A kitchen designed for guests

The kitchen is often known as the heart of a home and we certainly brought this heart back to life. Knowing that this cabin would be primarily used as a short-term rental meant our design was focused on creating a beautiful space that would wow guests but most importantly functioned well, leaving guests satisfied with their experience and raving to all their friends.

This kitchen was a complete remodel, updating the space to create a more modern, warm, and functional space. Scroll for the full before and after, or browse the full shopping list to find some treasures for your own space.

The two major changes we made to this kitchen were removing the upper cabinets and replacing them with shelves to make the room feel bigger and make things easy to find and secondly changing the layout to enhance counter space and functionality.

The client envisioned sage cabinets, warm earthy tones, modern finishes, and enough counterspace that guests could enjoy cooking a meal for their friends after a day on the neighboring slopes of Big Bear Mountain.

The original kitchen

We began with a design session at our local Ikea Planning Studio. We opted to move the fridge around the corner adding much needed counter space and more lower cupboards. We chose smaller appliances which made the kitchen feel bigger than it is, again adding to our goal of making the space feel open and airy. We moved the stove out of the corner and added some specialty cupboards to facilitate all the kitchen gadgets our client loves without creating clutter in the room. We added a hidden dishwasher because no one wants to do the dishes on their vacation and adding a cabinet front created a sleek finish to the room.

Fresh white paint brought much-needed light to the space as there are no windows in the room, but keeping the wooden ceiling created the cozy cabin vibe we were looking for. We brought wood elements into the kitchen which tied the kitchen to other rooms in the house. The stone backsplash adds more organic elements while making cleaning a breeze, a must for a house designed for guests.

Finally, some modern finishes in gold and black brought a sense of elegance and finished off the space. Our client was blown away with the final product and the guest reviews are raving about how thoughtful and enjoyable this kitchen is. I say a job well done!

The final kitchen