Alise O'Brien
The Dilemma: The owners of this kitchen, in a Skinker-DeBaliviere home, love to entertain, but at 200 square feet, the area’s original U-shape was just too cramped to accommodate hosts, guests, and to cook at the same time. Blue laminate countertops and golden oak cabinets dated the room to its last renovation, in the ’80s, yielding an inconsistent design story in an otherwise historically intact residence. The homeowners hired interior designer Chelsea Smith, of Chelsea Design Company, to chart a new kitchen design that would open up the space, modernize it, and maintain the authenticity of the home’s early–20th-century roots.
The Details: Smith removed one of the room’s two closets and a partial wall near the basement door so she could expand the kitchen’s drink station, add a new pantry, and create space for the refrigerator, which was originally packed against a radiator. She also reworked the layout and had an island, topped with granite from Chesterfield-based StoneTrends, built to separate the prep area from the drink station in a galley-style kitchen. An antiqued brass faucet and hardware from Crescent Plumbing Supply, new hardwood floors, and Carrara marble backsplash warm up the space, which is elegantly lit by two pendants from Rejuvenation. Stacked-to-ceiling cabinets by Bertch Cabinet Manufacturing, in Iowa, complete the room. Though the owners originally asked for an all-white kitchen with a statement art wall, Smith encouraged them to experiment with Bertch’s olive green paint and pair it with Clarke & Clarke Papilio wallpaper, covered in an array of butterflies and bugs, on a nearby staircase wall. “People are wowed when they walk into this kitchen,” says Smith. “Then they turn around and it keeps going.”
The Team: Over the years, Smith’s cultivated a network of subcontractors to whom she refers as family. She chooses to work with people she’s learned about through referrals and word of mouth; others, like her aunt, who painted this kitchen, are actual relatives. Once Smith gets to know her clients, she tries to match the employees—from painters to installers—to the clients on the basis of personality. “If you have people in your home all day every day for eight or so weeks,” says Smith, “you’re going to get to know them. If you don’t like their personality, or they don’t mix well, it’s not going to be a successful project.” Smith points to her colleague Terry Patton Jr. of All Wood Flooring, in Fenton: She knows his wife’s, kids’, and dog’s names; where he lives; and other personal details. Most important, she knows what he expects, and “he knows what I expect.” Smith collaborated with Theiss Plating in the design of the bistro shelves (where the client now dries her homegrown herbs) and the brass radiator screen. “I try to use the same trades,” says Smith. “I sat down with [co-owner Rob Theiss] and got to really know him. It’s a family-owned business.”
The Outcome: When restaurants closed down last year, the clients—who had planned to eat out during the renovation—suddenly needed a home kitchen. The team rolled with it and worked together to quickly install a temporary setup for the couple. Smith recalls, “Because I had really great relationships and really great people on board, we were able to pull this off in the expected timeline, even though we experienced a few hiccups, like COVID-19, along the way.”
