We gave interior designers Noz Nozawa, Kat Bell, and Hema Persad a photo of the same outdated 1960s kitchen—and then asked each of them to renovate it in their particular style. Three artists, one canvas, each bringing something different to the space. Which designer's renovation can you see yourself bringing into the 21st Century?
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00:00These three interior designers have been given a photograph of a dated 1960s kitchen.
00:06They have free reign to design it in any way they please.
00:10I'm Naz, and my design is nostalgic, it's whimsical, and it's playful.
00:14My name's Kat, and my design style is inviting, modern, and user-friendly.
00:19I'm Hema, and my style is rich, global, and livable.
00:24No clients, no budget, just blank space.
00:28My first impressions of this space are that it's kind of adorable.
00:32It feels like it should be inside of a dollhouse.
00:35Looking at this 1960s-era kitchen, I gotta be honest with you, I don't hate it.
00:41I'm not really mad at the color scheme, we're not gonna keep it, but, you know, it's kind of fun.
00:45There's a lot to like here, it's just really outdated.
00:48A lot needs to be improved.
00:53My vision for this space is it's a vegetable garden.
00:56I wanna spruce it up while still capturing a feeling of warmth and whimsy.
01:00And vegetables. A lot of vegetables.
01:02What I wanna do is do a little tribute to Miami.
01:04In a space this small, people sometimes think you have to paint everything white
01:08and try to trick the eye into making it look bigger.
01:11My philosophy on that is you got what you got, so just have fun with it, and make it yours.
01:15I really want this kitchen to be less of a dead end and more of an open space that feels really inviting.
01:22I want to be super thoughtful with the finishes, making sure that they are clean, making sure that they're timeless.
01:33The parquet has to go. I don't even know.
01:35What if it's linoleum that's supposed to look like parquet?
01:38It is the 60s.
01:40I personally really love the ceramic tile from Fireclay, and I've always wanted to use this OG shape.
01:46I think it's really cool.
01:47It's a fun, playful way to do a sort of modified checker.
01:52So for the floors, I really want to do a red concrete.
01:56Taking inspiration from Frank Lloyd Wright, he used it in a lot of his projects.
02:00It's a great way to bring bold color into a small space without overwhelming it.
02:05Concrete is also super durable. It's really easy to maintain and a smart decision.
02:10We're gonna do subway tile.
02:12I've chosen this tile from Fireclay, and I love working with Fireclay because they can do any color under the rainbow.
02:19And 2x6 or 2x8 subway tile is pretty affordable.
02:22The way to make it your own is to come up with your own pattern.
02:25So here I've used five different colors, and we've come up with this cool sort of like grid pattern.
02:29And there you have it, a custom look without the custom price.
02:33Currently, the kitchen cabinets have these slanted upper cabinets on the left side with this open shelving on the right side.
02:41So I kind of want to rethink how the kitchen cabinets are laid out and figure out a way to help the appliances disappear and feel really intentional with the rest of the design.
02:53There's a lot to like about these cabinets in the sense that I love holds that you can put your hand into and not using hardware.
03:02Necessarily. Have you ever been like backing up in a tight space?
03:05That's a kitchen. And then you like snag your jeans on the pole or you're like, oh, I'm like the back of your hip gets poked by a cabinet knob.
03:14So I want to keep the same sort of vision of a no hardware kitchen intact.
03:18This wallpaper is not really going to work in the kitchen.
03:21I'm going to rip it out. I'm going to rip out these cabinets.
03:23But really what we're going to do the walls is add this soft pink lime wash.
03:27It's a very Miami color.
03:29I really want to give this sort of like textural soft feel to the walls and kind of evoke like a sunrise.
03:36What we've learned over time is that drawers tend to function in kitchens better than doors.
03:42I love drawers because that way you can pull them out and see everything, even for pots, rather than opening a cabinet door and having to like squat and reach to the back.
03:52We don't know what's going on.
03:53So that's what we're going to do here is put as many drawers as possible in the bottom.
03:58Now, again, we're kind of going with that like Miami, South Florida feel.
04:01So I love this yellow by Farrow and Ball.
04:04It's called India yellow.
04:06And we're also going to rip out these upper cabinets because, again, they're adding that visual bulk that we kind of don't want.
04:12And then so that we don't lose too much cabinet space, we're going to add a countertop to ceiling cabinet on the left side.
04:21And then we're going to keep the fridge where it's at and just make it panel ready so that we have some symmetry here.
04:26Then we're going to do an open shelf all the way around, including across the window.
04:30You can still open the window, but I think it would be really fun to sort of utilize that storage space while still getting that natural light.
