Over the years as I repaint a room in my house or redecorate I have been working to create a color scheme that to me feels like the islands. I am trying to create a similar feeling to being in the islands and am quite pleased.

I am beginning a kitchen rennovation. It is a very small kitchen and I am keeping honey oak cabinets. I want to replace the flooring, appliances and and countertops. What colors are very common in Caribbean kitchens? What kind of floor? Does anyone realy use anything but tile, like Marmoleum or cork? I am not thilled about tile with how cold and hard it is. Also, what color counters are common? Is granite used? Silestone Quartz or mostly small tiles?

Any ideas or tips in particular would be so appreciated. I also would love any suggestions for websites with pictures of kitchen designs from the islands or a message board.

Whenever I have been in the islands I just love the energy, colors and feel to the hotel rooms I have been in and places I visit. I am not afraid of color in my house at all but I am working hard to make sure it all works together. Decorators in stores here in New England I just don't trust. I don't think they get what I mean when I descibe it. Thus, I figured I would ask here.

Interesting question....love it! I love bamboo flooring. Not only is it exotic, but bamboo grows as much as a foot a day where it is grown so it is viewed as environmentally favorable. I love tiled countertops using colors. Granite, quartz and Corian are all nice....but nothing separates like a nice tile. Especially since it is a very small kitchen. As far as cabinets go....that is really dependent on the lighting of your space. If you have a lot of light....go darker....if not....try lighter. I can't think of one being more tropical than another (dark vs light). Painted cabinets are very popular in the Caribbean. It kind of all depends on a lot of other factors of your house.

Why not have fun "browsing" some Caribbean villa websites. You can usually see what their kitchens look like on those sites and it might inspire you.

When I think Caribbean kitchen, for some reason I think deep blue tiled countertops...

Keep us posted on your decisions.

Start with 'Caribbean Style' by Suzanne Slesin for inspiration/probably the best
one out there. Google 'Bamboo Fencer',
a MA company, source of raw material
bamboo, fencing, plants--the works. He
also guarantees his bamboo free of
insects for 3 years. On the islands,
'chi-chi'/bugs are prevalent and eat
bamboo...Bamboo flooring and bamboo fabric is now made as well as furniture/accessories/bowls and serving pieces. TARGET is also a good cheap source for global tropic look stuff like mango and bamboo wood accessories.
www.originalbamboofactory.com
a Port Antonio,Jamaica bamboo furniture
maker's Web site might also inspire.
Bleach out the cabs -- if the space is small, they're too dark.

The one thing you'll also find in
19th/20th cen. old-fashioned Jamaican
great house/big house kitchens is a long work island table covered in stainless steel sheet. Gloss white
paint was generally used on walls/cabinets.

Go also to the online Gallery of West Indian Art -- in Montego Bay,Jamaica--
where you can buy online an original
piece which might focus the entire room
in a glance on the tropics. Jamaican,
Haitian and Cuban painters featured.
Out of
Trinidad but covering the entire Caribbean, the upscale quarterly magazine MAACO is the equivalent of
'Architectural Digest'. It's printed
in Toronto so you can subscribe in the States.

This is great information. I hadn't thought about bleaching my oak cabinets. I knew I didn't want to paint them but I think I will look into bleaching them. ccrosner: I think I would love the look of the blue tile counters but then I think of all the practical stuff like, the grouting being tough to keep clean and thoughts of resale value of not having granite or stone. I will definitely check out the websites and book. My husband just read the post and said the MA bammboo company is up the street from us about 1/2 hour.

If it is a small kitchen I think white cabinets would be best. Dark cabinets make spaces look smaller.

I like the idea of the bamboo flooring (very nice looking in person) with white cabinets and deep blue tiles. Maybe you could do a mango type of color on the walls with nice island type of prints, blue tiles and backsplash for the counters, and then the white cabinets.

I like the World decor that Target has started carrying. They have a lot in their stores but they also have an excellent selection online of things that they don't carry in stores.

