See the before and after images of four gorgeous kitchen remodels

The Challenge: When the owners purchased their Clayton house, they quickly built an addition, and then…well…life got in the way. “Friends would ask, ‘Is your kitchen done yet?’” recalls one of the homeowners.  

The Resolution: After years of putting the project on hold, the homeowners decided that the time was finally right to build that kitchen. “We had windows and plumbing in place, but otherwise we started from square one,” says Mary Ellen Going, then with Karr Bick Kitchen & Bath. A classic black-and-white palette emerged as a balance to the bright colors and artwork found throughout the rest of the home. “We looked at her dreams and cherry-picked the best,” says Going. The team installed cabinets by Mouser Cabinetry in ebony, a shade that Going says works best when there’s plenty of natural light, and crisp quartz countertops to complete the look. 

The Homeowner’s Take: One word: relief. The owners had used a “temporary” kitchen from December 2003–December 2016. “Crazy, right?” one of them says. “I hosted many parties out of that silly little kitchen,” says the wife. “No one ever left hungry, just confused.” The owner says she’s glad she splurged on a few appliances, most notably a trash compactor, an oven with a swing door, and a prep sink in addition to the main sink. 

The Challenge: Most people would be satisfied to call Dawn Sturmon’s “before” pictures their “after” pictures. But none of that fussiness matched the lifestyle of her fun-loving family. With family arriving from around the country last summer, the challenge was to get the job done, fast! “Fifteen house guests and a kitchen construction project wouldn’t do,” says Sturmon. 

The Resolution: “Most people worry that they’ll be out of a kitchen for months when they do a project like this,” she says, “but if you have your ducks in a row and know what you want, it’s easy-breezy.” The redesign took just 28 days. Sturmon traded opulent for sleek and practical: quartz instead of granite countertops and floating shelves in place of heavy cabinetry. She called the original cabinetmaker, Jerry’s Quality Woodworking in St. Clair, to take back the burled walnut and redesign cabinet fronts in reclaimed Missouri fir. Sturmon’s friend and design guru, Marci Marsh, recommended that they whitewash a sandstone wall to create a natural stone texture. Sturmon used black-and-white cement Clé tile behind the range and hand-painted “Deco Flower Green” tiles from Australian artisans Bonnie and Neil behind the floating shelves. 

The Homeowner’s Take: Sturmon pulled off that fête for 15 and credits the right team  and a commitment to staying on schedule as paramount. “The planning time took longer than the actual construction,” says  Sturmon, who acted as a general contractor. “After all the heavy lifting was complete, I had a blast layering on the pieces, like the hand-painted ceramic tiles,” she says. “I love that synthesis of traditional and edgy. To me, that’s where the magic happens.”

The Challenge: Interiors dating to the 1960s were still in place when homeowner Martha Stiehl decided to move back into her childhood home outside Salem, Illinois, an hour and a half drive from St. Louis. The kitchen, which lacked good lighting to begin with, was also relegated to the back of the house, adding to its secluded air. Stiehl dreamed of a kitchen with more natural light and low-maintenance finishes, plus a design that imparted coziness without veering too far into the direction of what she calls “country cottage cuteness.” 

The Resolution: Designer Julie Abner is based in St. Louis but grew up in Salem. She combined her small-town know-how and big-city contacts to design the kitchen space. The team started by moving the original kitchen from the back of the house to the former dining room. “The dining room had a better relationship with the rest of the house and provided enough space for island seating,” says Abner. Architect Thad Heckman and cabinet designer Jim Howard of Alspaugh Kitchen & Bath created a ceiling design that hides the HVAC system.

The Homeowner’s Take: “I can see from the front of the house to the back, and there’s a lot of natural light,” says Stiehl. She loves the blue-and-white palette, from the patterned tile on the floor to the Dutch-inspired handpainted tiles on the backsplash. 

The Challenge: A former hunting lodge featured a Frankenstein-esque set of additions that positioned the kitchen a step down from the main living area. Three doors chopped it up into several sections, and there was no flow. Architect Susan Bower of Mitchell Wall Architecture & Design noticed another funny thing, “A former owner had painted the illusion of an open window above the sink, as well as a coat rack on another wall,” she says. “We felt like this told us, ‘You need a kitchen window and you need a mudroom.’”

The Resolution: Bower swapped the kitchen for the living room and took the old space and converted it into a mudroom and butler’s pantry. An AGA range is a refined nod to the space’s history. Subway tile and white cabinetry brighten the room; natural light pours in. 

The Homeowner’s Take: The owner wanted a kitchen for gatherings, and that’s what she got. With so much light pouring in, window painting gimmicks are no longer necessary.