Modern Organic Kitchen Design Board | New Build

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Are you designing a new build or kitchen remodel? This Modern Organic Kitchen Design Board is full of inspiration for creating your new space!

I recently shared about choosing the appliances for our new build, but let’s talk about the design! I touched on this briefly in the post and how it’s important to the style of appliances you choose. Let’s start from the beginning and I’ll walk you through our Modern Organic Kitchen Design. You can also catch up but reading our post all about our overall design aesthetic for a deeper look into my design process.

Organic Modern Style Kitchen Mood Board

Kitchen Selections – Modern Organic Kitchen Design

Before I dive in, here’s a link to everything we will be using in our kitchen! For more details on our appliances, you can head to this post, and if you’d like to see the layout, here’s our floor plan. This post does contain affiliate links, however, it does not affect the cost for you. It does however help keep this blog running! Thanks so much for your support!

Kitchen Appliances

• Range
• Hood Vent
• Dishwasher
• Fridge & Freezer - 30" Integrated Columns
• Cabinets - Custom
• Countertops - Black Mist Honed Granite & Marble from StoneX in Milwaukee
• Pendants
• Sconces
• Kitchen Faucet
• Sink
• Pot Filler
• Barstools

Custom Cabinetry – Skinny Shaker Kitchen Cabinet Doors

One of the very first things I designed in my head was our kitchen cabinets. I have had this vision in my head for probably 2 years now. I think a couple of things changed along the way, but something that never changed was the door style. Obviously, shaker cabinets are a timeless style that we all see all the time. You’ll see designers make little tweaks like trim around the interior of the door, bevels, stains, and colors. But the shaker style is pretty much a staple. I’ve had shaker kitchens multiple times, most recently in our historic remodel, and I even made some old flat doors look like shaker doors in this tutorial. However, this time I wanted a different version of that style.

I custom-designed my own version of a skinny shaker kitchen cabinet door. I’ve seen skinny shaker doors before, I certainly didn’t invent them, but by working with a custom cabinet company I was able to get the rails and stiles the exact size I wanted. They are 1.25″ wide and about a ¼″ thick with mitered corners and a custom stain! The clean lines of these cabinet doors are exactly what I was looking for!

Two-Toned Kitchen Cabinets

As I mentioned, I’ve had several kitchens over the years and I feel like I’ve really narrowed in on what I like. I think I’ll always love a white kitchen, but I wanted something that wasn’t painted. So we decided on wood lowers (and a full wall of stained cabinets around our fridge) and white uppers. I love painted cabinets, I really do, however, I feel like they show wear and tear more so than stained. Maybe I’m wrong, but I guess I thought I’d test it out for myself!

European Style Cabinets

Because I’ve had overlay cabinets and inset cabinets I knew I definitely didn’t want inset cabinets again. In our last house, I felt like we would ding up the edges of the cabinets when putting big pots and pans away and you could see that damage. Of course, I could use the paint pen that we got with our cabinets, but it still bothered me. Maybe if I didn’t make my kids put dishes away it would be easier to maintain, but I’m a fan of my kids doing dishes ;).

This led me to determine if I wanted overlay cabinets or to explore something I’d seen but never had. Ultimately we chose European frameless cabinets in white oak. These cabinets do not have a face frame which allows for a bigger interior and a tight seamless look on the doors. I’m a fan so far, but I’ll report back after living with them in a few months!

Mixed Material Countertops

I thought countertops were going to be the death of me, and literally did everything in my power to not like marble! I really did, including driving over an hour and a half to get samples and look at all the different options. No matter what I did every time I walked past a marble slab… I couldn’t resist it. Natural stone just has such a specific look to it. Originally my plan was to do black-honed granite on the kitchen island and some kind of quartz on the perimeter counters. There is definitely some nice quartz, but nothing gave me that organic feel I wanted except marble.

Yes, marble does stain, etch, and there is even already a small chip on the edge. But you know what… I don’t even care! Marble has been around forever and people have lived with it in all its glory since pretty far back in history. It will all be ok. If you aren’t ok with imperfections maybe it’s not for you. However, I did plan on the island being more durable since that is where I see us using the most countertop space.

Mixed Metals

I will forever be a fan of mixing metals. In our kitchen, I chose polished nickel and black to keep things streamlined and simple, but I’m thinking I’ll add some brass in the accessories once we move in. All of our appliances, except the range, will have custom panels to match the cabinetry so you won’t see much metal in our kitchen.

Plaster Hood

Plaster vent hoods kind of seem to be a trend right now, and I’m not a big trend person, however, I feel like these will quickly become a timeless feature in kitchens. I knew I didn’t want the industrial vibe of the exposed vent hood nor the weight of a wooden one. A plaster hood checked all my design boxes and I’m thrilled with how it turned out! I had to decide on this pretty quickly in the process because it went up with the framing, although you can definitely add one in after the fact if you want.

Organic Modern Home - Kitchen Design Plans

Overall I had a specific look in mind. Our kitchen is very open to our living room so I didn’t want it to scream Kitchen! I didn’t want to look over there and see stainless steel everywhere, but rather have it feel like part of our furniture, cozy, and inviting with natural elements. The pendant lights really made this feel exactly how I wanted it to. When I saw those go up I was like, yup… this is what I wanted! I can’t wait to share the full reveal with you! I have a feeling it will be the first space I share. Not only is it one of my favorites, but it just stands for everything I wanted in this house… plus it’s all you guys really ask about 😉