3 Interior Designers Transform The Same Dated 60s Kitchen (original) (raw)

[Narrator] These three interior designers

have been given a photograph of a dated 1960s kitchen.

They have free reign to design it in any way they please.

I'm Noz, and my design is nostalgic, it's whimsical,

and it's playful.

My name's Kat and my design style is inviting, modern,

and user-friendly.

I'm Hema, and my style is rich, global, and livable.

[Narrator] No clients, no budget, just blank space.

My first impressions of this space

are that it's kind of adorable.

It feels like it should be inside of a dollhouse.

Looking at this 1960s era kitchen,

I gotta be honest with you, I don't hate it.

I'm not really mad at the color scheme.

We're not gonna keep it,

but you know, it's kind of fun.

There's a lot to like here.

It's just really outdated.

A lot needs to be improved.

[upbeat music]

My vision for this space is it's a vegetable garden.

I wanna spruce it up

while still capturing a feeling of warmth and whimsy,

and vegetables.

A lot of vegetables.

What I wanna do is do a little tribute to Miami.

In a space this small,

people sometimes think you have to paint everything white

and try to trick the eye into making it look bigger.

My philosophy on that is you got what you got,

so just have fun with it and make it yours.

I really want this kitchen to be less of a dead end

and more of an open space that feels really inviting.

And I want to be super thoughtful with the finishes,

making sure that they are clean,

making sure that they're timeless.

[upbeat music]

The parquet has to go.

I don't even know, what if it's linoleum

that's supposed to look like parquet?

It is the '60s.

I personally really love the ceramic tile from Fireclay,

and I've always wanted to use this like OG shape.

I think it's really cool.

It's a fun, playful way to do a sort of modified checker.

So for the floors, I really want to do a red concrete.

Taking inspiration from Frank Lloyd Wright.

He used it in a lot of his projects.

It's a great way to bring bold color into a small space

without overwhelming it.

Concrete is also super durable.

It's really easy to maintain in a smart decision.

We're gonna do subway tile.

I've chosen this tile from Fireclay.

And I love working with Fireclay

because they can do any color under the rainbow.

And two by six or two by eight subway tile

is pretty affordable.

The way to make it your own

is to come up with your own pattern.

So here I've used five different colors

and we've come up with this cool sort of like grid pattern,

and there you have it,

a custom look without the custom price.

[jazz music]

Currently, the kitchen cabinets have these slanted

upper cabinets on the left side

with this open shelving on the right side.

So I kind of wanna rethink

how the kitchen cabinets are laid out

and figure out a way to help the appliances disappear

and feel really intentional with the rest of the design.

There's a lot to like about these cabinets

in the sense that I love holds that you put your hand into

and not using hardware necessarily.

Have you ever been like backing up

in a tight space that's a kitchen

and then you like snag your jeans on the pole,

or you're like, ow, and like the back of your hip

gets poked by a cabinet knob.

So I want to keep the same sort of vision

of a no hardware kitchen intact.

This wallpaper is not really gonna work in the kitchen.

I'm gonna rip it out.

I'm gonna rip out these cabinets.

But really what we're gonna do with the walls

is add this soft pink lime wash.

It's a very Miami color.

I really wanna give this sort of like

textural soft feel to the walls

and kind of evoke like a sunrise.

What we've learned over time

is that drawers tend to function in kitchens

better than doors.

I love drawers because that way you can pull them out

and see everything even for pots,

rather than opening a cabinet door and having to like squat

and reach to the back, we don't know what's going on.

So that's what we're gonna do here

is put as many drawers as possible in the bottom.

Now again, we're kind of going with that like

Miami South Florida feel.

So I love this yellow by Farrow & Ball.

It's called India yellow.

And we're also gonna rip out these upper cabinets

because again, they're adding that visual bulk

that we kind of don't want.

And then so that we don't lose too much cabinet space,

we're gonna add a countertop to ceiling cabinet

on the left side.

And then we're gonna keep the fridge where it's at

and just make it panel-ready

so that we have some symmetry here.

Then we're gonna do an open shelf all the way around,

including across the window.

