Design To Own Kitchen Refresh

You all know about “Design To Sell” where I go in and help homeowners get their homes ready to sell at top dollar by doing updates and staging. However, did you know I also do “Design To Own”? Basically, I help you fall back in love with your home by doing some design updates. Recently I helped some local homeowners with a refresh of their kitchen and family room. They knew what they liked but just needed help with the planning and execution of a design.  ​

Today I want to talk about what I did in the kitchen. There are several ways to update/refresh a kitchen without doing a full gut remodel. One thing that you can do is update the countertops. However, you don’t necessarily have to replace all of the countertops. For this project I only replaced the island countertop with HanStone Quartz. This kitchen had a two-tiered island with faux stone on the back side that just made the whole kitchen feel outdated. The rest of the countertops were in good shape and contrasted well with the white cabinets that didn't get touched. ​

To make the island more functional I made it all counter height and substantially increased the size. I was able to keep costs down by reusing the same base cabinet. To cap it off, I painted the island Chinchilla by Behr to contrast with the new slab of white quartz.  

When deciding what countertop to put on the new island, I knew I wanted to balance out the dark countertops that remained in the rest of the kitchen. So, I chose a lovely slab of Calacatta Venato by HanStone Quartz that I sourced locally from ESI Arizona. Calacatta Venato quartz is light and bright, has subtle veining, and a touch of warmth that pairs well with the existing black countertops and freshly painted island.  ​

A few additional updates to the kitchen included reorienting the pendant lighting to match the length of the island and adding a fourth light, installing a white zellige tile backsplash, adding black cabinet hardware to the island, gold pulls and hexagon knobs to the other cabinets, and sourcing some leather barstools.  

Now the kitchen has a very fresh and updated feeling that also functions better. ​

If you need helping falling back in love with your home, head to the “Services” section of my website to see the virtual design services I offer. ​