We have a white kitchen and blue island combination in our home – and it recently got a few updates! A refreshed post is overdue around here.
If you are building or renovating, or just dreaming up your own white kitchen with a blue island, I am going to share all the things we love, and what we don’t about the space!
As a side note, this week I gave a quick interview and shared our home tour over on the Serena & Lily website. You can read the Chrissy Marie Blog x Serena & Lily interview here.
Table of Contents
Our White Kitchen Blue Island Details
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White Kitchen With A Blue Island:
We originally had an all white kitchen. I lived with it for a year, loving the crisp white but ultimately wanted something fun. When we had contractors out here doing some other work, I decided to change to a white kitchen blue island combination.
We had the island professionally painted Sherwin Williams Krypton. It’s a blue with strong gray undertones. If you’re thinking of doing it yourself- first get a few quotes. It wasn’t as big of an expense as I would have thought, and two years later it’s still not chipping.
Read about painting our kitchen island SW Krypton.
It’s years later and I’m still happy we made that decision. It’s added personality to our kitchen!
The island dimensions are 4.3 x 9.7.See Photos of 15 Beautiful Blue Kitchen Islands and Their Paint Colors, here.
The most recent change: we just switched our cabinet hardware over to brass! I know this is something others often have trouble visualizing when deciding what finishes to use. I included a before photo with nickel pulls below.
Before, with old nickel pulls:
After, with new brass pulls:
So much better, right? I was very concerned about mixing the brass pulls with the stainless appliances and nickel faucet, but eventually worked up the nerve. I really felt like nickel hardware was dating my kitchen, where as stainless appliances are a bit neutral.
Once I pulled the trigger I knew it was the right decision. The brass looks great against the blue island!
Scroll To Shop Around Our Kitchen:
Brass Pendants (large) | Barstools | Kitchen Runner
Step Stool | Faucet | Vase | Utensil Holder
Marble Paper Towel Holder | Brass Cabinet Pulls
We designed the island to be one big countertop that could be used as a worktable for our family. Free of a sink or the stove, this space is open to working in multiple ways for us! Mostly important ways like stacking up all our piles of clutter, of course.
Our Downing Table
We love our new white oval kitchen table and how it looks in our blue and white kitchen, and we got new end chairs shortly after to break up all the white. Guys- it is truly just as gorgeous as it is in the catalog (or store, if you’re lucky enough to live close to a brick and mortar).
We just made a switch to new, more comfortable end chairs. With a white kitchen it is easy to go overboard on all the white!
I posted an update after we used this table for 1 year, and you can read about it here.
Those blue and white planters are so cute! They come in a set of 3 from Amazon.
Chandelier | White Table | Gray Chairs
<https://rstyle.me/+v35eT-J1TjhjjswrJ_cFFQ”>End Chairs With Cushion | Table Runner | Vase
Cabinets:
Our kitchen cabinets were made by 1st Choice cabinetry out of Raleigh, NC. The cabinets are Norcraft, maple wood, and soft close. The doors are framed full overlay.
If you have kids, soft close might make them last longer! My kids are ruthless with these cabinet doors! Also, brilliant tip- you can add a soft close hinge off of Amazon all by yourself to regular cabinets to help them become soft close.
When considering a white kitchen blue island combination, think about the rest of your furnishings. You will want to make sure everything flows!
If you are curious about the color of the cabinets (see paint colors of my home), it is actually the standard factory white these cabinets came in. In my opinion, they are most similar to BM White Dove, just a slight off white.
Something I would have done differently here: it bugs me that the ends of the cabinets are not finished. The sides of the island are, and I feel like this should be the same as the cabinetry. Just a touch of trim to make the kitchen feel more high end!
Countertops:
We used quartz around our entire house for all the countertops. Quartz is a material partially man-made and part natural stone. Oh my gosh, I have been SO happy that we used these durable countertops!
>>Read my thoughts about white quartz after living with them for 2.5 years!<<
My kids are rough on our island – and we use it for all sorts of family things. We craft, use hot glue, put down heavy items – and I never worry that the quartz will scratch. There is no maintenance (no sealing!) and no staining, even on the white parts. We clean up with regular soap and water.
Sometimes a squirt of Shout Out might get out a red stain faster (all that red slime).
