Before & After: A “Dreary” New York City Kitchen Gets the Most Gorgeous Green Makeover (It’s So “Airy!”)

When interior decorator Barbara Campbell moved into her 300-square-foot New York City studio apartment, the small space posed some exciting design challenges. For starters, her original kitchen wasn’t the most functional, and as an avid cook it was essential to her that it be a space where she could spend a lot of time. 

“There was only a mini fridge with ice cube trays. There wasn’t a dishwasher. There wasn’t a recycling or garbage pull-out,” Campbell explains. “Aesthetically, it just wasn’t my taste.”

Campbell set out to replace the existing kitchen with “clean, crisp lines” and an emphasis on utility. She started by sourcing Galbraith & Paul’s “Pomegranate” wallpaper in a custom version that matches the paint color in the living room (Sherwin-Williams’ “Organic Green,” which was also used on the kitchen floor). The unique wallpaper “changes the whole feel of the space,” while painting a checkerboard pattern on the floor ties in the color of the surrounding rooms. 

“The floor had a painted whitewash finish. It looked a little dreary,” Campbell says. “I had the floor painted in the same paint I used for the ceilings and trim [Benjamin Moore’s “Simply White” in high gloss]. Then I had a checkerboard pattern painted on top of that white in Sherwin-Williams’s “Organic Green.” To protect the painted floor, we added three coats of polyurethane.”

Campbell swapped out the original soapstone countertops for white quartz to keep the kitchen airy. “I added something I always use in a kitchen — mirror backsplash,” she explains. “It opens up this small space. The eye doesn’t stop like it would with a tile backsplash, for example. The mirror also enhances the light.”

The smaller appliances were swapped out for full-sized options, like a new Bosch refrigerator (with an ice maker — a novelty in New York City!), a dishwasher, a pull-out trash can, and a deep porcelain sink with a Kohler polish brass strainer basket, drain, and faucet. 

Brass continues throughout the space with the new hardware, and the pots and paints are displayed on a brass gallery rail. “To protect the wallpaper below the rail, we installed a thin acrylic piece, which I found on Amazon,” Campbell shares. 

The project took two months to complete and cost between $25,000 and $30,000 (including the countertops and appliances). And now the kitchen is one of Campbell’s favorite places in her home. 

“It’s now an efficient space to cook in. Also, when you live in a small space, every inch counts. When you walk in the door, one of the first things you see is the kitchen,” she notes. “It’s now custom and colorful and blends right in with the rest of the apartment.” 

If you want to see the rest of Campbell’s gorgeous studio apartment, visit the full home tour on Apartment Therapy.