In an almost 4-hour marathon this morning I made the semi-final upgrade choices and signed the new contract. We will probably still make a few changes, and I have some non-standard requests submitted that need to be priced out, but we're almost done with this part!
Right now I'm agonizing over cabinet colors. When we first priced out the Rome, cabinets came first in the discussion and so I didn't really think about upgrading the cabinets. The standard Fairfield Maple Spice cabinets are fine for me in and of themselves. Once we decided to do hardwood in the kitchen, though, I started to worry...that's a lot of wood! I don't want to be overwhelmed by a lot of same-general-color-tone in my happy new kitchen. So today I upgraded us to the Espresso cabinets, with the thought that any of the hardwoods would work with it. Does anyone else think it's really stupid to have us choose cabinet colors and lock us in before we've even seen the flooring choices? That makes it WAY more stressful for me. The obvious drawback to the Espresso cabinets is that they're an additional $2000. And that money is really just for looks...they won't function any better than the baseline cabinets. Sure, they'll probably hold up better in the long run, but not THAT much better. We're not that hard on our cabinets.
Does anyone have any insight on this dilemma? Are there flooring choices that go well with the Maple cabinets without being the same wood-tone? I'm guessing I'd want to go darker with the floor if I got the Maple, and lighter with the Espresso. I used the Maple to simulate flooring against my counter choice and the Espresso and it looked pretty good. The other question would be, how...builder-grade?...would the lowest level Maple cabinets look in a kitchen? They're pretty plain...
We chose our cabinets before our flooring meeting and then ended up changing them while we were choosing our floors. None of the hardwoods we liked went well with the cabinets we chose. Our cabinets and floors are similar in color but I think our countertops help balance it all out.
ReplyDeleteCheck our Mike P's blog. He has the maple spice cabinets and his hardwoods are similar in color. I completely forgot what the color of his hardwoods is called. It's not Saddle, but it's a really popular one. Here's a link to his blog: http://daytonyorkshire.blogspot.com/2012/06/pre-move-photos-finally.html
Gunstock! His floors are Gunstock! It just came to me!
DeleteThanks for that link. It really confirms for me that I don't want my cabinets and floors to match! That's just too much all together.
DeleteHi Amanda, there is so much to be said about the cabinets. Timberlake is the cabinetry company RH works with and they offer lots of information. Check the website for the different options and the level of grade. The cabinets come in three price ranges; namely, Expensive, Moderately Priced, and Budget Conscious. When picking out your colors look for similar palettes that lend for contrast, texture and color. The other thing to consider is what makes you feel happy when you walk into your dream kitchen. When I chose my selections I was looking for something out of the box. What colors are you drawn too? The truth of the matter is darker floors do look great with light cabinets and vice versa. Makes perfect sense, right? But there are no rules when it comes to placing dark on dark or light on light--this is the growing trend. I agree, the builder grade is plain and the higher grade tends to feel rich in texture. However, you can turn a pair a plain cabinet with granite or 180x formica countertops and hardwood for a fabulous look and vice versa. Just think outside of the box with the choices RH offers.
ReplyDeleteThe other thing to consider in the level of cabinetry are the features. The included cabinets have only 18" drawer depths, while the upgraded cabinets are 21" full depth drawers. Be sure to check out Timberlake's website for more details on the difference between the cabinet levels. It's not just appearance. However, another blogger (Brandy's Chaotic World) dealt with a lot of issue with her Espresso cabinets scratching very easily within the first few days of them moving in. I love the Espresso cabinets, but decided against them because of the scratches showing more easily and the fact that they would probably show dust and dirt easily (and with 3 kids, 2 dogs and 2 cats, I deal with enough dirt!). Good luck with your decision. You can also play around with combinations at http://www.creatingyourspace.com/ryanhomes/.
ReplyDeleteYes, I found that site through one of the other blogs (though I'm glad you posted the link, because I'd lost it!). Unfortunately it's not really helping me out here!
DeleteIn the house I just moved out of we had cabinets about the same color as the maple cognac cabinets ryan offers with dark wood floors. You can view them here if you're interested: http://movingtothecountryryanhomes.blogspot.com/search/label/old%20house (the color is a little off in the pictures, but you get the idea of the contrast). One thing I will say is make sure you like your cabinets because they are EXPENSIVE to replace. Ours in those pictures were $11,000... just for the cabinets, not labor... my dad and brother installed them. So I'd suggest getting something you'll be happy with for a long time even if it's a few grand more. My two sense... the raised panel ones look so much better than the flat panel so if it were me, I'd at least upgrade to that if I were you. Keep in mind that you can always change them after you visit the flooring showroom too.
ReplyDeleteOh I forgot.. this blog: http://movingtothecountryryanhomes.blogspot.com/2012/06/courtland-model-pictures.html has pictures of our model home which has maple cognac cabinets and gunstock hardwood floors. It looks like a lot of wood in the pictures, but it actually looks really good in person.
ReplyDeleteI think I like the combination from your old house better than the ones from the model home. Thanks for pointing me to those pictures, I wouldn't have thought to look at those!
DeleteWe also chose the Espresso cabinets. I was much for the tone-on-tone look of the wood and liked the more modern dark choice. Also was ready for a change because I had white cabinets in my old house. From redoing that old kitchen I can say cabinets are EXPENSIVE. It's easy to spend $20,000 on cabinets for even a small kitchen. So for me, the small RH upgrade charge was worth it.
ReplyDeleteAs for flooring, our RH model had the espresso cabinets and dark flooring so we knew what we were getting into. Also our flooring place had samples of all the cabinets and countertops so we could easily coordinate with a look that worked for us. We did change up our bathroom cabinet choices after picking out flooring.
I think with espresso we'd go medium to light for the flooring. My trouble comes in if we went medium for the cabinets, would we have an option that's different enough that they don't blend together. Are there pictures of your model on your blog anywhere that I could look at?
DeleteAmanda, here are some pictures of a Verona model with Espresso cabinets and light wood flooring: http://buildingourverona.blogspot.com/p/model-pictures.html.
ReplyDeleteThank you! My husband didn't care for that look at all, so I'm glad you shared that with me!
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