"The kitchen itself, like most of the cabin, was seriously outdated. It looked like it hadn't been touched in at least 20 years. The cabinets were a mess - mismatched on top and beat up on the bottom," Kara explains. "Plus, the oven was ancient, and the flooring was drab. It definitely needed an upgrade, both in how it worked and how it looked."
Lori describes her townhouse kitchen's original state as "hideously outdated," with melamine cabinets from the '80s, poor lighting, and brown walls. Since moving into her place in 2007, Lori almost tried to ignore it. "One good thing about the openings at each end is that they enable me to get a good running start with a carefully timed snatch and grab from the fridge on the way past, thus minimizing exposure to the ugliness for the several years before I'd had enough," she says.
There's something so energizing about kitchen transformations. Over the course of the year at Apartment Therapy, we've seen hundreds of you-must-be-joking spaces get overhauled into beautiful rooms - and each result feels like a contact high for creativity and a cheatsheet for future goals. We learn tips for construction, advice for secondhand shopping, and tricks for eye-catching palettes, among other covetable lessons, all while getting to see the work unfold with a scroll - no sweat and tears necessary.
When Lauren Whitfield, a content creator with an interior design degree, wanted to renovate her home's kitchen, she turned to her husband, who used to work in the trades, as her co-captain. "Our kitchen before was very cramped and dark," she says. "We wanted to create a space that felt inviting and cozy, while also being opened up to the living and dining rooms."
I'd see a galley kitchen in listing photos, with a narrow hallway with counters running down both sides, and immediately click to the next home. It seemed too small, and too closed-off. I had a vision for my kitchen. I wanted one of those bright, open cooking spaces where my people could gather around an island and where I'd have ample wiggle room to move about. A galley kitchen was the opposite of everything I thought I wanted.
Thanks to Butler and Kwaw, the kitchen, specifically, got the most charming update. Before the fire in 2023, the kitchen had last been updated in 1993, and the designers described it as "outdated with a peninsula and laminate cabinets." The duo had to approach the renovation with sensitivity and tact. "We noted, empathized, and revisited the highlights," they share. The designers drew inspiration from happy times, such as the client's annual visits to Martha's Vineyard, for the design of the new kitchen.
We gutted the original kitchen and laundry room, expanded the space, upgraded our appliances, and splurged on matching stone countertops and backsplash. But when the time came to select a color scheme, we just couldn't get the idea of black cabinetry out of our heads. We fell hard for the deep, dramatic hue and envisioned a sleek, modern kitchen with black cabinets, marble countertops, and brass fixtures. The vision was chic, elegant, and magazine-worthy.
Every homeowner wishes they could do a full kitchen renovation whenever the place starts to look dull, but much fewer of us have the funds and patience to pull it off. A more affordable yet super impactful move is to simply paint your kitchen cabinets a different color. A new hue can completely change the atmosphere of the kitchen without replacing every last thing in the room.
A kitchen renovation doesn't have to be a stressful project completed at a breakneck pace. If you aren't about to sell your home (or aren't making emergency repairs), it may be worth it to take your time. A slow renovation is a more intentional, gradual, and mindful approach to addressing challenges or concerns in your kitchen or just making tasteful upgrades. To get a better handle on the process, we spoke with Carmine Argano, owner of Creative Design Ceramic Tile & Bath, to get his tips for putting this trend into practice during a kitchen renovation.
The beauty of granite is natural, and part of that is the fact that it varies slab to slab. Granite is a rock that comes from deep down under the earth's crust. It takes millions of years of impacts in temperature and pressure for its marble-like patterns to form. You can find different colors with various kinds of swirling, flecked, crystal-dotted motifs. It can be difficult to tell exactly what you're getting from online photos, especially considering how big of a role lighting plays.
A few things to love from the '70s, design-wise? Macrame, rattan, funky patterns - even conversation pits. A few things that certainly aren't missed from the decade? Orange-toned everything, florescent lighting, and bland laminate countertops. Unfortunately, Jenessa Weaver's 1977 kitchen had several not-so-fun-or-funky '70s details, and she was looking for a change. So she enlisted the help of her childhood best friend, Alysha, designer and owner of Camp Interiors.
It was important to us that it flowed seamlessly with the rest of the house and had a warmth that made people want to gather there. We also wanted to weave in a bit more vintage character so it felt true to the home's original charm.
