The NW Montana build is going great. During our last trip the DeWils Fine Cabinetry was installed in the house. The walnut has beautiful grain patterns, and the variation in color is really nice. We chose flat front cabinets featuring clean lines, a feature in many Mid-Century Modern homes. The clear, matte finish let the natural beauty of the walnut take center stage. In today’s post, I’ll share details about our cabinets and a lighting update.
Cabinets
For sixty years, the DeWils Fine Cabinetry has been known for exceptional quality. Today they offer more styles, wood choices, and an ever-growing array of finish options. DeWils combines the craftsmanship of yesterday with the technologies of today and the durability to last for the generations of tomorrow. The word “quality” gets tossed around a lot these days, but this company considers quality to be something you do — not say. Quality is not a single bold statement; it’s a hundred small details that makes a DeWils cabinet simply better.
My husband, Jim and I designed all the cabinetry in our home, including choosing the cabinet style, size and function using a pencil sketch and then SketchUp. Our custom, well-made walnut cabinets are on the pricier side. If you’re budget is tighter, you can find good ready-to-assemble cabinets for a much lower price. If you need help with kitchen design, visit a big box store for the basics or higher a kitchen designer for a customized plan.
You can design your own kitchen, but please know that I’ve got Interior Design training and we’ve done a lot of the necessary homework to design a successful kitchen. We’ve also designed three brand new kitchen on our own. I’m not going to lie; we made a mistake in our first kitchen. If we had followed the National Kitchen and Bath Guidelines, we would have avoided an unnecessary pinch point by the refrigerator. Our next two kitchens were perfect, thanks to our understanding and adhering to NKAB guidelines.
DeWils Heirloom Quality:
- Plywood case construction
- All wood premium hardwood drawers
- Dovetail construction full extension drawers
- Soft close cabinet door hardware by Blum
- Hand sanded and hand rubbed stains
- Sustainable certified wood supplier
- Proudly made in the U.S.A.
Kitchen
Everyone dreams of a beautiful kitchen, but more importantly we all want our kitchens to function in a way that makes cooking and clean-up enjoyable and easy. My husband Jim and I designed our Mountain Modern kitchen to be functional and beautiful. We’ll also have additional space in the walk-in pantry for small appliances, food and serveware. The garage is just around the corner, so putting away groceries will be a breeze in this kitchen! We thought a lot about how we’ll use this kitchen, and you’ll want to do the same for your new kitchen.
If you are not a fan of the grain variation, you may want to go with a more consistent look, which can be achieved with other wood species or laminate cabinets. We had Italian laminate cabinets in our beach house that looked great. They were pretty indestructible and easy to clean.
Pro Tip: To ensure you have a functional kitchen follow the “Ice – Water – Stone – Fire” layout design recommendations. All meals start with gathering ingredients from the refrigerator and/or pantry (Ice). Our design has a prep and clean-up sink, plus plenty of counter space (Water and Stone). Finally, we have an induction range flanked by generous counter space (Fire). Visit this HOUZZ link to read a helpful and funny post about this topic here: Looking for layout help? Memorize this first. (houzz.com)
I provide more kitchen design insights in the blog post below:
Interior Design
The lighting plan for the house includes ambient, task and accent fixtures. The plan includes lights at various levels throughout the home. For example, our kitchen has ceiling, pendants, and undercabinet lighting. We’re also adding dimmers to all the lights allowing us to alter the mood of these spaces.
Our home is Mid-Century Modern inspired, which calls for natural materials and walnut was a popular choice during that timeframe. In addition to natural materials. We use a lot of clean lines, which you can see in our mono-sloped roof. These MCM homes also featured mixed materials like, wood, steel and stone. MCM design is simple and functional, but it can be fun too when featuring geometric patterns and bold colors.
We’re using the walnut cabinets for our kitchen, bathrooms, and laundry/mudroom. DeWils built a TV cabinet that will go next to the fireplace in the living room, as well as a floating bench in the front entry space. Both of these custom pieces were designed by us. The living room wall will also feature floor to ceiling walnut paneling.
Laundry
Our laundry room is right off the garage and this space will also serve as our mudroom. We asked the cabinet maker to create shelves for laundry baskets and storage. He also made a Dry-Away cabinet, which will hold pull-out racks to air dry delicate items. Finally, we’ve got plenty of closed storage above the washer and dryer, as well as under the sink. We’ll add a rug, bench, shoe storage and hooks on the left side of this space. This is also a good area to keep Hanna’s dog bowls. Did you notice the black and gold flush mount lights in the laundry room? Task lighting is important in the laundry room, but who says it has to be boring pot lights? The flush mount lights provide a dash of personality to the space.
Primary and Guest Bathrooms
I’ve in love with our primary bath! The walnut cabinets look fantastic with the terrazzo floors. The tile subcontractor will continue the terrazzo up the walls for about four feet, then it will transition into a ribbon wood tile to the ceiling in the shower and around the tub. We also have flush mount and sconce lighting fixtures in this bathroom.
We really like the affordable tile our Interior Design partner, Joni Stoll found for the second bathroom. It saved a few bucks and looks great with our walnut cabinets in the second bathroom and laundry room. It’s an easy fix, but the electrician installed the wrong sconces in the second bathroom. The nickel sconces we chose will provide better light for next to the mirror. The sconces you see in the above picture will be moved to the guest bedroom and will cast a nice moody glow appropriate for the space.
In less than two months, Jim, me and our Westie, Hanna will be starting a new chapter in the best setting imaginable. Every time we go back, we get more excited about the move. We’re hoping to meet new friends, while we explore trails and learn more about Montana by volunteering with local nonprofits. I’ll be posting updates on our build, interior and garden designs soon, so be sure to subscribe below:
Design, Garden, & Travel by Majestic Meadows 
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