A full gut in a compact kitchen, rebuilt inside the footprint it already had. The appliances went back where they were, which is the decision that kept this to six weeks.
Beadboard, and a colour
Beadboard doors, painted a deep olive. The profile is the point: a flat slab door in a strong colour reads as a block, where the vertical bead breaks the surface up and gives the paint something to catch. In a small kitchen, where you are never more than a few feet from the cabinetry, that texture is the difference between a colour feeling considered and feeling applied.
Colour at this saturation is a decision most people talk themselves out of. It works here because the room has real daylight on two sides and a pale counter above to lift it.
One slab, counter and wall
The counter runs up the wall as the backsplash rather than stopping at a tile line. Behind a range that removes the grout from the surface that takes the most splashing, and it gives a small room one continuous pale plane instead of three materials competing.
Keeping the floor
The existing tile stayed. It was sound, it suits the house, and replacing a floor that has nothing wrong with it is the easiest way to spend several thousand dollars on something nobody asked for. Working around a floor takes more care at the edges, and it is almost always worth it.
The result
A kitchen rebuilt completely without moving a single service, finished in six weeks. The money went into cabinetry, stone and appliances, which is all anyone sees.