Another good place to find things like that is World Market. They have a lot of interesting decor items that have a global feel.

Overstock.com also has a lot of reasonably priced global decor items.

The best way to get ideas is look in home catalogs. Architectural Digest usually has a vacation home issue where there are multi-page spreads featuring amazing vacation homes. I believe that this issue came out several months ago because I remember looking at it.

I recently redecorated my downstairs half bath.I decorated it in Palm trees.I sponge painted the walls with Sage Green.I also framed some of my pictures from St John and hung them on the walls..along with a Palm Tree night light and Palm Tree potpourri tart burner,Palm tree rug and towels.I bought a Bamboo plant and put it on the shelf in the bathroom.I hung a bamboo blind on the window.

It is very pretty and tropical feeling.

Our bedroom is painted Aloha (which is a deep mauve-maroon color)really pretty and helps to darken the room if you like it dark when you sleep.I bought 2 huge Caribbean pictures of the clear blue water and unique looking palm trees.

A.C. Moore (a craft store)has alot of beautiful tropical stuff.

Christie

Bleaching/pickling/whitewashing -- there are lots of techniques to keep the oak grain but lighten the color....

I just returned from a tile shop, and a kitchen design shop. I was told to forget about bleaching my honey oak cabinets that it is a tremendous amount of work and will not come out very well. He told me I will be longing for my oak! Hmm. For flooring Caribean style they suggested a light terra cotta tile. I saw some tumbled stone and wondered about that look with a tan grout.

Because my kitchen opens from my living room (mango/sweet potato walls)and into my dining room(yellow and Bermuda type blue)and in view of a large screened porch with pool blue floor and light green wicker) I am concerned about over doing the color and think I should use the kitchen more as a bridge to connect it all. I also have a very large pond (looks like a lake) view and a lot of nature -trees and woods. I saw a real nice light jade granite that I am considering for the counters (no grout!) and maybe doing some caribbean greens in a glass tile for a backsplash. I am still totally unsure about the floors.

You are all awesome. Thanks so much for your ideas. It is so helpful for me in helping to formulate my own thoughts on the project.

the only advice about tumbled stone is that it is very porous and if you don't seal it with regular coats of sealer, it really soaks up stains, and you ahve to put a good acrylic sealer in the grout so it doesn't seep into the tiles - so just make sure whoever is installing it knows what they are doing, and to continue w/ the regular sealing esp in an area where you may have spills. There are other options now that look like tumbled but aren't, and you might prefer the lesser upkeep

Bamboo flooring is also environmentally 'friendly' and looks great but can be 'soft' and if the area gets a lot of traffic, it doesn't hold up as well as other flooring. Thre are products that are light woods and factory painted/sealed that hold up better.

I have picked and white washed oak cabinets and they have lasted years and years, if you are concerned about the look, sometimes it is worth purchasing a piece of oak and trying it out - but I have never tired of my light cabinetry.

Sounds as if you need to hire an interior decorator to get the exact "feel" you are looking for.

What an awesome question. Your house sounds very nice. I, too, love color. I do, however second CaribbeanSoul's suggestion to hire someone to help you get the feel and to ensure that everything flows. I did read that you did not trust the folks in your area, but, trust me, there is someone out there for you. I have recently used a designer when purchasing furniture for the living room. She came out and looked at the space and had a much better idea of what was right for the space after viewing the other rooms downstairs. She didn't pick out the furniture, but knew about sizes and color families that would work with my exisiting furnishings. I have had someone come out before thatwas not right for me...I nodded politely and sent her on her way, so it may take more than talking to one person to get the fit for you. I was pleasantly surprised that the furniture consultant was free, while I paid the other person by the hour. It is a great "gift" to ask for as far as birthday's or Mother's Day goes. My mother painted over her dark wood kitchen cabinets and they look great..you can see the grain of the wood underneath, but the white looks superb! I agree with you, also on the grout in the kitchen. It is hard to keep clean, but it can be done. Good luck!

