If You Can't Stand the Heat... Stay in the Kitchen and Finish That Renovation!
I won't sugarcoat it: embarking on a kitchen overhaul can be pretty scary. This is the part of the house where we spend most of our time—cooking, entertaining guests, making coffee in the morning...I knew I couldn’t get this makeover wrong. Especially since this particular kitchen wasn’t even mine.
I took this project on for a client I didn’t want to disappoint, so the pressure was on to deliver something beautiful and on a budget—that could also survive a lot of traffic, because this home would be used as a rental property. You know what they say: If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen. This time, that wasn’t an option. So I rolled up my sleeves and marched straight in there.
Know Your Limits.
Looking around the empty kitchen, a million possibilities flooded my mind’s eye. We could go in virtually any direction with this space, any style. That’s why the first step is figuring out your limitations. That includes the budget, of course, but also acknowledging what you can and cannot change in the space.
This narrows down your possibilities in a good way, immediately reducing some of the overwhelm. For example, in our case, the home owners didn’t want to replace the flooring. Since the floors had hues of rich orangey-browns and reds, I decided the rest of the kitchen would have to take its cues from that palette, and a modern Mediterranean mix began to emerge.
We also needed to salvage the existing cabinets. But we agreed that they didn’t necessarily have to stay in the same configuration. So while we sanded, filled, primed and painted the cabinets a pretty peach color to contrast the dark floors, I worked on redesigning where the cabinets would go to create the best flow. In the end, we removed and re-purposed one of the upper cabinets and opened up the shelving to let the space breathe. We also allocated a portion of the budget to create a modern Spanish custom hood with trim that coordinated with the shelving line. Just look at this difference!
Find What Makes Your Kitchen Special
Once you know your limitations, look for your strengths. As soon as I dealt with the floors and cabinets, I saw the potential in the arched window at the center of the kitchen. It wasn’t particularly big or special at first—it was actually a bit small for the size of the room, especially now that the ceilings looked taller with the removed cabinets. But when you embrace the quirks of your space, that’s when the magic starts to happen.
By adding tile in a complementary pale blue (when in doubt, grab a color wheel and pick a color that sits opposite your main color), we were able to make the arched window look bigger and the space feel more balanced by drawing the eye upward. Incredible what a few pieces of tile can do, right?
Demo Any No-No's
If you look at this kitchen’s “before” pictures, you’ll see why that big clunky peninsula had to go. It was worth taking a chunk out of the budget to replace it with a modern floating island that would create better flow. This is where the going got tough for a second, because we had to build a custom kitchen island that looked good enough to justify the demo.
In the end, we went with four repurposed cabinet bases to provide some additional storage that we lost with the shelf removal. To make the space feel bigger and lighter, I chose a bright granite waterfall countertop and anchored it with a tawny wood base to match the exposed shelving. That’s a great trick for any makeover: if you have many different colors and materials going on like we did, the key to making a space feel coherent is to find ways for materials and colors to match at least one other element in the room. I like to think of it as a buddy system—every element has a friend somewhere in the space!
I grabbed measuring tape and discovered I only had 13 spare inches between the washer and dryer. I also had an 11-inch space from the top of the machines to the bottom of my built-in shelving. I realized I would have to get creative and implement some space-saving magic in these tight quarters and build some extra shelving. I rolled up my sleeves.
The Devil is in the Details
Details, details, details—they're the stuff nightmares are made of, am I right? But as we adorned the space with sleek black faucets, a coffee station, and whimsical accents, I started to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Cooking books, pottery, plants, and my favorite H&B Pahada bell and strap. They were the finishing touches that would make any renter feel at home.
Seating and Savoring
Now it’s time to pull up a chair and talk dining. You have to think practically when it comes to your dining space, or else people won’t use it (or will use it and abuse it!) So we opted for a wood and iron extendable table to accommodate large groups, and decided on black iron outdoor chairs, as we’ve found that guests are quite hard on kitchen furniture. These chairs will withstand heavy usage and are easy to wipe down and keep clean. They also bring a little modern edge to this Mediterranean space.
My finishing touch was a Hustle & Blush table runner. I hope it makes every meal feel like a celebration—a testament to the power of good food and great company. Cheers to turning houses into homes, one makeover at a time!
