L-Shaped Kitchen With Sage Green Cabinets

The shutters are a glossy sage green set against a black granite counter, and that pairing is what gives the kitchen its character. A soft green reads warm and easy to live with, where an all-white kitchen can feel a bit clinical and shows every splash. The gloss finish bounces the under-cabinet light around and keeps the room bright. Green also sits happily with both the black counter and the stainless steel appliances without clashing.

The tall unit stacks a built-in oven and a built-in microwave at a comfortable height, and a chimney sits over the gas hob to pull away smoke and grease. A free-standing stainless steel refrigerator sits at the end of the run. Building the oven and microwave into the tall unit keeps the counter clear and saves bending down to a low oven. The chimney over the hob is what keeps the glossy shutters from filming up with cooking grease.

The counter is a black granite, and the backsplash behind it is a marble-look tile lit by an under-cabinet strip. Granite is the workhorse choice for a kitchen top because it takes heat and knocks and does not stain easily. The lighter backsplash stops the black counter and green shutters from feeling too heavy, and the strip light above it means no shadow falls on the work surface while you cook.

There is a layered scheme, with recessed spotlights in the tray ceiling, a soft cove line around it and a dedicated under-cabinet strip over the counter. The cove gives a warm ambient glow, the spots cover the room, and the under-cabinet light does the actual task lighting where you chop and cook. Lighting the work surface separately is the part people miss, and it is what stops you working in your own shadow at the counter.

They need a regular wipe, mainly around the handles and edges where fingers land, because a gloss finish shows prints and the odd splash more than a matte one. The upside is that gloss cleans easily, since nothing sinks into the surface, so a damp cloth handles most of it. In a cooking kitchen the chimney does a lot to keep grease off the doors, which cuts how often the deeper clean is needed.

The cabinetry and the appliances carry most of the cost. Glossy shutters, the tall unit and the built-in oven, microwave and chimney sit well above a basic laminate kitchen with free-standing appliances. The granite counter and marble backsplash are separate stone lines. Because the running length of cabinets and the appliance package drive the figure, it helps to lock the layout and the appliance list first, then price the shutter finish against a couple of options.

It is one of the best layouts for a compact home, because it fits two work runs into a corner and leaves the rest of the room free, sometimes even for a small dining spot. You keep the sink and hob on the two legs and can drop the tall unit if space is tight, wall-mounting the microwave instead. The single thing to protect is the counter run between sink and hob, since that stretch is where most of the actual work happens.