Like yours, the decor of my home is sort of "British Colonial" with lots of strongly colored rooms flowing into each other -- a cranberry red dining room, a deep green living room, a deep coral family room, and sunny yellow foyer/hallways. The carryover color in all of the rooms seems to be green. So, in decorating my kitchen (which is sort of a transition space), I am sticking with off-white walls and honey-colored cork floors. I have a wallpaper border with a palm theme which is mostly green, but also brings in the red, yellow and coral (same with coordinating curtains). The countertops are green (had been laminate, but will soon be Silestone). I think you can keep the color of your cabinets, but you may be able to pickle them to lighten them up a little -- I'd had bleached/pickled oak, but am now getting off-white painted maple. You might also think about changing the hardware -- if you have shiny brass, you may want to go with a more distressed finish. The overall feel of my kitchen space is light, but the sparing (compared to other spaces) use of colors pulls all the other rooms together. You may also be able to find accents that tie in your other rooms.

callaloo - I enjoyed reading what you have done with color, your house sounds alive and beautiful. The 3 samples of cork flooring we brought home were too dark and I think the light color cork is going to be too much the same with all the honey oak cabinets. What color green are you going with in the silestone? I am curious why you are deciding on that instead of a green granite. I am going to replace the shiny brass cabinet hardware with the new stainless appliances.

Afriend who was just over suggested that with all the color, including if I go with glass tiles for a backsplash, I should have the floor get lost a bit in the over all design and suggested more of a terra cota floor. Like I said earlier we are not thrilled with the coldness and hardness of tile, but it might look best.

Are you familiar with the Marmoleum Callaloo?

Juldie, if you're still interested in cork, there are TONS of color options, not just the "natural" colors. At least one manufacturer that I researched (Globus Cork) offers colors that range from alabaster white to black to red and everything in between (even a terra cotta color), providing endless options. It's not exactly an authentic Caribbean look, like terra cotta tile or hardwood would be, but it offers a very soft feel underfoot which was important to me. I like tile, and had hardwood, but if you spend a lot of time working in the kitchen, you can appreciate a little give underfoot. I imagine the Marmoleum product will offer similar feel and flexibility. One of the kitchen designers I talked to said that products like that one are really taking off, even for very high end kitchens, because they offer the opportunity for real creativity.

As for the countertops, we've chosen the "Green River" Silestone, which is a black/green. For our purposes, we didn't find the price difference between granite, Silestone and solid surface to be enough to drive our choice. So we chose what we perceive the be the most durable and easy care product.

Truth be told, I don't expect you'd find much of the stone countertops in the Caribbean, as those materials are heavy (for shipping) and need to be custom fabricated, making them almost prohibitively expensive for the average island home. If you're looking for "authentic," you're probably talking tile or laminate countertops. But if you're looking for island "inspired," you have a lot more choices.

Good luck planning your kitchen!

I finally came found a book of mine I couldn't seem to put my hand on -it is "Caribbean Style' by Suzanne Slesin & Stafford Cliff, photos by Gilles de Chabaneix - nice photo/comment book on colors, style, decor - I'm sure there are many others, but if you can find this one in a bookstore, browse thru it !

It's going to be really exciting to hear about your house when it's done! Over the years, friends have told us that we can't do our house "Caribbean -like" as it would be too much to live with. So we have done it slowly and love it so far. Next week the painter comes to do our guest bathroom in Mandarin Orange and we'll hang the pictures we bought in Nevis. We did cheat in one place. In our front door area we had all our windows custom made with a stained glass Kauai design! Beacuse of the way our house is designed it works and looks great!

Knowing - well we are in the same club of people not afraid of color in our homes, and colors that make us feel good!

Callaloo: thanks so much for the name of that cork company. The colors and variety of shapes they have is amazing. I have already emailed them to find out about a retailer in my area and was told even though they don't have one he said he will send me feee samples. So we are back excited about cork for the floor.