I’ve got some news about everyone’s favorite This is Us mama, Mandy Moore! Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to get any plot lines for the new season out of her, but at least I have some updates on the house. The mid-century home renovation is moving right along and today I’m sharing our plans for the kitchen! As a full demo job with some gorgeous finishes, custom cabinetry and Farrow & Ball paint, it is going to be a stunner.

If you haven’t read the intro post on the project take a peek here and you’ll be caught up on the history of the place and how someone sadly renovated a beautiful Harold Zook mid-century home in the 90’s bringing in a lot of not so modern elements including all those rounded elements, traditional trim, tile floors etc. The first step is of course to demo out everything. We won’t be saving anything and elements that will stay gone forever are the peninsula, which not only is curved and a weird shape but it cuts the space in half making it feel less spacious. We will also be taking out all the French doors and replacing them with a window and one big door that matches the rest of the house’s original style.

 We will be re-arranging the appliances in the kitchen, swapping out a double wall oven and cooktop for a full range and then relocating it to the far wall for better flow. We will also be going with a clean modern slab style cabinet front with floating shelves flanking a range hood.

Below is a look at the floorplan of the kitchen from when Mandy purchased it.  The nice thing is that there is a lot of room. Mid-century kitchens were usually pretty small and enclosed, so the good thing that the 90’s renovation gave us was a lot more space. The dotted lines show everything that will be demo’d out but as you can see there are a lot of funky angles and curves going on that have to go.

 

Working with architect, Emily Farnham, together we came up with the plan above to straighten out the lines and streamline the space. We do lose cabinet space with the new layout but gain a lot of storage space in the pantry. Previously the island had cabinets all the way around but we changed that to make a space for seating at the island, as this will definitely be the gathering place for friends and family.

And now onto my favorite part, choosing the finishes. Mandy wanted to keep the space bright and light with one possibly one accent color and so I set off to find the right paint colors. After we decided on a light green, I knew Farrow & Ball was the place to look with their sophisticated palette and high quality paint… so I tested out a few.

You might recognize “pigeon” from my own kitchen renovation but we ended up choosing “Mizzle” which is just a bit lighter than pigeon with a touch more yellow to it. I chose the color the same way I did in my kitchen, by painting large foam core boards and holding it up in the space. Once we decided on Mizzle it was off to the slab yard to choose our countertops and we brought our Mizzle painted board along for the ride.

For the slab we wanted a marble that would compliment the color and finding one with beautiful veining was high on the priority list. We went to Stoneland in North Hollywood were we found SO many great choices and ended up selecting Calacatta Venato as the stone of choice. As you can see Mandy modeling, the green color goes so well with the marble and it will keep the kitchen light but still give it more interest than an all-white kitchen (not knocking all white btw, just not the look we are going for this time).

Once we had the cabinet color and slab decided it was all about selecting the rest of the fixtures and finishes and here’s a peek…

EEP, just putting this board together for the post has me so excited. Right now the kitchen is stripped down to the studs with a giant hole in the back wall where they took out the French doors so we’ve got a long way to go, but you can start to picture how the space will come together. The iconic mid-century lights reissued by Cedar & Moss paired with the terrazzo floors and the light green Farrow & Ball “Mizzle” cabinets echo back to the era of the house while the brass hardware, stunning marble, new appliances and floating shelves help to create the updated feel.

Sources: Paint color Mizzle by Farrow & Ball // Slab is Calcatta Venato from Stoneland // Pendant Lights from Cedar & Moss // Wolf Range from Ferguson // Brass Hardware // Counter Stool from DWR

Floor plans created by Emily Farnham

To see Mandy Moore’s full “before” house tour check here.

This post was created in collaboration with Farrow & Ball, as always all thoughts and ideas are my own.