Artistic yet practical
Renovation gives professional organizer the kitchen of her dreams
Last year, after more than two decades of waiting, Jennifer Ross finally got the opportunity to completely renovate the kitchen of her Hidden Forest home.
The reason for the wait, she explained, was that when she and her husband, Michael, bought the house in 2001, they were just getting started and couldn’t afford much more than a new coat of paint on the kitchen cabinets and walls.
When she finally did get around to redoing the space, she could rely on her 10 years of experience as owner of The Spruce Goose, a professional organizing company, to make things just the way she wanted.
“I often work in high-end homes,” she said. “So I’ve seen and used a lot of strategies and products I wanted in my own kitchen.”
Still, she knew she needed professional help, so she hired Shea Pumarejo, owner of the San Antonio-based interior design firm Younique Designs, to guide her through the project.
“I told Shea I wanted a kitchen that was artistic and not like anyone else’s,” she said.
The renovation took about 4 months and was completed in July. Ross declined to divulge the budget.
At Ross’ request, Pumarejo designed a kitchen rich in neutral colors with plenty of textures.
The centerpiece: a terrazzoand granite-topped island embedded with chunks of pink, olive green and white, all against a black background and often bathed in natural light from the skylight above.
The meandering terrazzo ascends up one end of the island, rising above the black granite top to accommodate several bar stools (still on back order), then turns 90 degrees before it cascades down the island’s far side.
Pumarejo said she selected the terrazzo because it melds well with the rest of the home’s late-’70s/early-’80s aesthetic.
“It feels like it’s always been there,” she said.
But it almost wasn’t, according to Ross, who had her doubts when she was first shown a sample of the composite material.
“I wasn’t quite sure,” Ross recalled. “It’s pretty bold. But then I realized the kitchen needed something bold because there are a lot of neutral colors here.”
The pops of color in the terrazzo, for example, play well with the earthy, handmade Italian clay, bas-relief tiles that Pumarejo suggested for the wall behind the stove.
“I love the warmth of those tiles,” Ross said. “I love the fact that someone actually touched them while making them and that every piece is different and that you can see those differences. It makes the wall more special.”
Pumarejo added texture elsewhere, too. The black quartz countertops are leathered, for example, giving them a subtle nap while the dark, reeded wood paneling — used as both floor and crown molding, and down the sides of the center island — adds a richness to the room.
Pumarejo explained that, while reeded paneling is very much in style, she typically doesn’t like to jump on fads.
“Nothing dates a space faster than when something’s done to match a current trend,” she said. “But in this case, the panels feel like they belong in the house, especially the way we used them as a border between the wood grain of the vinyl flooring and the cabinet fronts.”
While Ross agreed with Pumarejo’s selection of a modern, multiarmed chandelier for above the kitchen island, she nixed initial lights for over the stove, selecting instead a pair of midcentury-style, up-anddown wall sconces.
“If I didn’t like something Shea showed me, I said, ‘No, thank you,’ “she said. “And Shea would put together something new for me to look at.”
Even before work started,
Ross told Pumarejo she wanted to enhance the views out the kitchen windows. To that end, they added new, larger windows overlooking the deck and behind the sink, which required removing several cabinets.
Ross was willing to surrender the storage because Pumarejo’s
design also called for creating space to accommodate new floor-to-ceiling cabinets where previously there’d been nothing but a wall.
“I used to have only one small storage space for food,” Ross said. “Now I’ve got two full pantry cabinets and enough additional cabinet space for my small appliances, my china collection, even my art supplies.”
Having space for everything makes her calmer and happier.
“I did for myself what I try to do for my clients as a professional organizer,” she said, smiling.
Indeed, her experience as an organizer informed several other decisions she made during the project, including these additions:
A built-in paper towel holder to help keep the countertops clutter-free.
Drawer bins and dividers to keep odds and ends like ladles, serving spoons, drink and baking items separate.
A nifty pullout drink cabinet to store soda, water and other beverages previously piled on the floor of either the sunroom or the garage.
A cabinet with built-in electrical sockets so she can use the toaster, coffee grinder and other small appliances without having to put them on the counter.
A recharging station for the couple’s mobile phones, tablets and the like.
In the end, she said it was worth the wait — even a twodecade wait — to have the kind of well-organized kitchen she’d always dreamed of.