We used plain white Cosmos quartz on the perimeter, and the island is Cambria Brittanica. I love, love, love the movement in the Brittanica! I was giddy when they put that in! To make the island stand out, we put a 3” mitered edge on the island. It’s not 3” all the way through- it just fits all the way around. If you image the way a shoebox lid fits, that is how this is done too. I love this detail that makes a big difference! I am also very happy with that upgrade! It’s all in the details, after all.
Tile:
I considered using blue tile when we designed the kitchen (before the island was blue, obviously). I was concerned about the commitment to the look. Repainting a blue island can be done in a weekend on a small budget. Retiling a large kitchen… not so much. So we went with the classic subway tile.
It saved us a ton of money using something basic, and we were able to tile more of the kitchen because of the savings. I have no regrets!
Here is my kitchen is all cleaned up but there is still a pretzel on the floor. I feel like this is so on brand for me.
The tile is beveled 3×6 subway tile. You can find our same beveled tile here for $2.40/sq ft! Bringing the tile up to the ceiling was another thing we did later and I LOVE it. Especially how it looks around all the smaller areas – it is just a nice touch without adding on a lot of money since the tile was affordable. The impact is big.
Blue and White Kitchen Details:
Below are more details you might be interested in if you are building or renovating.
Size
Our kitchen is open concept, so it looks out into our living room. From the back wall of the kitchen (by the range hood) to the front of the kitchen (where the sofa in the living room backs up to) is 22′. Side to side – from the back wall of the refrigerator to the back wall where the sink measures 22′.We never feel claustrophobic in our kitchen! This is important with 4 kids.
Moen Faucet
The faucet is the Moen StO Motion sense touchless faucet. I love the clean look.
Appliances
Our appliances are all Kitchen Aid – we have been happy with them. Not thrilled happy, but happy enough. Would I buy them again? Maybe. The refrigerator is not counter depth – it is actually standard. We have a little space behind the fridge (in the garage) carved out behind it so it can sit farther back, which is definitely worth the trouble to make it flush.
Do I hate stainless steel because of the fingerprints? You bet. I would prefer the panel fit appliances.
Hardware
The hardware is Classic Bell pull in from Liberty Hardware in a brushed brass. We originally used nickel pulls – and I immediately regretted that decision. Switching to brass warmed the kitchen up and is a nice contrast on the blue island. I like the way it looks with the stainless faucet. Like I said, I do wish our appliances were panel fit.
Lighting
Highly, highly recommend putting in under mount lighting! We also used puck lights in the top cabinets with glass fronts.
Another tip you might not think about is the placement of your electrical outlets. After paying all that money for gorgeous tile – why stick electrical outlets into your tile? Even worse if the colors and shapes don’t mix- you will not love that look. Put them in inconspicuous places, like moving them up directly under the cabinets or find ways to blend them in.
We didn’t “hide” ours completely, but we put them sideways to blend in with the horizontal tiles. I am happy with that decision.
The Vent Hood
I sketched out the stove vent hood for our cabinet maker to design. The goal was a classic feel. A design that went with the cabinetry couldn’t compete with the large “look at me” pendant lights directly in front of the hood.
I looked at kitchens I had liked on Houzz and saw a lot of similarities between them. I drew something up fairly basic on paper for our cabinet maker.
Walk In Pantry
We created a spacious walk in pantry that is 10.4 x 6.4. I talk about our walk in pantry in this post here!
5 Things I Would Do Differently:
The privilege of getting to design my kitchen to my liking is not lost on me. But this is always helpful to hear!
- I dislike that the ends of the cabinets aren’t “finished” along with the sides of the island. Trim should be put on the end of the cabinets to make them look more high end.
- Along the same lines, I also wish we had taken the time to add furniture feet to the cabinetry. It’s a small detail – something I skipped over when building- that would have had a big impact.
- If I could go back I also would have added spaces for more stools on the sides of the island where drawers are now. We are big on family dinners- we rarely don’t sit down with our kids at dinner time. But we also eat a lot of casual quick dinners during the week. It would be nice to have space for the 6 of us – or at least one adult!
- Panel fit appliances are a dream of mine
- I wish we had mixed in appliance cabinetry to store the toaster, blender, etc. into. This would have made the kitchen easier to clean up.
Lots of Serena & Lily in our kitchen. Take a house tour of our home on the Serena & Lily website.
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