Colorful Cabinets

The bright-yellow cabinets are a playful touch in the otherwise neutral-toned space.

The kitchen went from being a room Josephine would not step foot in to one of the most-used rooms of the apartment.

"We added a different finish to every function," explains Otten. "In this way, we tried to suggest that the different parts of the kitchen are dating from different building periods and the construction had been growing continuously."

The main kitchen, where Margit, left, is working with her niece Sarah, has a bright blue island that offers a striking contrast to the warm-toned wood and pink floors. “We wanted a color that would transform it into an object that really stands out in the room,” says Thurmann-Moe. “It’s almost like a sapphire.”

Colored wall cabinets and a kitchen island structure the open-plan cooking area. White-painted bricks and a large skylight keep the space bright.

Full-height, black sliding glass doors connect the interior spaces to the rear courtyard and enable indoor/outdoor living.

Color-blocked custom cabinets make for a delightful surprise.

No whiteware here. In this moody apartment in Berlin, multi-toned charcoal gray subway tiles make up the backsplash, which contrasts with the pop of rosy color on the kitchen cabinets.

The colors used in the interior were inspired by the surrounding landscape. The kitchen island is clad in solid timber fluting crafted from durable plantation-grown iroko with with a granite top. “The green-blue-brown color of the granite benchtops very much reminded me of the colors of the water in the nearby harbor of Tutakaka,” says architect Belinda George.

The kitchen was relocated to its designated place and reinstalled as per White’s building specs. A stainless-steel counter and sink, powder-coated cabinets, and sliding panels in pastels replicate the original 1955 version while contemporary updates include Vola faucets, Heath Ceramics tiles, sliding freezer drawers, an induction range, and a refrigerator by Jennair.

Before: SHED redesigned the kitchen as a series of interconnected functional zones, which are linked by a continuous kitchen counter. This approach allowed the architects to increase usable space without modifying the house’s exterior. It also helped to visually connect the kitchen with the living area, while still maintaining separation via the walnut plywood cabinets and solid walnut eating counter, which serve as partitions.

"Also consider performance when purchasing an older house, as these properties use a ton of energy,” says Schaer. “Many midcentury homes are minimally insulated and can be costly and challenging to remedy. For example, if you want to add insulation to a roof, you have to add it above the roof because there is no cavity for insulation."

Guess used inexpensive graded pine plywood so that he would get heavy grain patterns on the surfaces. One of the main goals in the kitchen was simplicity. To that end, he opted for a poured-in-place concrete island. "We didn’t know if we could afford to do that, but we found a great subcontractor [Nate Francis of Countertop Creations] here who had never really built anything like that," Guess says. "Because he was interested in giving it a shot and adding it to his portfolio, he didn’t charge an exorbitant amount of money because it was sort of an experiment for him as well." The kitchen features a GE Profile refrigerator and KitchenAid range, microwave, and dishwasher. The sink and faucet are from Kohler. The project's builder was Joe Doherty with Custom Homecrafters of Austin.

For this Swedish kitchen, an extra-thin slab of Carrara marble was used for the countertop and backsplash so that it would recede into the space, not overwhelm it. The room is also outfitted with IKEA cabinets painted a serene powder blue—adding a vintage vibe, and a high-low sense of style.

This 450-square-foot apartment includes an origami-like desktop that unfolds to reveal a perforated-steel divider that allows the passage of computer cables hidden inside the office compartment. This transformer-like cabinet helps maximize limited square footage.

The curved blue kitchen larder has a projecting “nose” that illuminates the worktop and a mirrored eye that “winks” each time the door is opened.