One of my favorite rooms in our new house is our remodeled white coastal kitchen.
Although we live at the Jersey Shore, you don’t have to live by the beach to embrace chic coastal decor. This long time trend can brighten up any kitchen space and give a bright, airy feel to any home.
We just bought a house by the beach so I am fully embracing the coastal theme in my home. I love coastal decor because the brightness can make me happy even in the cold, bitter Jersey winters.
Some may think that coastal decor means “turquoise colors, “beach house” signs, sea turtles, and star fish all over. However the coastal vibe has taken on a whole new vibe in the past few years.
Thanks to Serena and Lily and some other high end brands, coastal kitchens contain a lot of white and neutral tones, light wood, and rattan. With a touch of greenery, gold tones, and maybe some capiz, it’s easy to transform your kitchen to a coastal space.
For our remodel, we opted for white cabinets, gold hardware, stainless steel appliances, light wood, and rattan lighting. I’m so happy with the end product, but I’ll tell you below my one biggest regret.
Before and After
So I know the before and after photos don’t look all that different, mostly because there were white cabinets installed previously. However, when we moved in, the current cabinets were so cheaply made, not to mention dirty and grimy. I just needed a fresh new start.
So we gutted the entire kitchen from floor to ceiling. We kept pretty much the same layout because there wasn’t much else to do in the space, but we made it so much more functional.
A few things I want to note about a kitchen remodel is creating a space that is the MOST FUNCTIONAL. Going into our renovation, all I could think about was that I wanted it to look pretty and that’s just not the smartest idea when throwing down a ton of money on a project.
I made my inspiration and vision board for how I wanted the kitchen to look, but I never fully understood how to make the kitchen space more functional. Therefore, I am so glad I spoke with a designer who gave me a ton of tips on how to create a space that I would be happy with.
Here are a few tips that I brought into our new kitchen:
- Double sinks. Not every kitchen needs a second sink, but because we had a large island between our stove/refrigerator, it would have been annoying to go to the other sink all of the time. Instead of adding a pot filler at the stove that serves one function, I simply added another sink in the island to serve as a pot filler, pot cleaner/drainer, and more! I use this sink the most because of the layout.
- Placing the microwave close to the refrigerator. Pretty much the only time you’re going to be microwaving something is taking it right out of the refrigerator.
- Spice cabinets next to the stove. Now I can keep spices, rice, tomato sauce, olive oil, and all the things I pretty much only use at the stove, right next to it, instead of taking up space in my pantry.
- Dual zone beverage refrigerator. I think that a wine refrigerator is a waste because who needs that much wine chilled at one time? However, with dual zones, you can store beer, soda, juice boxes, water bottles, etc so it doesn’t take up room in your regular refrigerator.
- An outlet in my cabinet pantry. Unfortunately we didn’t have space for a walk-in or closet pantry, so our large cabinets serve this function. I added an outlet to one of the long pantry cabinets so that I can store my vacuum in there for quick clean up.
- Cabinets on both sides of the island. Most islands have a whole waste of space in the back. Use that space and add doors on the back so it’s fully functional!
- Large and deep pull out drawers. This is an amazing way to store not only pots and pans, but literally anything. Who wants to open a base cabinet door and lean down to pull out something heavy in the back? Drawers let you store anything and easily slide it out. SO convenient!
- Pull out garbage can drawer. Our previous kitchen had a cabinet door that you open and then you have to pull out the garbage can. Pulling out the garbage can at the same time is super easy.
Cabinetry
The white shaker style cabinet is very trendy for 2022. It has been for the past five years and will continue to be for years to come.
We went with a traditional, plain white shaker cabinet. They were semi-custom cabinets from 21st Century cabinetry.
While you may think that a shaker cabinet is just one style, there are actually numerous styles to choose from, ranging from more or less detail.
We went with a traditional and simple style and chose white for all cabinets, including the island. This is where my regret comes in.
If I could do it over, I would have chose to make the island cabinets a light wood. At first, I did not like the look of an island in a different color, but now I just love it.
While an all white kitchen is still beautiful to me, an accent island would really add some more tone and texture to this space.
Hardware
I love the look of champagne gold for a coastal kitchen. I chose these Amarock Versa pulls for our cabinets and couldn’t be happier.
I wanted to use a longer-than-normal length pull for each cabinet because it elongates them. I have 8 and 13/16” for the longer wall cabinets and 30″ drawers and 6 and 13/16” for the shorter base cabinets.
If a base cabinet had a drawer at the top, it’s usually got the smaller pull, but a base cabinet without a drawer got the larger pull as well.
In addition, I chose the Delta Trinsic Champagne Bronze Faucet for both sinks and they match the pulls perfectly.
What I love about this faucet is that it’s touch censored. It’s great for when you have dirty hands from cooking or cleaning, you simply tap your elbow or the back of your hand anywhere on the faucet and it will turn on for you. They also have a voice-censored option, but I didn’t think that was necessary, although still cool.
Lighting
Not only do light fixtures add light to your kitchen, but this is a great place to add your personal touch of modern coastal decor.
Pendant Lights
A beautiful addition to any island or peninsula are pendant lights. Keeping with the coastal theme, I chose to use woven basket pendants.
Serena and Lily Headlands Bell Pendants can create a gorgeous and chic centerpiece. However, I opted to save a bit of money here and purchased these (dupe alert) Woven Bamboo Pendants from World Market.
My World market pendant lights look very similar to the Serena and Lily option, but less than half the price.
Be aware that the World Market pendant is only the shade. You’ll need to purchase the additional ceiling light kit for the full light. I chose the gold ceiling kit.
