Period: Early 1800’s

Building: Farmhouse

Site: Charming semi-rural setting South of Boston (Easton)

Project: Kitchen renovation design

Green Design features: wood counter, reclaimed wood flooring, made in the USA cabinetry, Energy Star appliances.

Color palette: Bright white, warm light brown, brushed stainless, green, blue.

Materials palette: white painted maple, maple butcher block, reclaimed oak, stainless steel, glass tile, laminate.

Client: A large family including five children and two working parents.

For a family on a tight budget who wanted their dream kitchen now without overextending their finances, we carefully maximized return on their investment by prioritizing the backbones of the room, allowing for detail upgrades over time. The first priority was to redesign the space plan and capitalize on the length created by taking out a wall and capturing a disused space into the kitchen. This allowed for a luxurious, two-cook kitchen with distinct zones for food storage, prep, cooking, and eating/lounging. This made it easy for a busy working mom and dad to cook efficiently while keeping an eye on kids’ homework.

A second priority were high quality yet modestly priced semi-custom cabinets with many internal storage features to maximize efficiency, including pantry with roll out shelves, deep dish drawers, undercabinet microwave (handy for kids to make their own snacks), and multiple apothecary drawers and fluted glass door cabinet with tilt up appliance space for targeted storage and charming effect. She also splurged a bit on a large butcherblock counter with curved end at the island for snack and homework seating for all five kids.

Items which can be upgraded later over time included appliances and primary counter, so these were chosen modestly for now using laminate counter and modestly priced (but good quality and sharp looking) consumer grade fixtures. The final cost was no more than many of the bathrooms featured here, and much less than the client expected would be required to meet her goals.