This Midcentury-Modern Kitchen’s Color Palette Took Inspiration From a Vintage Photograph

The before: “It hadn’t really ever been updated, so the kitchen was not functioning well,” says Chelsey. “Things had been added on at different points in time and it was really not cohesive at all. But we knew we couldn’t change the footprint of the house, so we had to figure out how to work within it.”

The inspiration: “One of the pieces that was left behind by the original owners was this vintage photograph that they had taken and blown up really large and framed themselves,” shares Rachel. “We were so inspired by that. We pulled our whole color palette out of it, these earthy, midcentury tones, and then we added a jolt of color with a citron yellow to bring in that Chinotto House special sauce.”

Square footage: About 150 square feet

Budget: $85,000

AFTER: “There were some shelves suspended over the countertop in the original design, so we wanted to keep that idea, but continue them all the way across the wall,” explains Chelsey. “We referenced that original feature and then built on it, essentially. Then we took it another step up by painting it that citron color, which is a Farrow & Ball Kelly Wearstler collection paint.”

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Main ingredients:

Floors: Artistic Tile Veronese Crema Field Tile

Backsplash: Inax Yohen Border in Turquoise Green Mix. “We chose KitKat tiles, which just look so beautiful,” muses Rachel. “It’s this beautiful turquoise green mix, with a speckled place to it. We used a mint-colored grout, which is a really fun pop of color. And our client loved it so much. We had originally planned to just take it up to the shelf height, but she wanted to go all the way to the ceiling.”

Cabinets: Pommele figured sapele wood veneer lowers and high-gloss white uppers by Straw Woodwork. “The pommele figured sapele wood has that midcentury warm mahogany tone to it, but with a really nice wavy grain, which is just a nice way to get some movement on flat front cabinetry,” explains Chelsey. “We paired that with a high-gloss white upper to bounce the light around.”

BEFORE: Chelsey and Rachel knocked down two walls to open up the kitchen as much as possible without changing the footprint.