You can still open the window,

but I think it would be really fun

to sort of utilize that storage space

while still getting that natural light.

Now the shelf is gonna be tiled in my beautiful,

I found this tile from Auto Tiles there in Europe.

It's a zellige,

but it's got this adorable sun design on it.

It just made me really happy.

So I would love to make this space less of a dead end

and to also create an indoor-outdoor vibe.

So I would love to turn this small window

into a window and door to let a lot of light in.

I would love to move the fridge to the back left wall

and also enclose it in the cabinets.

Across from that, we're gonna keep the same oven placement.

And for the right side cabinets,

I would love to add in some open shelving flanking the hood

to kind of make it a bit more airy.

And on the left side,

I would love to bring the upper cabinets

to the same depth as the lower cabinets

and just clean it up stylistically

Here, I've picked a beautiful monogram range, I love them.

They have these beautiful two-tone knobs

and you're gonna see I've got some gold.

What design have I ever done without gold?

So I love that the monogram appliances have gold handles,

and they're just like super high quality really durable.

So in a small space, obviously cooking spells

are gonna sort of be a little more intense

and so we really need a good vent hood.

I love this gold vent hood, it's a brass.

We're gonna have sort of this brass theme echoed throughout.

Also with our faucet, I've got this lovely Brizo faucet

with wood handles.

And again, it just gives that little touch of bling.

For my countertop now,

I'm gonna use a stunning travertine.

It reminds me of sand.

And again, we're in Miami.

And we're gonna bring that countertop edge

down the side here

for what's called a waterfall finish at the sides.

And then I'm gonna bring the backsplash up

to underneath the shelf.

We're gonna take the upper cabinets away

'cause I just feel like it's too much.

The upper cabinets make the kitchen feel

almost a little bit smaller in my opinion.

So we're gonna do an open shelf up top.

and then just wood closed cabinets underneath.

And the specific cabinet that I have in mind

is by artist Casey Johnson.

So his canyon series of carvings is this like flat planes

and he gouges out with like a literal wood gouge,

all of these like divots and stuff.

And by doing that,

he's actually creating intuitive handholds and finger grips

that you can use to open and close drawers and doors.

I've never seen him do it in a kitchen before,

and I think this tiny little kitchen

would be the perfect place

to sort of like feature the artwork that he does

in a really practical way.

Now let's turn our attention to the window.

I really love a big open window.

I don't think we need to keep by-pass window situation.

We can just turn it into a big picture window

and just avoid this whole separation.

One big clear pane of glass.

And then I do love the sort of nostalgia

and warmth and coziness

of having a soft fabric window covering over the window,

but not drapes and not the ones that were there.

So I just wanna do a Roman shade.

A sheer white Roman shade in a performance fabric.

So you could have it dry cleaned if needed.

And then along the bottom of it,

Schumacher makes the cutest little like strawberry trim

and there's like little beaded pearls.

I just wanna run like a little fruit moment

in a vegetable garden kitchen because that's subversive.

And I really love blue star ranges.

They make the most gorgeous,

teeny tiny compact all gas ranges.

And then on the other side,

because I wanna capture that nostalgia bag,

I wanna do like a big chill fridge and freezer.

You can actually choose custom colors

and they'll actually powder coat exactly to match.

One of the great luxuries

of working in smaller functional spaces

is you can get a lot of mega luxurious material

for not a lot of cash

'cause you don't need tons and tons and tons

of countertop slabs.

So I wanna use this green Abbey Marble.

I think that warm lime green that it has

mixed in with the white, it's giving celery,

it's giving leak.

Normally, a pot filler is very practical

if you don't wanna be carrying like eight gallons of water

from the sink, from the other side of your kitchen

all the way to the range.

I think it's kind of funny to put a pot filler in a kitchen.

Like literally you could take four steps to the sink

and you're already there.

So we're gonna do that.

And I just personally love like these unlacquered brasses

where they patina and change over time.

So that's gonna feature

as kind of the main metal in this kitchen.

The original countertops are in a laminate,

they're really white.

I want to try and rethink these

and think of a material that is both timeless

and also really durable.

So I love using stainless steel.

