It’s not every day that a kitchen designer gets to work with a homeowner who is also a designer and has a very clear idea of what she wants for her renovation. But that was the case for Cathy Stathopoulos, designer for Newburyport-based B&G Cabinet, who was tasked with helping reimagine the kitchen of a Newburyport duplex built in 1850.
The homeowner, Fiona, told Cathy she was looking for an English country cottage look, but with a light, bright feel.
“We think of English country as very fussy, with lots of stuff everywhere, filled with flowers and all sorts of decoration,” says Cathy. “She was trying to recreate that cozy feel but without all of the extras. She wanted more of an updated, clean look.”
Leaving the ’80s behind
Updated and clean were the watchwords for the project because Fiona was intent on ridding the kitchen of the outdated, muddy sensibility left over from its last renovation in the 1980s. The room still had a lot of characteristic elements of that time, such as a corner sink, dark cabinetry placed halfway up a wall, three different types of flooring, and track and pendant lighting.
Fiona envisioned instead an old-world, charming feel created with a modern color palette, fewer wall cabinets that would reach the floor and ceiling, rustic hardware, classy lighting fixtures, and a painted sheetrock hood for a tidy effect. She also wanted to install a large island for flower arranging. The soft sage-green color of the cabinetry is a major element of the fresh new look.
“She was bolder with her choices, willing to go outside the norm to get what she wanted,” remarks Cathy. “Some people get a little scared about using color in design elements, so it was really good to have someone who was really open to all this difference and change.”
‘A difficult kitchen’
Before they could get to the point of applying such finishes, however, Cathy faced a design challenge in retrofitting the space with all the required elements for a modern kitchen in an updated layout.
“This was a difficult kitchen,” she remembers. “It was small and was just doors, windows, openings. How do we get everything to fit properly and to function properly and still get the look?”
Making everything fit required some creative problem solving. For example, to get the dishwasher to fit next to the sink, Cathy had to design a bump-out at the corner of the counter, since the adjoining countertop’s width was limited by a doorframe on one end.
The planning also had to contend with the fact that the floors were badly out of level. Cathy designed the island to be taller on one side than the other to accommodate the floor’s slope. The solution kept the island’s top level with the rest of the counters, so the unusual measurements aren’t jarring.
“In an old house, these are the things you run into,” says Cathy. “You either have to accept them, or you say how do we make this all perfect?”
Kitchen tour star
Perfect isn’t necessary when you have creative solutions and a homeowner who is willing to think in alternative ways about making her vision come to life.
“Because of the nature of the house and the nature of the kitchen, you really did have to think out of the box to make all this work,” says Cathy. “It was a little bit more of a challenge, which made it more interesting. What she was doing was really fun and interesting and different, and the result at the end was just a really happy place to be.”
That end result was roundly admired on the Newburyport PTO Kitchen Tour in 2024, whose participants gave the newly redesigned space glowing reviews. Visitors are able to sense the warmth of the English cottage style while enjoying the spacious modernity of the new design. “The renovation really brought the kitchen up to date, but it still has that super cozy, comfortable feel to it,” says Cathy. “When you go in there and you sit down, you don’t want to leave.”