enough to take a licking from a shoe or two. And at the same time, that mosaic adds a splash of style to the entire space and links the island to the backsplash.

The granite countertop certainly has an edge that looks made for leaning against if you have party guests who are noshing on your appetizer assortment while catching up with you and each other. Just add a couple of trays of cheese and crackers, maybe a little fruit, and you’re all ready for company in this kitchen. The pendant lights add style and ambience while being set high enough not to interfere with conversations.

And if you have a surprise dessert, how about just tucking it in that pantry of yours? After dinner you can sneak in there and pull out your masterpiece, hidden until you want it to appear. By the way, the pantry is also a perfect place to hide all the containers from the other food that you don’t want visible to visitors.

What do you want your eating counter to look like?

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what-do-you-want-your-eating-counter-to-look-likewWhen you’re planning your kitchen, take some time to determine whether you want to include an eating counter like this one. There are some decisions to make if you decide a counter is for you, so let’s take a look at the things you may want to consider.

Counter depth: Your Fulton design-center designer can show you examples of standard counter depths. Don’t short-change your counter. You may find that this space becomes more than a snack area. It may be the choice location for your kids to do their homework or your prime appetizer spot when you have people over for dinner.

Counter edge: If you will have people leaning over the counter, make sure the edge will be comfortable. Some of the edges are fun and interesting, but not as easy on the stomach over time as your kids bend over it while munching on breakfast or a snack.

Stool height: Counters and stools come in all sorts of heights. Make sure you know how high your counter will be so that you select stools that will fit your counter well. Too high or too low and your guests will not be comfortable.

Design features: This under-counter area coordinates with the cabinetry. Other islands may have tile under the counter. Think about whether you will have kicking kids sitting at the counter or more well-behaved adults when choosing your materials. This counter also adds a bit of splash with two columns, giving a bit of extra personality to the kitchen. Check with your designer to see all of your column and other kitchen counter options.

Urban Industrial Features Sharpen Kitchen’s Look

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urban-industrial-touches-sharpen-kitchen's-lookwIf you want a kitchen with traditional styling but would like to add a bit of an edge, consider including a few urban industrial touches. This kitchen ups its look with just a couple of smart additions that fit the profile of today’s urban look. Let’s see what choices give this kitchen the flair of a city loft.

Subway tile: This is always as sophisticated option. Subway tile has a smart yet retro look that creates the mood of another time while standing out front in terms of style. This soft subtle cream-toned glaze doesn’t take over the space yet certainly adds life to the look of this kitchen.

Oversize pendants: You could imagine these pendants hanging over an old-style factory or shop in New York or Chicago at the turn of the Century – the one before this last one. The dark trim and speckled glass combine with the industrial shape and size to stretch the boundaries of this kitchen’s look. They add just the right touch of yesterday to the kitchen’s design.

Sleek stainless vent hood: The clean lines of this hood would work in a commercial kitchen and they add a touch of industrial style to this one. Sitting atop the subway tiles, the look would be believable in a restaurant hideaway in lower Manhattan, but it’s in your kitchen instead. Nice.

When you plan your kitchen, why not step just a bit away from the traditional? Add a few urban industrial elements and make your kitchen’s design just that much more daring and unique.

Smart Lighting for Smart-Looking Kitchen

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smart-lighting-for-smart-looking-kitchenwIf you want to add just one touch to make your kitchen stand out from the ordinary, consider unique pendant lighting. Positioned over the island that separates the kitchen from the eating area or family room, an island quickly becomes a focal point in your home. Selecting pendant lights like these makes your island capture attention.

The brushed nickel finish works well with the stainless appliances and sink, and the nickel faucet fits too. The kitchen’s fixtures, appliances and other stainless elements are a nice mix of straight and curvy lines. Notice how the appliance handles have soft curves along with the faucet, but the sink itself is a sharp rectangle.

These pendants almost look retro with the fin design, yet the finish and the light itself definitely put it in this century. In addition to the interesting shape and characteristics, it’s also a good source of light, covering the island well and evenly.