I also wanna continue the stainless steel up the back splash

and take it all the way to the bottom of the upper cabinets

for that really clean, slick look.

For the oven,

I actually think this could be a cool opportunity

to do a decorative moment.

So I'm gonna choose the Lacanche oven range.

I think that, not only is it beautiful

and very classic in its design,

but it's also fit for the most industrious of home chefs.

They also come in array of beautiful colors.

So on the walls,

I really like this whole notion of the wallpaper

going completely from the counter

all the way to the ceiling.

I think that's kind of cool,

but it's not practical.

So in my vegetable garden,

I wanna do vegetable portraits all over the wall.

It would look kind of like a wallpaper,

but it's just different really playful painterly portraits

of like bell peppers and corn on the cob, and an eggplant,

and a turnip, and like, I don't know, like a carrot.

But again, I can't go sealing

all the way down to the countertop

with just decorative paint or like a mural.

That's not enough waterproofing.

So I found this like beautiful mosaic tile

by artist Patty Franklin.

And the mosaics that she makes

are literally little vegetables.

[upbeat music]

For the lighting,

in addition to the overhead lighting

and the natural light that's coming in

from the blown out window,

I would love to add two small workspace lights

above the sink and the workspace next to it

just for functionality.

I love this ambient sconce.

It's from the 1970s, it's called the lumpier lamp

by GPA Monty.

It's just a really fun piece.

I love how the red picks up on the red concrete flooring.

And also the design is quite fun

because the two sides open and close like a ladybug.

I wanted to have some fun with the lighting here.

Again, it's like a small space, but it's a special space

and I want everybody

to sort of think about their homes that way.

Size doesn't matter when it comes to your home,

you need to make it special.

So what we're gonna do here

is channel the lights of ocean drive

with some ambient lighting around the base of the cabinets.

And in my mind, this lighting changes color.

So maybe sometimes it's pink,

right now it's kind of an amber color.

And it kind of gives like a modern touch,

a little nod to the art deco vibe of South Beach.

And then we're gonna add these beautiful leaf wall sconces.

We're in a, you know, tropical climate,

so they're kind of like shaped like a palm leaf,

again using the brass.

Lastly, above the sink is this cute little travertine

and resin pendant.

It's pink and travertine and I just love the shape.

Again, it's a very sort of like nod to art deco

with the arch and the little globe,

and I think it's perfect.

We're just gonna do proper recess cans

for functional lighting.

Then underneath the shelves, we'll have down

sort of like concealed under shelf lighting

so that the counters are fully lit.

And then decoratively,

just for a very cheerful, funny moment,

I wanna do the cabbage lettuce lamp of my dreams.

So Bordallo Pinheiro is like a 19th-century

Portuguese ceramics artist,

and they still make like cabbage wear

and like other funny vegetable vessels,

and like pitchers and stuff.

And so over the sink, I wanna do like a cabbage light.

Just go with it.

[upbeat music]

The other reason why I wanna do a shelf

that is at 30 inches high

because I don't wanna lose all of that height

in terms of storage capacity

is I really love displaying pots and pans,

especially if you like had copper ones, I don't know.

Like maybe your pots and pans are beautiful.

So you could actually hang your pots and pans

underneath the shelf and have them out on display.

There's something very sort of like

Italian-inspired about it and I think that's cool.

Then we're gonna have the cabbage light,

and then all of the other little friends,

a pitcher that's shaped like an ear of corn.

And then we're gonna have a cabbage bowl

because I love cabbage wear.

And then we're gonna have this one

that sort of looks like a Jimmy Nardello pepper,

but maybe it's a bell pepper.

I'm not really sure.

There's so much hilarious, amazing, beautiful stuff

that's actually like beautifully handmade

and so rich in color and vibrancy,

and every single one of them is vintage

and actually serves a purpose in a kitchen.

And I think it's really important in a kitchen environment

to decorate with things that you are actually able to use

because you don't have that much space

for things that are just for beauty.

So I would love to be really intentional

with the decor I bring into this space.

And this is a small space, so I don't want to overcrowd it,

but I do really wanna introduce some organic,

earthy wood accents.

