The original layout just didn't work. There was too much wasted space, not enough counter space, and a tiny pantry that could never hold what a family of six needs. Before, the kitchen was a dated galley style with a tiny pantry and mustard yellow walls. A large soffit dominated the space.
Kitchens are damp - water runs from sinks, steam flies out of pots on the stove, items spill - the moisture content in the air is higher in your kitchen than almost any other room of the house, perhaps with the exception of the bathroom.
A range hood is a mechanical ventilation system installed above a cooktop or range. Its primary job is to remove cooking byproducts, moisture, and odors. Some models vent air outside through ductwork. Others recirculate air through filters and send it back into the kitchen. While both options may look similar, their performance is not the same.
However, my husband and I did realize that the layout actually seemed intuitive for the space. It made the most of a rowhouse-sized space, and there was no need to make significant changes to the footprint of the cabinetry or the appliances. What I wanted was a space that felt fresh and clean but still vintage-inspired and more fitting for the house. Here's how I did it.
While the old kitchen wasn't terrible, the stark contrast between the white panels and tiles and the orangey wood tone made it feel dated and too busy. I find the all-black look calming and clean, so I always feel a sense of order and peace in this space.
Unless you're opting for a purely second-hand mismatched design, renovating a kitchen can be a costly affair. From figuring out the layout plan to choosing cabinets, counters, hardware, and additional features, it adds up quickly. Of course, certain features are more valuable than others when it comes to how you use your kitchen on a daily basis. And if it's the busiest room in your home, you'll want to pay attention to the components that could benefit from a touch of luxury.
In fact, one particular upgrade can maximize space, especially in long, narrow kitchens. Replacing your cabinets will not only allow you to take advantage of more modern materials and styles, but can also give you opportunities to explore space-saving alternatives and creative storage solutions. While full-depth kitchen counters take up a lot of floor space, inset kitchen cabinets are narrow, compact, and still highly functional.
Architecture Office founder Alexander Mackison and glass artist Juli Bolaños-Durman had something of a creative meet-cute. The two became acquainted while running a lecture series at Custom Lane, a collaborative center for designers and makers in Edinburgh, where they both have studios. They remained friendly, so Alexander eventually learned of Juli's plans to renovate an apartment nearby. "Just through casual conversations, I became integrated into the project," he remembers.
"After 30-plus years of wear and tear, things were breaking down and just not holding up," Juliette says. "The orange wood stain from the '90s was everywhere, [and] the U-shaped peninsula made it feel like a galley kitchen - very small, and only capable of housing one person cooking at a time comfortably."
If you're going to invest in a kitchen renovation, you want to make sure it has staying power. Who wants to spend several thousand dollars on countertops that are going to feel dated by next year? Or, worse: Who wants to choose a countertop cut, only to find the design world has already moved on? To make sure that doesn't happen to you, we included a question on countertop trends in our fifth annual The State of Home Design survey. Designers from across the country
A kitchen renovation is one of the most costly projects to tackle in your home, so project managing is crucial - and that includes being obsessive about the finishes that'll make your kitchen feel like home. But with a new year of aesthetics to look forward to in 2026, you'll want to avoid materials that'll age quickly. I reached out to a handful of design pros to uncover their hot takes on which flashy kitchen trends are rapidly fading.
For Noelia MaGowan, her husband, and her toddler, a $100,000 kitchen renovation was worth it. The MaGowan's house was built in 1977, and they began to have issues with their oven and sink not working. "I cook a lot and had issues with prep space and cooking multiple things at once," Noelia adds. She and her husband hired a designer to make things more functional for them.
Renato Mangolin + 19 Category: Houses, Renovation Coordination: Amanda Arcuri Collaboration: Danilo Filgueiras, Gabriel Martucci Intern: Mariana Guimaraes Lighting Design: Diana Joels Civil Engineering Team: Plano C Arquitetura e Execucao Metalwork: Metalurgica Sena More SpecsLess Specs Renato Mangolin Text description provided by the architects. The objective was to reflect on the relationship between the kitchen and the other spaces of the Duvivier-Byington house, a project by the Carioca architect Lucio Costa dated 1988, located in Rio de Janeiro.
According to Apartment Therapy's trend-predicting Designer Survey, chocolate brown is in, as are dark wood tones, meaning this kitchen redo from Tiffany Brown-Barino (@myeclecticnest) is perfectly on-trend despite keeping its '90s-style cabinets. "The cabinet color is almost always someone's BEFORE picture," Tiffany writes on Instagram. But she shows how to make the oak brown look chic with a few other DIYs. "Our kitchen countertops were in great condition, but I definitely didn't like how dark they were and how dark they made the kitchen feel," Tiffany says of the kitchen before. The counters and the dark tile backsplash changed in a budget-friendly redo - the former for only $95.
"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.