This kitchen has several nice light sources including can lights distributed across the ceiling. There is also task lighting set under the cabinets – handy when doing close work on the countertop. But there’s no denying that what catches the eye are the pendants.

Would you like to check this lighting out – along with this kitchen – in person? How about visiting our newest community, Seaboard at Cooley Station? We look forward to seeing you there.

Kitchen Clean-up Center

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kitchen-clean-up-centerwFew people really enjoy cleaning up the kitchen, but if you have dirty dish duty, it’s hard to beat this kitchen clean-up center from Seaboard at Cooley Station. Let’s take a look at the advantages offered with this savvy layout.

Plenty of counter space: With room on both sides of the sink, dirty dishes and pots can go on one side and clean items can fill a drainer on the other. Which side? Why don’t you pick? There’s plenty of room in either direction. With a dual sink, use one for rinsing and the other can be filled with hot sudsy water for things that don’t go in the dishwasher like your sharp knives.

Silverware drawer: A drawer for your silverware right on the island is a real step-saver. Clean silverware can move right from the dishwasher to the island drawer to the table when it’s time for dinner. Or maybe you prefer that drawer closer to the table for silverware? Then how about using that drawer so that your sharp knives and other prep utensils are always handy?

A nice view: A sink that faces the wall may make the person who draws clean-up duty feel isolated. But this island location helps keep the cleaner entertained with an easy view of the television or other activities in the family room. It’s more fun if you can make chores a family event.

One final wipe of that appealing stainless dishwasher door and you’re ready to head out of the kitchen for the evening. It’s not so bad getting clean-up duty when you’re working in a space like this one!

Inviting Open Kitchen

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Inviting-open-kitchenwWhen you have room for an island in your kitchen, the end result is an open space that makes spending time there cooking and cleaning more pleasant.

Kitchens that are totally enclosed feel limiting. Very few people fit in such a space and often you find that more than one person working leads to awkward movements as people try to stay out of each other’s way. Holding a conversation can be difficult as there is no good place in an enclosed kitchen to put someone who is not working.

But with an open kitchen like this one, there are a number of convenient places for people to sit or stand, whether they are helping out or not. Park guests on the other side of the island and position some cheese and crackers handy. The cook has plenty of uninterrupted space to work yet he or she can still have a great conversation with family or friends.

If you have helpers in the kitchen, an open kitchen design like this gives you plenty of room for them to work in the space, yet you never feel crowded. This kitchen has lots of task lighting, but you also have a generous amount of ambient light because there is no wall blocking your access to all of the open floor plan windows.

Kitchens tend to be the warm center of a home, and this open and friendly kitchen certainly encourages everyone to spend time in it or nearby. To see this and other inviting open kitchens, visit the models at Cooley Station.

Inviting Open Kitchen

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Inviting-open-kitchenwWhat makes a kitchen pleasant? Stylish cabinetry helps, along with lovely countertops and lighting that pushes the envelope like these pendants. It’s also fun to have your own walk-in pantry to make it easy to grab your ingredients as you need them.

Hard-core cooks really appreciate the advantages of a kitchen island. That wealth of counter space without any upper cabinets to block your view makes it easy to prep meals. There’s enough space with this island to throw two or three sous chefs around chopping up vegetables and fixing a salad of an evening.

For the non-cooks in your life, a comfortable stool or two on the other side of the island gives them just the perfect perch for chatting while you whip up a quick snack for everyone to munch on till dinner’s ready. And it’s only a step or two after the meal for them to help with clean-up, which is only fair if they didn’t pitch in before dinner!

Clean lines, luxurious appliances, good lighting and a smart layout – what else could you ask for in a kitchen? Well, it helps if it’s attached to a well-built Fulton Home. Come on out and take a look at this one and others at our Cooley Station community. Visit: http://www.fultonhomes.com/our-communities/cooley-station for more information.