Photos by Kessler Photography

A project becomes more than just a job when you can help a family turn their less-than-ideal space into something new and fresh and a place they are proud to share with guests. When this family moved into a house in Tomlinson Woods, they knew there were many features of the main living space they’d love to change someday (particularly in the kitchen), but the home’s wonderful location made it worth the dreaming and waiting.

Among the things on the client’s wish list: add more lighting; create a brighter color palette overall; remove the cumbersome kitchen soffit; relocate kitchen appliances for a more practical work triangle; and install a large kitchen window. With structural elements working in our favor, these were all things we could accomplish.

Walking into the home, one could look through the back windows onto a beautiful, wooded yard. As private and peaceful as this backdrop was, sunlight tended to get lost in the branches, creating a dark and dull feel to the home. We were able to remedy this by selecting lighter, fresh paint colors for the walls and trim throughout, adding can lights in the kitchen, and replacing a small window above the sink with one much larger to allow in more natural light. By removing a space-wasting soffit, which ran along the perimeter and through the middle of the room, and simply relocating some electrical wiring, we completely opened up the kitchen in both width and height. We kept all the kitchen appliances, assigning new homes to some of them, and added beverage drawers to an area we designated “the bar.”   

The kitchen had a generously sized island to begin with; however, the seating side dipped to dining height, which proved to be more of an annoyance than useful. We left the overall size of the new island about the same, but raised the entire surface to counter height to provide them with something more functional. 

The icing on the cake? Changing the finishes and overall feel of the kitchen and main floor. A neutral sense of light and bright was the goal, with a hint of fun and color. The client also had two design requests: a natural hickory floor and a colorful island. We accomplished this look with beautiful engineered hickory flooring, white perimeter cabinets with a simple backsplash, and a quartz countertop with generous movement. We added some fun with a pleasing, yet striking, blue paint for the island and floating shelves, mixed metals for the new light fixtures and cabinet hardware, and a patterned tile to accent the bar. We carried the light paint colors throughout the main floor and added some dark, painted accents for contrast on the wood-planked pitched ceiling in the living room and stair details.

A kitchen is a place for gathering family and friends for food and drinks and entertainment. To experience all of these things in a kitchen that finally feels “just right” gives great satisfaction. It was a pleasure to be part of this project and finally give this family a kitchen that meets their needs and desires.  

This article was printed in the July/August 2020 edition of OmahaHome. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.

This article was printed in the July/August 2020 edition of OmahaHome. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.