A Japandi Kitchen Renovation

Japawhat? We haven’t checked Webster’s to see if “Japandi” is official yet, so we’ll try to lay it out here before we jump into our recent Japandi kitchen renovation. As the name implies, the style combines Japanese and Scandinavian (Scandi) sensibilities. On the Japanese side, Japandi mixes in well-curated minimalism and wabi-sabi, which is a sense of simplicity, contentment and balance. On the Scandinavian side, there’s also minimalism and another design philosophy, hygge. Hygge started trending worldwide about 10 years ago, and it’s all about bringing warmth and comfort to design.

So … Japandi and Hygge … well, two is the limit for design-speak words in our blog posts. Let’s get into this beautiful kitchen!

Photos by Anastasia Alkema

Japandi in Marietta, Georgia

In the case of our Marietta clients’ home, Japandi meant a thoughtfully limited palette that incorporated natural materials. In terms of balance, it meant balancing light and dark, as well as warm and cool. It also meant a lot of straight clean lines contrasted by a few carefully placed curves. Our design team worked with April Haggard of Haggard Home to bring our clients’ vision to life.

Natural Inspiration

Both Japanese and Scandinavian modern styles honor nature and show an appreciation of natural materials. The beautiful woods outside our clients’ expansive windows provide a lovely backdrop for the kitchen. The neutral colors in the room complement the foliage. While the dark lower and high cabinets recede visually, the warmth of the bleached wood-look cabinetry connects to the landscape. The clear glass shades of the chandelier add organic curves overhead while also keeping a more open view.

Warm Contemporary

Beyond the wood floors and cabinetry, the kitchen wall paint adds warmth to the room in a subtle way. It is Benjamin Moore’s Edgecomb Gray. And even though the lower cabinets are dark, the tone has warmth to it.

This photo also gives us a good look at the finish of the black stainless steel microwave drawer. Black stainless is a new option that has a little lighter and warmer look than standard black. It is a matte finish that is gaining popularity as more homeowners discover it. The range is the only stainless steel appliance in the room because it is part of the focal point. The panel-front and black stainless steel appliances blend right in with the cabinetry.

Kitchen Island

The island has a waterfall countertop. This provides a beautiful view when entering the kitchen.

The island contains the kitchen sink, dishwasher, extra storage and trash and recycling pullouts. The kitchen sink is Neoroc by Kohler. This is a matte-finish composite material designed for extreme durability. The dark graphite color plays off the countertops. The faucets are also dark. The simplicity of a single-hole faucet with a pull-down sprayer maintains a sleek, minimalist look.

Minimizing Materials

Using Cambria’s Skara Brae Quartz on the countertops, backsplash and vent hood limited the material palette. This adds to the pleasing simplicity of the room and is relaxing to the eye.

Note how the wood-look from the upper cabinets shows up on the base of the island. This photo also shows how we tucked outlets for the island onto the island’s base.

Range and Hood

The vent hood over the range is custom, and covered in the same quartz as the backsplash and countertops. At once this draws the eye but also makes it unobtrusive.

Home Bar

Off the right side of the kitchen is a home bar-beverage station. This keeps everyone out of the cook’s way when they are hard at work at the range. The home bar includes a bar sink and beverage refrigerator. We also love the stacked sconces our clients chose for the area over the bar’s open shelves.

Lots of pantry storage is located on the far side of the kitchen, next to the home bar and across from it.

We hope you’ve enjoyed this tour of our Marietta Japandi kitchen renovation, and perhaps even added a new word mash-up to your style vocabulary. Whatever your style, when you’re ready to get some help with your own kitchen plans, schedule a free consultation to let us know more about your project.