Chapter 1: What a great idea!

A kitchen remodel

Not landscape-related, but we remodeled our kitchen and we project managed and designed it. The process may feel familiar to you, and who doesn’t love a good HGTV-ish moment? We’re going to go through the process over the next month, so stay tuned!

Tale as old as time

The story of a home remodel is an old one. A wife stares intently at the walls and floors, an appliance starts to go haywire, and the measuring tape is whipped out.

“What if…”, I say.

“What.” says he.

“What if….we redid the kitchen?”, I finish.

“…”

The carpet in the front room was trashed from age, a new puppy, and children. If we were tearing out the carpet, we might as well replace the tile floor that surrounds it and weaves through the house. And if we were replacing the floors, well, we might as well do a complete kitchen renovation. Classic “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie” vibes. A few months later, my husband started warming up to the idea. Our home is a smaller one-story that we bought at the exact right moment in 2019, right before the pandemic and being pregnant with our second child. With interest rates as they are, it makes sense to invest in the home we have rather than look elsewhere. So we brought in a professional: Allison Shepstone of Cambray Designs. As an interior designer and with extensive experience in house renovations, sells, and purchases, she was a perfect contact.

“Is this a terrible idea? Does it make sense?” I asked her.

“No, definitely not a terrible idea. Updating this space will help increase your home value and make your home more usable”, she offered.

And so, we began. We hired Allison as a consultant, bouncing ideas off her to make sure we were on the right track. She helped point us in the right direction and selected one of my favorite elements of the space. It was a 4 month process for my husband and I to come up with a final design. With his background in construction & project management, and my landscape architecture background, it felt achievable.

Those 90s Kitchen Vibes: the existing eyesore

Design intent

The main change was to remove the stovetop from the island space and install an induction stove/oven. The spatial design aesthetic of intentional and simple works well for landscape as well as interior. It’s challenging to have a space look effortless and inviting. It usually takes a weathered veteran of design to really lean into that technique. It’s common to get lost in the details. Our approach was clean lines, nothing fussy and everything scaled appropriately. We also didn’t want it to look like a huge departure from the rest of the house’s design. The pinterest-ing was at an all-time high and the amount of googling about kitchen layouts and lighting was extensive.

The mighty Pinterest board

The overall layout

It was clear the space wasn’t going to hold a formal dining situation and the giant island of my dreams. So we simplified: large island with enough seating for 6. We also made the controversial decision of getting rid of glazing (window) space. I didn’t want the stove right next to the living room area, so the fridge had to go there. The existing kitchen had two huge windows along the north wall that we decided to cut into three smaller windows to make space for the fridge. This simplified things: we were filling in window space and therefore didn’t need any structural updates to make it work. To me, the worst trait of a badly designed kitchen is not enough aisle to get past someone else cooking. We therefore made the aisles very generous: we kept in mind how much space you need to cook at a stove and how far the oven, fridge, and dishwasher doors protrude. It’s so much about function. We played with a few different layouts and the design evolved as we incorporated more detail. We also ended up hiring a cabinet company to help verify my layout: that led to a few more tweaks as well.

First Attempt

Our first attempt was to turn the island orientation, but maintain most of our existing cabinetry. I truly love a good banquette dining nook and worked hard to make it happen. But, in every layout, it made most of the living room space unusable.

Window Change

Our existing layout had two huge windows which were set at the same level as the counter. They constantly got dirty and the window coverings were heaving from the size. We decided to nix them in exchange for (3) smaller windows

Final overall layout

Now that the fridge moved, the oven was located in it's old spot and the rest came together fairly quickly. We knew we wanted a coffee area as well as a separate drink fridge (a standard fridge gets full quickly with a family of 4). We also realized, we didn't have room for a formal dining area AND an island, so we consolidated.

Elevations

Now that we had an understand of the layout in plan view, it was time to detail the cabinetry, lighting, and counters. I was determined to keep lighting as part of the initial design and not an after thought. So that drove some design decisions about wall cabinets and storage. Allison had the idea of floating shelves to simplify a few spots, and we went with her idea.

Lighting as a design element

One of the design items that really drove the rhythm of the space was lighting. Outdoors and indoors, lighting is something that always goes by the wayside even though the impact is huge. A dark space isn’t inviting and overly lit spaces feel clinical. The lighting needed to be functional (it is a kitchen after all) but we wanted this area of the house to feel comfortable to hang out in. We decided to separate the two functions: can lighting for function and ambient lighting for feel. I know can lighting isn’t very chic, but the cost was too tempting to try anything more.

Lighting - Wall 1

This wall was the first area to be designed: It had the most impact and the longest counter. We wanted to make sure the windows felt intentional since they became so small, so we incorporated a row of lighting associated.

Island Lighting

Lighting on an island can make or break a space. I wanted to make sure it was scaled appropriately but had a bit of a flourish. I also wanted to make sure the height made sense. With raised ceilings, I checked every potential light fixture for overall height dimensions. I loved the ones at Rejuvenation, but they weren’t in our budget so we found some great ones at Home Depot

Stay tuned for part 2! What finishes, elements, material, and hardware did we go with and why?