DIY Projects · April 21, 2024

This Designer Stashed a Slab of Terrazzo for Years, Until It Inspired a Black-on-Black Kitchen

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Interior designer Hillary Rielly, co-owner of Inform, had big plans for the Max Lamb–designed terrazzo she spotted at Salone del Mobile inward 2014. Not quite every bit big equally the 2 slabs she was required to buy, though. She knew she wanted to role 1 slice for a wet bar she had added to the family unit room of her dwelling in Seattle’sec Normandy Park neighborhood, but it took a few years to figure out what to do with the moment. When the time came to plow her attending to the kitchen—the terminal projection in her gut reno—the extra slice plant a landing home on pinnacle of the isle. 

Kitchen Renovation photo

The centerpiece sparked the residue of the room’s blueprint, and it became the reasoning behind the dark oak cabinets, a pressed newspaper backsplash, and the green-grayness cupboards under the speckled rock worktop. But it was the layout surrounding that feature that really ready the transformation inwards motility. 

Make Room for Visitors in addition to Views 

Kitchen Renovation photo

Kitchen Renovation photo

The original floor design was not ideal for a distich who loves to ready as well as entertain. Rielly explains in that location couldn’t live more than than ii people inwards there at a fourth dimension. “It was then tight,” she says. “My husband as well as I would take people over, too so accept to throw them out of the kitchen because they’d be in our way.” Counter infinite was another pain indicate. That petty stretch between the sink as well as the stove? Practically useless. 

Although their take for change initially focused on creating a more than functional infinite, the thought of Puget Sound from the living room was reason plenty to knock downwardly a wall. That vision informed the add-on of an induction stove to the island. “If y’all stood in the dining room doorway, you lot could run into that persuasion, and I was like, ‘This is what I want,’” Rielly says. The removal of two walls in addition to the improver of the island played a crucial part inwards creating an open layout—and likewise completely shifted the home chefs’ perspectives. 

Don’t Fear the Dark Side 

Kitchen Renovation photo

Kitchen Renovation photo

In the initial stages, Rielly was apprehensive most adopting a darker aesthetic. “I was actually scared of doing these dark cabinets,” she says of the black oak complete she chose. Memories of the previous infinite haunted her—cramped, unopen off, surrounded by mahogany, together with topped amongst a countertop that played tricks on them. “With that brownish granite, y’all couldn’t tell if it was a crumb or if it was a fleck of the stone,” says Rielly. 

She most went with a pink laminate for the counters, only past opening the space to the living room and swapping uppers for open up shelving, the home maintained an airy experience together with boosted her confidence in the charcoal-colored oak she chose for the surface. Plus she always planned on keeping the skylights for a boost of natural lighting. “They’re fantastic,” Rielly says. “Everyone should have them!” She besides decided to supplement the sun’s glow alongside tin can lighting to brighten upwards the black-on-black Space Theory cabinetry too Richlite backsplash. 

Design With Hidden Elements inwards Mind

Kitchen Renovation photo

Although they removed ii walls, the dyad soaked upwards foursquare footage alongside the isle too the double ovens (a wish-list luxury because she bakes a lot), and then smart storage was essential. Working alongside Space Theory, the sister make to Henry Built as well as a company recognized for its modularity, gave the family unit more flexibility alongside what went behind the cupboard doors in addition to drawers. What you lot don’t run into from the outside are the metal bins, woodblocks for spices, knife holders, in addition to dividers for pots too pans as well as lids. “There’s all this stuff that’second hidden, as well as that’s actually sealed the deal for me,” Rielly says. “You open up a drawer together with it’second and so satisfying.” 

Kitchen Renovation photo

What the Rielly family unit didn’t arrive at inward infinite, they made up for in office. “This half of the house went unused for and so long, and forthwith it has so many layers,” Rielly says. It’second a hub for homework, family dinners, entertaining friends, in addition to plain enjoying the persuasion: “Every 24-hour interval I role this kitchen, I order a mini prayer of gratitude.”