Before & After: A Dated Lime-Green “Hot Mess” of a Kitchen Gets a Dramatic Teal Makeover
Eight years ago, interior designer Emilia Callero and her husband moved into their 2,200-square-foot bungalow in Portland, Oregon. It was an exciting move that meant far more space than their 700-square-foot home, but although the new pad was bigger, some rooms didn’t necessarily feel that way — especially the kitchen.
“It was a hot mess! It had a small nook with cabinets, which was set up more like a butler’s pantry,” Callero says of the existing kitchen. “The outer area of the kitchen has a door to the outside, a door to the hallway, and a door to the dining room. It has low windows, so cabinetry would be a challenge. In addition, it had zero appliances. On one hand, this was great because we had a really blank slate.”
When they moved in, it was just the two of them, but they wanted to reimagine their home to be a space that would be family-friendly for their future children — and their first project in the home was tackling their outdated kitchen.
The couple was eager to say goodbye to the existing kitchen and took on the demolition themselves. “Then the ‘oh shit’ happened, where I was like, we need to make decisions,” Callero says. In addition to the teardown, they made some major structural changes, including opening the wall (and adding beam framing, which came from a home in their neighborhood that was being torn down), adding a window where the door to the outside was, hanging the tile backsplash, and doing all of the electrical work themselves. The room was also painted in Farrow & Ball’s “Slipper Satin.”
“We tried to marry my husband’s Oklahoma roots with my love for the landscapes of my ancestors’ villages in Italy, with the function of a chef’s kitchen in the Pacific Northwest,” Callero says. She used SketchUp, software for creating 3D layouts of spaces, to envision a new floor plan for the room. Choosing the right spots for their sink (plus their prep sink), oven, and refrigerator was key for the new layout. After choosing those locations, Callero worked with professionals to design their custom cabinets (painted in Benjamin Moore’s “Newburg Green”).
Instead of upper cabinets, the couple opted for open shelving. But these aren’t your ordinary shelves — they can still hide clutter, thanks to gorgeous fabric curtains that slide across. The pattern on the fabric ties in fabulously with the other colors in the space, which was an important part of the design process.
The kitchen renovation cost around $20,000 and took eight months to complete (the couple worked every evening after work plus weekends). The room was definitely a labor of love — the most special part of the space? “That we did this ourselves! Sweat equity with a capital ‘S,’” Callero says. “And we stayed married! LOL.”
Callero appreciates the new room’s openness and ample counter space, but this isn’t the only special room in the house. To see more, visit the full home tour on Apartment Therapy.