Of all of the locations throughout the nation that designer Laurie Jones and her household have known as house, their present residence — a 1,250-square-foot condominium in a historic 1891 constructing in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood — is by far the smallest. It’s simply one-fourth the scale of the Indianapolis dwelling they lived in two homes in the past. (As serial movers, the household has lived in a complete of 15 homes whereas transferring from state to state because of job commitments.)
When the Jones household moved into the condominium in late 2019, they thought-about Chicago — with its world-class purchasing, museums, and eating places — as the house’s prolonged footprint, a mindset that softened the self-imposed problem to stay throughout the confines of such a small area.
Compound the cramped quarters, which Laurie shares together with her husband, Drew, and their 8-year-old son, Cooper (their grown daughter Sloan lives close by in Wrigleyville), with lockdown life, and the inspiration for a renovation was sure to strike.
“The previous kitchen was tremendous,” says Laurie, with a sigh. “However it learn flat to me.” It might have appeared fine-slash-flat, however it wasn’t actually all that tremendous. First, there was the condominium’s ho-hum, builder-grade home equipment and the time-worn quartz counter tops, to not point out the copious kitchen cabinetry caked in crud.
Plus, there was the entire situation with the home equipment. See, again then, with eating places instantly closing their doorways because of the quarantine, the defective set up of their stainless-steel range (plenty of surprisingly burnt but undercooked meals!) simply wasn’t going to suffice for a drastic uptick in pandemic home-cooking.
What’s extra, the kitchen sink was solely bar-sized! Sooner or later when Laurie stuffed it with water, as one ought to have the ability to do, it crashed by means of the counter. Sure, that meant water went in every single place, even daring to trickle within the condominium unit beneath. Putting in new fixtures and home equipment was a no brainer — the concept for an all new search for the 150-square-foot area got here quickly after.
The kitchen’s saving grace was the east-facing morning mild pouring in by means of an enthralling backyard window, unique to the constructing. The pure highlight was there — it simply wanted a showstopper kitchen to shine upon!
The Kitchen Renovation in 10 Easy Steps
To begin, Laurie and Drew knew they needed to repair the home equipment. “I’m simply so sick of stainless-steel,” says Laurie, who made the choice to go along with matte-white from the Café equipment line by GE, together with a double-range, six-burner range and a French-door fridge. The brushed, bronze knobs and handles add a classic luster to the area that’s echoed within the champagne-bronze utensil rails above the brand new, now-roomier quartz sink, a seamless match with the quartz counter tops.
If the brand new home equipment had been “a tough examine to put in writing,” as Laurie describes, the reimagined sink space turned out to be a relatively budgetary boon. A easy backsplash of vertically put in picket planks from The House Depot changed chipped subway tile. Two open cabinets from IKEA break up the monotony of the cabinetry. “The kitchen was mainly a room of cupboards,” says the designer.
On the kitchen’s shelving areas, Laurie proudly shows stunning potted crops, candlesticks from Jayson House, and a small oil portray by her uncle. “I like to show issues that I take advantage of loads, like my scrubber and pruning scissors,” she says of the beautiful instruments hanging from the metallic rods. “I believe there’s magnificence in that.”
For less-presentable gadgets — surplus sponges, for example, or cleaners utilized in beneficiant quantities to arrange the once-grimy cupboard faces for a recent coat of almost-pink paint (Behr’s Creamy Mushroom) — Laurie had a flouncy, pinstripe skirt sewed to hide under-sink storage — and add a little bit of cottagecore aptitude.
To floor the kitchen’s newfound airiness and femininity is maybe the renovation’s pièce de résistance, even when it’s meant to mix in: a lime-washed wall of skinny, brick shingles (extra on that right here!), hand-sawn by Drew on web site so he may customized reduce round electrical retailers and the door.
The messy venture — which utilized a pre-existing wall and was then lined with skinny, kiln-fired clay brick shingles — was an ear-splitting racket that was saved for the weekends to protect the close by neighbors’ workweek peace. “I nonetheless discover brick mud in every single place,” says Laurie, for whom pre-cut veneers — missing a tough, unpolished model — would have been fully inauthentic to the period. “I simply needed the wall to really feel prefer it’s all the time been there.” Beneath it, Drew additionally constructed a built-in bench with hidden storage for additional pantry elements, whereas a household relative sewed the patterned cushion overlaying from a Goal bathe curtain.
Whereas every member of the family is definitely mirrored within the new kitchen — particularly within the very private gallery wall, pictured beneath, that features Cooper’s rainbow-hued handprint; Sloan’s cross-stitch of Mount Rose, a peak within the Sierras; and the lyrics from a track treasured by Laurie and Drew — the area is unequivocally the area of the designer.
“It’s simply so fairly that I don’t thoughts cooking or cleansing. I’ll even watch a film on my laptop computer whereas I’m doing these issues. However the rule is once I’m cooking or cleansing, everybody has to get out,” Laurie says. “It’s my ‘me’ time!”
Thanks for sharing, Laurie!
