Linny's kitchen facelift

3 years in the making

When we bought our home in Washington DC in 2021, the kitchen was IMO our biggest problem area. Below is the listing photo which is…flattering. It felt cold, gray, and dated. For about one glorious week, we daydreamed of moving it to another room entirely, renovating it, expanding it, and ultimately realized we were gonna have to get real, and get creative. Luckily, that’s my favorite problem to have.

initially painted the cabinets white and you can see how dingy they were before and how cold the floor felt

These work in progress pics (scary, I know) show a little more of our starting point. I experimented a lot which, as an artist, is how I get to anything good for better or worse. After some time, I sat down and developed a plan to thoughtfully work around my constraints, which were:

Floor plan: we decided this was staying put. A tiny kitchen is no biggie for us and we like having the kitchen be a room vs. the much beloved open floor plan.

Finishes: cabinets, black granite countertops, OG tile flooring and backsplash are all staying. Budget-wise, we’ve decided to work with what have in here.

We often talk about how constraints can be freeing, because they eliminate options. Claire has reminded me that even projects with seemingly unlimited budgets have restraints, it’s always going to be apart of the design process!

The process:

Again, I did a lot of trial and error in this room over the 3 years we’ve lived here (I painted it 4 times, I’m extremely not proud to announce)

We lived with this Brazilian Citrine color by Behr for 2 years and we did love it, but ultimately felt it was harsh with the black countertops

BUT I came up with a lot of great work-arounds which have eventually lead me to a kitchen I’m thrilled with:

My kitchen to date! Imperfect iphone picture, and not “finished” but very happy with where it is.

1. Working backwards from what annoyed me most -the black granite countertops. They’re not what I would have chosen, but they’re inoffensive, in great condition, and functional. I really wanted this room to feel bright and was very interested in using a cream paint color that read warm yellow. I searched Pinterest up and down to find inspiration of successful marriages of creamy yellow with black counters. Here are some of the images I came up with:

   

   This kitchen by Artichoke pairs a more saturated yellow with wood, brass and soapstone(?). I think their styling - the dark textiles and black painted dishes, really help marry everything. The room feels warm, soft and rich.

   

   

   1. Heart and Hammer Homes 2. Eileen Nadeau 3. G.P.Schafer 4. Kate Earle 5. Flamingo Estate 6. Tamsin Saunders

   Additional images I saved and studied. To search Pinterest, I typed in “pale yellow kitchen” or “cream kitchen black counters” and when I found an image I liked, I’d scroll below it in “more to explore” where it pulls similar looking images. Start saving away! Pinterest is an algorithm so it gets to know your taste and can better serve you.

2. Painting the walls - I chose Frosting Cream by Behr and color drenched the whole room. The wall paint is in an eggshell finish.

   

3. Painting the floors - the floors were a cold gray tile, and I decided to paint them. I used a strong primer and porch and patio paint in Frosting Cream and Hayloft by Behr. I drew out the checkerboard pattern by tracing a 12 x 12 square with pencil and hand painted it. This was an easy project with an unbelievably huge impact. The paint needs to be touched up here and there but overall, not terrible to maintain and if I had the option to remodel the flooring, I genuinely wouldn’t care to.

4. painting the backsplash - our backsplash was some sort of gray stone tile, which I despised. It was a slightly porous stone - easier to manage with paint than a porcelain tile. I used the same primer and just wall paint. It’s nothing special. I would love to replace the backsplash with a bead board or a tile someday but for now it’s fine - I just want it to blend in.

5. painting the cabinets - I used the same primer and an enamel cabinet paint in Frosting Cream by Behr (the same color as the wall)

6. updating hardware - I found the cute brass knobs on fbmp and mixed in these super inexpensive brass drawer pulls that have a little personality

   

7. updating window treatments - I had a pair of these vintage Etsy floral curtains, used one over the door and the other I did a really simple no-sew shade over the window. I shared all my window treatment tips here

8. removing the weird floating countertop - perhaps my most inspired act! My husband and I got really into For The Love of Kitchens on HBO and got the idea to ditch the dinky little island situation over the radiator and put in a hutch. I found this hutch on FBMP and refinished it, which was 10/10 harder than I ever could have dreamed of. Highly don’t recommend.

   

   

my refinished hutch. I worked so hard.

So that’s where we currently stand! It’ll continue to evolve and I have more on my radar:

Lighting! I'm on the hunt for a pendant light for over the sink. I’ll share my ideas in the Slack, I could use some feedback

Details- very much still a work in progress. There are the unglamorous little tasks like removing paint from the door hardware, re-caulking, figuring out switch plates, etc.

Styling - I’m still figuring out art and accessories. I’m also contemplating bringing in a bright color on the exterior door like a kelly green or a blue. Or do I want it to stay serene and relaxed? Mulling that one over. Here’ an inspo image with a kelly green door I found in one of Claire’s design books.

A Farmhouse Kitchen from The Kitchen Book by Terence Conran

Thank you so much for reading this progress post! We’ll be sharing more of our personal processes in newsletters, it’s all slow and steady around here.