Always Summer

Today’s Before and After is outstanding! Designer Lindsey Townsend completed a project a couple of months ago that we’re very excited to tell you about.

We’ve been calling this project “The Kansas Kitchen,” although it’s more than just the kitchen! It also included a powder room and a laundry room/butler’s pantry. The transformation is remarkable!

The homeowner is originally from Mississippi but has lived in Kansas the past couple of years, so she was familiar with SummerHouse. After following us for a while on social media, she turned to us for the long-distance project! After a preliminary meeting at SummerHouse, Lindsey took a trip to Kansas to measure the space (there were no house plans!) and take pictures. They met in person two more times, and the rest was done via phone calls and email! Isn’t technology amazing??

The black and white pictures will give you an idea of what the spaces looked like before Lindsey got in on the project. Let’s start with the main room…

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 Lindsey said the client was a joy to work with because she already had an idea of what she wanted. She had been collecting magazine pages and pinning photos on Pinterest, so Lindsey was able to get a real sense of the style this client wanted to achieve.

The client wanted something lighter, brighter, and simply more functional. She wanted to get rid of the Santa Fe-esque medallion behind her cooktop and open up what was somewhat of a crowded space with only eight foot ceilings. The home is a bit older, built in the 1960′s, so the floor plan was rather choppy.

After knocking out a few walls and moving things around, Lindsey was able to open things up, make the space seem bigger, and bring a lot more life and personality in to the rooms.

One of Lindsey’s favorite parts of the kitchen is the island. She modeled it after a piece of furniture that she and the client both loved, pictured below. They picked out the quartzite island top together while Lindsey was in Kansas, but many of the other materials were bought locally in Jackson then drop-shipped to the home in Kansas.

The finish on the base of the island is the result of a multi-step process of staining and white washing. It turned out perfectly, and brings in a rustic element, which the client wanted.

Another way Lindsey created the illusion of taller ceilings was by choosing ceiling mount light fixtures. She also took the backsplash behind the cooktop all the way up to the ceiling, which made things seem more open. “I did a lot of research because I’d never worked with such low ceilings before,” Lindsey said.

Off of the kitchen is the laundry room, which is now also used as a butler’s pantry as well.

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After adding shelving at one end of the laundry room, a door on a hinge would’ve been cumbersome, so the sliding door was perfect for this spot, and a great way to save space. It also added to the style of the kitchen.

Lindsey used the same quartz here that she used on the perimiter countertops in the kitchen, as well as the same backsplash and paint colors, making the flow into the laundry room seamless. (The paint colors, by the way, are Smoke Embers and Simply White, both by Benjamin Moore.)

The powder room was also in need of an update, so Lindsey used a remnant piece of quartzite from the island, painted the sink base, and wallpapered with the always gorgeous Kelly Wearstler Imperial Trellis pattern in charcoal.

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“The whole thing with this client was getting more function and more storage because she has a large family,” said Lindsey. “She also wanted to incorporate more of a SummerHouse-y feel into her home (which was predominately filled with dark woods and finishes) without any of the update feeling out of place with the style of the rest of her home.”

We love how it turned out, and most importantly, the client is very happy with the result, too, which is the best news of all!