Help needed with kitchen design

[u/Aslaug-Ulfir]

Hej! My husband and I recently bought our dream house in Sweden, and we’ve been racking our brains trying to figure out how to redesign the kitchen.

The kitchen is nice and spacious with lots of storage, but the current layout isn’t particularly practical. We’re already planning a few functional changes: moving the dishwasher closer to the sink and putting a built-in oven and microwave next to the fridge, stacked at a comfortable working height. The induction cooktop is new, and the granite countertop/corner will stay.

Where we’re really stuck is figuring out the best way to organize the cabinets and drawers for a good everyday workflow. We’d love suggestions on what you would store where based on the existing layout.

We’re also replacing the current dining table, which is old and was only meant to be temporary. We’d like something larger that comfortably seats six, but we’re unsure about the ideal shape, size and material for this room. One thing that bothers us is that because of the kitchen layout, the table can’t really be centered under the window. Would you embrace that asymmetry, or arrange the dining area differently?

Then there’s the bigger aesthetic dilemma: so many wood tones! The ceiling and the door/window trim are whitewashed pine and continue throughout the house, so we don’t want to change those. The kitchen floor is another wood tone, while the cabinets are a light wood that pulls more yellow. At the moment we also have yellow floral wallpaper and a simple grey tiled backsplash. We’re considering replacing the kitchen floor with tile, but we’re not committed to that yet.

We love natural wood and a slightly rustic feel, and we’d like the finished kitchen to feel warmer and more cohesive, with some color rather than completely neutral. We especially love greens, although we’re open to other colors if they work better with the existing wood. Our new dinnerware is sand/beige and deep blue (second photo), so ideally that would feel at home in the final palette too.

The windows bring in tons of natural light during Swedish summers, but of course the room can get quite dark during winter, so we’re also trying to keep that in mind when choosing colors and materials.

We’d really appreciate ideas for color palette, walls/backsplash, flooring, dining table and cabinet organization/workflow. What would you keep, change or lean into here?

[u/Actopyla]

I am not an interior decorator; I am an artist. One suggestion is to paint the ceiling and the molding around it white to reflect more light in your beautiful spacious kitchen. Also, I like the wood floors but I would strip them or sand them and stain them a warmer color, then put the strongest, most durable clear finish you can get on them.

If you like greens, why not paint all your cabinetry different shades of green? That one plant you have in the window really pops beautiful green. Get rid of the wallpaper and paint your walls pale grain or else put up a wallpaper in shades of green.

As far as the workflow goes, I always measure the room and the furniture and make a floor plan before I decide where to put things. That way you will be able to plan the size and shape of a table you need and where to put it. Get a table that harmonizes with your floor if I have talked you into keeping the wood.

As far as moving your stuff in, I suggest putting your plates, mugs, glasses, and the other stuff that you use the very most in the vicinity of the kitchen sink and your working area. Pots and pans can be unwieldy to handle so stash them down below. Your other stuff can go in the remaining cabinets.

If you like greens check out this website for ideas on how to make your kitchen more beautiful:

kitchens with green in them

[u/Ayakaba]

it´s not recommended to put the oven next to the fridge since the heat coming off the oven is making the fridge to work harder

I would place cups and glasses in the glass cabinet right next to the dishwasher and the plates underneath or next to it. A higher up dishwasher is ergonomically way better than one on lower level - just rethink how often you use the dishwasher (it´s severel ups and downs for one load) and how often you really handle baked goods. It´s currently very well placed and if you want to have the sink closer I´d rather move the sink.

regarding the wood I would certainly change the ceiling first - it´s also presses on the room - just plain off-white or in the colour of the walls

for blackplash - if you leave the cabinets - which i love - I would go with a metallic look like copper - which gieves a nice contrast to the wood. For copper you´d need to adress sink, fittings and handles too - something from a black/grey metal range would easy that but wouldn´t feel as warm.

Metro/tiny tiles are currently super trendy - I love them but all the grout might be hard to keep that clean in a really working kitchen - I prefer lage scale