Cottage Kitchen Design Plans

I’m excited to share one of the room designs for the cottage!  Granted, it’s not a complete design, because there is one crucial element missing.  I have NO idea what we’ll do for the backsplash (if anything at all!).  So please, check out these cottage kitchen design plans and let me know what you would do :)

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Before I dive into the er, missing backsplash, let me catch you up to speed.  We’ve been building a cottage for over a year now, and we’re into the home stretch.  All the kitchen has been ordered, some cabinets are assembled, and floors and walls are going to be finished any day now.

The photo above is the current view (well, the floors just got started today!), so essentially, some things are in place.

Check out the cottage interior finishing and framing post for more details on the overall design direction.  As a catch-up, here is the floorplan of our (almost square) cottage:

The kitchen is the first room on the left when you walk into the front door, and it takes up about 1/6 of the upstairs layout.

This is our fifth kitchen, and once again, I’m going with my tried-and-true: Ikea.  (PS: we did a traditional kitchen at the first house, my brother’s budget kitchen, our basement apartment kitchen, and most recently our current kitchen).

Cottage Kitchen Floorplan and Renders

Here is the design I came up with using Ikea’s Kitchen Designer (soon-to-be upgraded to a new version):

Okay, so we have three windows in the kitchen, and I knew I wanted the sink lined up with the one in the front, and the stove placed in between the two windows on the side.  The little gap in the front is where the dishwasher will go, and on the left is the stove.  The cabinets at the top right will be shallower, and I was thinking it’d be a great coffee/microwave zone.

Here are some renders (again, from the Ikea software) to show what I mean:

This is the view when you are standing a few feet into the entry.  Again, dishwasher on the left next to the sink, then the stove in between the two windows, with a built-in rangehood above.  The fridge will be on the right (it’s up against a little wall).

The photo above shows a similar view, looking into the dining room.  So, instead of a blank wall, picture a big open doorway.

And finally, the photo above shows the view from the dining room, looking toward the sink.  There are not a lot of upper cabinets in our plan, so I’ll be adding a couple of shelves on that back wall for plate/cup storage.

Ready to see the design direction/moodboard?!

Cottage Kitchen Design Plans

Again, a lot of the elements are repeating throughout the house, so the top right block is similar everywhere upstairs.

There’s a lot to unpack, so let me go through everything quickly.  The main wall colour will be Benjamin Moore’s Wind’s Breath.  Trim will be Brandon Beige.  The floors are a vinyl plank in the colour Zodiac (we have the same style, but a darker colour here).  They are the perfect combo of grey/beige and perfect for hiding dirt!  The ceilings are tongue and groove pine boards, that we will just clear coat.

For the kitchen cabinets, I went with the Ikea flat slab called Havstorp Turquoise.  I was originally going to do the Bodarp gray-green, but the turquoise came out right before I ordered and I was so happy!  The countertops are the Ekbacken in the dark gray marble.  This was another choice I wafted between a few things.  My parents have the same counters in their laundry room, and I thought they would do well against the turquoise.

This is my first time doing an apron front sink, and this is the Havsen double bowl.  I’ve already warned the Husband that it’s the biggest sink we’ve ever installed, so be prepared, ha.  I love our Delta Trinsic faucet so much (we have the matte black) and I ordered the brushed nickel for the cottage.  Honestly, the black would have looked amazing here too… and is apparently way cheaper… whoops!

We’ll build two custom metal and wood shelves to flank the sink window.  It will sort of look like my example in the moodboard.  (Here’s a pin to something similar too).  I want the shelves to hold all the dishes, and you know I’m going with a matching colour scheme.  (I’ve literally had my eye on this dinnerware set for over a year, I will cry if it’s not in stock when I buy them, ha).

For the lights, we’ll have this hanging pendant above the sink, and these two wall sconces above the stove windows.  There’s also a plain ceiling light, but you won’t see it much.  (Oh, and I got a matching light for the entry and dining room too).  The appliances will be stainless steel, and we’ll honestly just buy whatever is cheapest and in stock!

Finally, the cutie little mushroom-looking thing above is actually a rock knob!  We’re calling the cottage the Rocky Retreat, and I really wanted to bring in some fun “rock” elements.  So, yes, you will open all the doors and drawers with little rocks :)

But yes, no backsplash plans yet…

(Same as the hood too, I debated doing a pine plank to match the ceiling, but I think I like the plain drywall white!).

Cottage Kitchen Design Inspiration

Honestly, I’ll probably wait until I have all the elements in place before I decide.  There are some fun elements we’ve never done before (hello pine planked ceiling!) and I don’t want our backsplash to clash.

But, here are some things that I saved as potential options:

Blue Cabinets White Rangehood

The example above is very similar to our kitchen style, so a white backsplash would work without competing.

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In the photo above, I like the planked walls and the matching backsplash behind the oven.  Of course, we have laminate counters, so not sure it would be as nice.

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This one is similar again, but just a couple of rows of tiles behind the oven.  It would really be practical to protect that area, so that’s a thought!

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I like the kitchen above because it reminds me a lot of our kitchen!  We could do pine planks on the bottom half of the wall (there it’s a similar coloured tile) and leave the rangehood white.

Green Kitchen with Black White Tile

Or, do we go with a more traditional tile, and keep it on the bottom portion of the walls?  Check out the wood band along the rangehood too, another thing we considered!

PS: Check out my whole Country Cabin Pinterest Board for all my cottage-y pins.

Do you have a strong opinion on a backsplash choice?  Remember, we’ll be using this cottage ourselves, and as a short-term rental – so durability (and cleanability) are definitely things to consider.

Either way, I hope you enjoyed reading my cottage kitchen design plans!  I’m really excited to see how it will all unfold, and I’ll definitely take you along for the ride :)  Please follow me on Instagram to get all the behind-the-scenes.  And, there are some cottage highlights so you can click those to review the journey so far.

I’ll share another room design plan next week, so see you then!