I love this stool, it's from the 1950s.

It's French

and I think it brings a bit of a rustic vibe to it.

It's also quite functional.

It can act as a perch or as a stepladder.

I also wanna bring in some vintage

Dansk salt and pepper meal shakers.

They come in all sorts of fun shapes and sizes.

On the open shelving,

I would love to bring in some beautiful plates and bowls

and pastel colors.

You know, it's okay to have your nice things on display

within a kitchen and also it's easier to access.

In terms of decor,

I've kept it really kind of clean and sleek here.

I don't like too much clutter in small spaces,

but we do have that floating shelf

that goes around the whole upper perimeter of the kitchen.

So if you had a nice set of matching dishes,

you could stack them here

and it would kind of be that zen calming moment.

I think what you wanna avoid in small kitchens is clutter

and a lot of visual clutter.

It's not a problem to have stuff,

but I think one way to cut down on that visual clutter

is to pick a color scheme and stick to it.

Like this cream vase that I've got in the top left.

This vase is actually from my friend Cindy's shop,

it's called Ink and Porcelain.

And everything she sells is kind of made by female artisans.

I love a hanging plant on a floating shelf.

I think this one is a pothos

and they're like super easy to take care of,

very low maintenance,

and it'll just continue to trail

and give you like a hint of a jungle feel.

Lastly, we kind of have this very zen

sort of Japanese-looking plant on the counter.

Just again, no visual clutter.

And keep your color palette simple

when it comes to accessorizing a small space.

[upbeat music]

What I really want us to do with this kitchen

is show you that the small spaces most of us live with

can be special.

So my thought here was to recreate a memory.

Every time I walk in this kitchen, I feel happy.

It's nostalgic, but it's modern, it's functional,

and it just makes me feel good.

So I encourage you to think that way

when you're designing spaces in your home,

especially small spaces, they deserve love too.

I really love how this kitchen turned out.

It feels way more inviting.

It feels way more open.

And to me, it appears a lot larger than it used to be.

I would personally love to cook

and to hang out in this space.

I also think the design, it could be from the 1970s,

it could be a modern home.

And I think that again is really important to make sure

that when you're choosing finishes for a kitchen

that you're really thoughtful with

steering away from trends

and also putting in materials that are really durable

and can handle a lot of high traffic action.

My final thoughts on this kitchen are it's very cute

and I'm obsessed with it.

This is kind of like the tiny weird kitchen of my dreams

and I want to make eggs in this kitchen,

in my vegetable kitchen.

Thank you very much.

[jazz music]

Oh my God. Whoa.

Whoa! This is incredible.

Really love that. This is a lot.

Tell me about this red floor, is it concrete?

Yeah, it's concrete.

I took inspiration from Frank Lloyd Wright.

I did a red concrete

'cause I felt like I wanted to bring in color.

I love it. But like something

that wasn't overbearing.

And I think what people don't know

is like stain concrete gets better with time.

Yeah, I think anything that gets patina

becomes a bit like cooler and more lived in.

Yeah. Oh my God.

Please tell me about this lettuce lamp.

It is real, it is real.

You can buy it actually,

but it has origin story in like 19th century Portugal

where they have like this like major tradition

of doing all kinds of little vegetable like pottery which-

But also I feel like an artist lives here

and like this is something they're obsessed with

and they collect. Oh, my God.

This is like their interpretation of a salad,

this kitchen. Oh, my God.

I love that so much.

Yes, wait, I'm obsessed with this like

mango, yellow everything vibe.

It's so cheerful.

Where was the inspiration from this?

It's my little tribute to Miami.

So I went to University of Miami

and I had a really ugly kitchen,

but it was like kind of the same layout.

And so this is what I would've done

had I had money. Oh, yeah.

[Hema] And it's kind of like a sunset,

but then there's like ocean drive,

neon lights happening. So good.

You know, like it's Miami sand, sun, neon.

I feel like you could party in there for sure.

Yes. Oh yeah.

It's like my little party...

I imagine the lights coming down

and like just those ambient lighting.

Yeah. A really fun party.

Oh yeah. It's so great.