Flush mount or semi-flush mount light
Some spaces may require a small light fixture, like this over-the-sink nook. I thought about adding a rattan/woven fixture here to compliment the rest of the woven lights, but I didn’t want woven material to dominate too much.
For that reason, I chose this 16″ Conical Drum semi-flush mount fixture and absolutely love it.
You can’t adjust the height of where it is mounted, but it’s a perfect distance from the ceiling. Another thing I love about it is that it provides a filtered light because it has a covered bottom.
Chandelier
Adding a chandelier over your coastal kitchen table will make a beautiful statement. Choose from a woven, wooden, beaded, or capiz fixture to complete your coastal eat in kitchen.
I chose this ivory beaded chandelier from Amazon and it has exceeded my expectations. These beads are actually plastic, not wood, but you can’t even tell from a distance.
Recessed lights
Recessed lights are a must for kitchen lighting because ceiling fixtures just can’t provide enough light to brighten a kitchen. We placed several recessed lights throughout the ceiling for maximum lighting.
You’ll want to place the lights between the walkway and over the countertops. They should be at least 2 feet away from the cabinets so no light is blocked.
Under Cabinet Lighting
Extra lighting makes it easier to see what you are doing when you’re cooking or working in your kitchen. This is great during food preparation or stirring dishes on the stove.
It also adds illumination and complements your main overhead lighting. It gives you a way to focus on different spaces and highlighting features you love, such as your unique backsplash.
When we did our kitchen remodel, we didn’t add electrical underneath the cabinets because we just didn’t think that we needed it at the time. After the remodel was finished, I realized that I wanted it.
Luckily it is so easy to add under cabinet lighting after everything is done! The easiest option to install is battery-powered lighting. These come with mounting screws, backing adhesive, or a magnetic strip.
The Under Cabinet Light Strip that I used was mounted using a simple 3M adhesive, battery operated and remote controlled, and dimmable. It’s just about the easiest thing to install and operate.
You can move them wherever and replace the batteries as well – no wiring required. Check out all the options for under cabinet lighting here.
Seating
One of my favorite parts of our kitchen is the seating that I chose. With an all white kitchen, it’s necessary to really use the furniture and lighting pieces to make a statement.
Stools
I was swooning over these Orient Express Counter Stools from Wayfair and always said that if I got my white kitchen, these would have to be my counter stools. However, because I love a good dupe, I found these rope stools for much cheaper from TJ Maxx.
My dupes are always sold out though, but the Bess Patio Bar Stool is a great option as well for a fraction of the cost. Check out all my favorite coastal counter stools here.
Dining chairs
I have been oogling the white Serena and Lily Riviera dining chairs for years and having 3 kids under 5, I was certain that these buying white chairs would be a huge mistake. However, I asked around about the material of these chairs and heard from several other moms that they are super easy to clean.
This ended up being very true! The vinyl material on the Riviera chairs is super easy to wipe clean with just a wet cloth, making these high end chairs super kid friendly!
Unfortunately there are no good dupes for the Serena and Lily Riviera chairs, but they were definitely worth the splurge.
Kitchen Table
I love the Avila Washed Natural Wood dining table from World Market. This gorgeous farmhouse style table can be used in a formal dining room or even a casual eat-in kitchen.
The quality is superb and I think it looks gorgeous. It seats 6 comfortably with a leaf at both sides to fit 10 people. The washed wood beautifully complements the Riviera chairs perfectly.
Countertops
Most white quartz countertops contain grey veining. Since I chose to use gold accents in my kitchen, I wanted the countertop to pick up some of that gold color as well.
I absolutely love our countertop, LG Viatera Calacatta Sol. This quartz countertop is as pure white as you can find (not an off white like some quartz) and has accents of grey and gold.
The grey veining is obviously much more prominent, but the skinny gold veining helps to tie in the colors together well.
Backsplash
For the backsplash, I chose a tile from TileBar. I really wanted to do something funky with a gold trim and some contrast to the white, but the more I thought about it, I just got too nervous.
I thought that if I didn’t like it, it would be staring me in the face all the time and I just wasn’t ready to use a funky tile in my kitchen.
Since white subway tile is almost always a good choice, I didn’t want it to be so plain and boring. This Montauk Gin Subway Tile from TileBar just adds the perfect touch of sheen to an otherwise boring white subway tile!
The tiles all have a slightly different sheen/color which gives a little bit of contrast.
Appliances
I’m not going to go into too much detail about the appliances, but I did want to mention this beverage refrigerator. This was something that I really wanted in our kitchen and I am SO GLAD we added it.
While it may seem silly to put a small refrigerator right next to your big refrigerator, I’m telling you, you won’t regret it! Why waste space in your refrigerator for beverages like soda, water, seltzers, etc. if you can just give them their own spot?
I love this beverage refrigerator because it has two zones. This way I don’t have to use it solely as a wine fridge or soda fridge, but can split it.
Flooring
I absolutely love our flooring and if you didn’t know any better, you wouldn’t know that it’s NOT hardwood! It’s luxury vinyl plank, but it fools everyone!
This flooring is Global Gem Flooring Carolina Coastal Inspired line- South Khaki Lackey color luxury vinyl plank. Luxury vinyl is perfect because it’s scratch resistant AND waterproof! Basically kid proof which was the best option for us.
Ask your local flooring distributor about it!
If you love this white coastal kitchen remodel, I’d love to see how you styled your own using my ideas. Check out some ways to organize your kitchen now that it’s done. Happy decorating!
