A Vibrant Mid Century Modern Build
First Place Winner - Best Décor and Colour Usage 🎖️
Project Goals
As experienced home builders and kitchen renovators, this couple had already built and remodeled several of their family homes before settling on the design of their new-build dream home.
After finding a beautiful lot with Kootenay Lake views and West Arm Valley vistas, they began to imagine their ideal design style—which can only be described as colourful mid-century modern with a splash of Kootenay fusion.
A vibrant and social family, the couple wanted a warm, colourful home with a kitchen that could host spontaneous gatherings. It was important that their space could transform from daily functionality to large dinners and games nights with ease.
"Balancing colours comes down to a bit of a science. Blue and orange are opposite each other on the colour wheel—which makes them complementary and a natural fit."
Project Boundaries
True to their Nelson roots, our clients wanted a design that reflected the classic and warm Kootenay feel, both for sentiment and for resale value. The homeowners wanted to use fir accents in the home but did not want the fir to overpower the rest of the design aesthetic.
We also wanted to transform the kitchen into the epicentre of their family home and integrate spatial use that met all their kitchen activity needs. These included a workspace, a games storage area, extra seating, and of course cooking and hosting space.
Finally, this vibrant family wanted a warm and eclectic space that reflected their lifestyle; bringing colour into the space was high on their wish list.
Merit
Icehouse Slab
Cabinets in Atlantic
Panels in Engineered Fir
CABINETS
COUNTERTOPS
HI-MACS
Client Sourced
Client Sourced
HARDWARE
Client Sourced
TILE
Samurai
Engineered Maple
FLOORING
Project Outcomes
Mid Century Modern is all about striking a balance between classic accent pieces and minimalist simplicity. To highlight the beautiful fir accents, without overdoing it, we chose drywall returns and fir slab sills for the window and door frames. This created a modern and subtle aesthetic and inspired us to use engineered fir panels tastefully throughout the space.
With the floors a nice neutral Maple hardwood, we knew that the cabinets required a paint with appropriate saturation of colour in a tone that would hold its own but not compete with the fir.
Balancing of colours comes down to a bit of a science. Blue and orange are opposite each other on the colour wheel—which makes them complementary and a natural fit.
With the saturated orange undertones of the fir, we agreed that a lovely rich blue tone would be the perfect balancing colour. We chose Atlantic Matte paint from our Merit line and coated the flat panel (or slab style) cabinet doors to create a vibrant approach to the mid-century modern theme.
By adding a lower ledge counter to the kitchen island, we were able to create a space where mom could work from her laptop at a comfortable seat height (no feet dangling here), with lots of natural light and views of beautiful Kootenay Lake. This also made the island seating the same height as the dining room table, so that chairs could be used interchangeably when guests came over.
We also built custom cabinetry for storage directly into the island, a bespoke and perfect fit for their lovely board game collection.
The result is a uniquely warm and modern design, perfectly suited to this fun, easygoing family.
Having our kitchen designed at Spruced Kitchens was one of the best decisions we made in our new house. Caralee was very friendly and helpful from the minute I stepped into the store. She talked with us about our lifestyle, our ideas and our concerns—the kitchen is the heart of our house and we wanted to love it! Caralee was creative and responsive as she worked with us to create a kitchen design for our family. The kitchen she created was beyond my expectations! Very functional (with details specific to our family), warm, and a unique design that we all just love. Excellent customer service, professional and a fantastic kitchen design and product. Thank you!
Caryn
