CHEERY COTTAGE KITCHEN RENOVATION

Fun colors and whimsical cottage charm fill this bright, airy kitchen renovation of a vintage condo in Chicago.

Fun colors and whimsical cottage charm fill this bright, airy kitchen renovation of a vintage condo in Chicago.

Playing with bright colors and organic shapes

is something that defines retired research librarian Sara Beazley’s style and brings her joy. With a jungle-green dining room and pink living room, her vintage Chicago mid-rise unit is full of color and character. “I’m a colorful person,” she says. When she retired in 2017, Sara decided it was time to tackle a project she had planned on since she bought the condo in 2012: a complete kitchen renovation. After some research, she found just the right person, designer Susan Klimala of The Kitchen Studio, to help her bring her vision to life. The result of their collaboration is a bright, colorful cottage kitchen that sparkles with Sara’s unique flair while maintaining an overall timeless feel.

VINTAGE ROOTS

When Sara first stepped into the vintage condo unit of The Eddystone, she knew it was the perfect place for her. “I fell in love with it after I walked around in it,” she says. The Eddystone was built in 1928–1929 and designed by well-known architectural firm Holabird & Root.

Originally intended to be luxury apartments, The Eddystone units were converted into condominiums in the ’70s. Because of this, each of the units was customized. In Sara’s case, her condo is a merger of two units. This presented a unique design opportunity, as the kitchen is a combination of two kitchens. Additionally, the previous owners had converted a corner of the kitchen into a powder room, creating further challenges. “It was an oddly laid-out space,”

Sara says.

Sara sought out Susan’s help to create a kitchen space that was tailored to her needs. Her wish list was not the typical kitchen renovation list. “I am not a cook,” Sara says. As an avid collector, she wanted ample storage and display space for her sets of unique and colorful bowls, plates, teapots and other serveware. “I wanted a room that would make me smile when I walked into it,” she says.

This freed up Susan to focus on the look of the design, instead of the practicality and functionality of usual kitchen renovations. “In this particular project we were more focused on the aesthetics of it,” she says.

OPENING UP

After Sara contacted Susan and had her out to see the space, Susan got to work coming up with a plan that would combine Sara’s fun style with a functional and timeless design. “The goal was to open up the space as much as possible,” Susan says. To accomplish this, they decided to remove the powder room, freeing up more space. Susan made the choice to flip the layout so that the workspace was at one end, and the pantry and storage area at the other. “We basically took the whole little kitchen and put it on the other side of the room,” she says.

Gutting everything down to the plaster, they faced some trouble with the original plumbing and electrical lines as they flipped the layout. Another difficulty was raising the drop ceilings up to match the rest of the unit. “The low ceilings made it feel cramped,” Susan says. In spite of these challenges, Susan’s design opened up the kitchen and gave it the light and bright feel Sara wanted. Taking Sara’s love of color and vintage flair, Susan incorporated charming and timeless design elements, like the colorful tile and vintage-feeling light fixtures. The result is a kitchen that is functional but also specially tailored to Sara’s style. “Even on a gloomy day that place really lights up,” Sara says.

The light and airy feel of the kitchen is a complete shift from how it looked before. “The original kitchen had a drop ceiling with canned lights and dark shade of green with black counter space,” homeowner Sara Beazley says. The new paint brightens the space, while the other details add to the vintage feel that Sara loves. “It was really important for me to give her something well thought-out from a vintage standpoint,” designer Susan Klimala says. “For example, we switched out the canned lights for pendant lights, glass knobs on the cabinets and bracketed shelves on either side of the stove.” |OPPOSITE| Coming up with the kitchen palette was a joint effort. “Sara has a lot of bright colors and wanted to do a bright color, but we also wanted a cohesive look,” Susan says. They took their inspiration for the green floor tile from the dining room and its bright green walls. The golden wall color was selected by Sara. “I wanted something that was going to glow on a rainy day,” she says.

|ABOVE| Sometimes installing appliances and cabinetry can be a bit tricky. In this case, the stove fit just right, with a slight modification. “The chrome piece where the dials are comes out a little bit, so the two top drawers were sanded so as to not scrape against the stove,” Sara says. |ABOVE RIGHT| The whimsical tile flooring with its small pink daisies, custom made and shipped from France, reflects Sara’s fun style. However, installing the floor was a bit of a challenge. “The tile was difficult to lay because when they went to peel the backer off the tile, some hexagons came off,” Susan says. “Some pieces had to be hand laid.”

|ABOVE LEFT| The original layout, with its two previously separate kitchens, created challenges for the renovation process. “It made a narrow walkway, and the pillar was the division of kitchens,” Susan says. Plus, Sara had a very practical issue: She wasn’t able to open her refrigerator all the way because of its proximity to the back door. “So now the working side is on the west side, and the east side is a glorified butler’s pantry,” Sara says. This solved her refrigerator door issue, as well as allowing her plenty of space to display her collections.

|ABOVE RIGHT| By going with butcher block countertops, Sara was able to connect the kitchen with the original wood flooring throughout the rest of the unit. The white cabinets contrast with the warm counters and offer lots of storage space. “She originally had wanted to do maple, but I thought the white would be better to showcase her decorative items,” Susan says.

One very unconventional aspect of the kitchen design is the lack of a dishwasher. “I think washing by hand is easier on the dishes, and I find it therapeutic,” Sara says. However, Susan made sure hookups were installed for the benefit of any future owners. “I wanted a large sink that can handle all the washing that I might ever want to do,” Sara says. She chose the porcelain faucet and brass cabinet hardware. “I wanted brass finishes for that warm glow,” she says.