This Is the Coolest Kitchen Island of All Time
“Let’s just do a skinny makeover,” says Kyla Herbes of the approach to her recent kitchen renovation. The designer and blogger behind House Of Hipsters wanted to keep costs low, and the last owners of her Illinois home had replaced the cabinets fairly recently. So instead, she focused on the room's surfaces—and ultimately decided to mix three types.
A Cambria brand influencer, Herbes worked with the quartz company to select three styles in escalating degrees of vibrance: a subtle, creamy beige pattern for the countertops and backsplash (Ironsbridge), a slightly more dynamic beige swirl for a wet bar area (Brittanicca Warm), and a wild tiger stripe for the top and sides of the kitchen’s island (Clairidge). The three stones are offset by bright brass accents, creating a kitchen that has glamour in spades, but with a relatively neutral palette.
The design kicked off with that eye-popping island pattern. “I looked at that and I thought, ‘No way, no way. That is too bold. It's too crazy,'" Herbes remembers. "'I should just play it safe, right?’”
Wrong. Herbes played around on the Cambria augmented reality app to see how Clairidge would look in her space and was excited by what she saw. “I was like, ‘Well, that's pretty shazam awesome,’” she says, employing one of her favorite terms to describe the high-energy look.
Herbes compares the brown, black, and cream Clairidge pattern both to tiger stripes as well as “when you go to the coffee shop and they make you one of those amazing lattes, and you have all of the different colors going in with the milk.” The brass inlay, she says, adds visual interest, and “having that band around does break up that really bold, bold pattern.”
Brass accents crop up elsewhere in the room, from the cabinet handles and drawer pulls to the bar stools from Scout Design Studio. “I love brass, and I do love mixing metals,” says Herbes, pointing out the additional chrome touches that keep the look from feeling too glam. “Your metals are your glitter, like your [room’s] jewelry.”
The surrounding spaces, including the dining nook and wet bar, are eclectic but significantly more subdued. The two light fixtures, purchased at High Point from Hudson Valley Lighting, bring in some funk. One is “almost Art Deco, with the curved lines,” says Herbes, while “the other piece was just shazam and glam.”
The designer's overall renovation advice? Do what you love, without worrying about trends or resale value. “I’m going to stay in my space for a long time, for at least ten years,” she says. “So I want to show my personality, and I want to take those risks. As a designer, I want to focus on pushing myself out of that comfort zone, and really taking chances with my house.”
Follow House Beautiful on Instagram.
You Might Also Like