04:37And the shelf is going to be tiled in my beautiful.
04:40I found this tile from Auto Tiles there in Europe.
04:42It's a Zelige, but it's got this adorable sun design on it.
04:47It just made me really happy.
04:49So I would love to make this space less of a dead end and to also create an indoor outdoor vibe.
04:55So I would love to turn this small window into a window and door to let a lot of light in.
05:02I would love to move the fridge to the back left wall and also enclose it in the cabinets.
05:09Across from that, we're going to keep the same oven placement.
05:12And for the right side cabinets, I would love to add in some open shelving, flanking the hood to kind of make it a bit more airy.
05:20And on the left side, I would love to bring the upper cabinets to the same depth as the lower cabinets and just clean it up stylistically.
05:29Here I've picked a beautiful monogram range.
05:31I love them.
05:32They have these beautiful two-tone knobs and you're going to see I've got some gold.
05:35What design have I ever done without gold?
05:37So I love that the monogram appliances have gold handles and they're just like super high quality, really durable.
05:42So in a small space, obviously cooking spells are going to sort of be a little more intense.
05:46And so we really need a good vent hood.
05:48I love this gold vent hood.
05:50It's a brass.
05:51We're going to have sort of this brass theme echoed throughout.
05:53Also with our faucet, I've got this lovely Breezo faucet with wood handles.
05:58And again, it just gives that little touch of bling.
06:01For my countertop now, I'm going to use a stunning travertine.
06:05It reminds me of sand.
06:06And again, we're in Miami.
06:08And we're going to bring that countertop edge down the side here for what's called a waterfall finish at the sides.
06:14And then I'm going to bring the backsplash up to underneath the shelf.
06:19We're going to take the upper cabinets away because I just feel like it's too much.
06:22The upper cabinets make the kitchen feel almost a little bit smaller in my opinion.
06:26So we're going to do an open shelf up top and then just wood closed cabinets underneath.
06:31And the specific cabinet that I have in mind is by artist Casey Johnson.
06:36So his canyon series of carvings is this like flat planes and gouges out with like a literal wood gouge, all of these like divots and stuff.
06:45And by doing that, he's actually creating intuitive handholds and finger grips that you can use to open and close drawers and doors.
06:53I've never seen him do it in a kitchen before.
06:56And I think this tiny little kitchen would be the perfect place to sort of like feature the artwork that he does in a really practical way.
07:05Now let's turn our attention to the window. I really love a big open window.
07:10I don't think we need to keep bypass window situation.
07:13We can just turn it into a big picture window and just avoid this whole separation.
07:18One big clear pane of glass.
07:20And then I do love the sort of nostalgia and warmth and coziness of having a soft fabric window covering over the window, but not drapes and not the ones that were there.
07:30So I just want to do a Roman shade, a sheer white Roman shade in a performance fabric.
07:35So you could have it dry cleaned if needed.
07:37And then along the bottom of it, Schumacher makes the cutest little like strawberry trim.
07:43And there's like little beaded pearls.
07:45I just want to run like a little fruit moment in a vegetable garden kitchen because that's subversive.
07:51And I really love Blue Star Ranges.
07:53They make the most gorgeous teeny tiny compact all gas ranges.
07:57On the other side, because I want to capture that nostalgia back, I want to do like a big chill fridge and freezer.
08:02You can actually choose custom colors and they'll actually powder coat exactly to match.
08:07One of the great luxuries of working in smaller functional spaces is you can get a lot of mega luxurious material for not a lot of cash because you don't need tons and tons and tons of countertop slabs.
08:19So I want to use this green Abbey marble.
08:21I think that warm lime green that it has mixed in with the white.
08:25It's giving celery.
08:26It's giving leek.
08:27Normally a pot filler is very practical.
08:29If you don't want to be carrying like eight gallons of water from the sink from the other side of your kitchen all the way to the range.
08:36I think it's kind of funny to put a pot filler in a kitchen.
08:39Like literally you could take four steps to the sink and you're already there.
08:43So we're going to do that.
08:44And I just personally love like these unlacquered brasses where they patina and change over time.
08:49So that's going to feature as kind of the main metal in this kitchen.
08:53The original countertops are in a laminate.
08:57They're really white.
08:58I want to try and rethink these and think of a material that is both timeless and also really durable.
09:06So I love using stainless steel.
09:08I also want to continue the stainless steel up the backsplash and take it all the way to the bottom of the upper cabinets for that really clean slick look.
09:19For the oven, I actually think this could be a cool opportunity to do a decorative moment.
09:24So I'm going to choose the La Conche oven range.
09:27I think that not only is it beautiful and very classic in its design, but it's also fit for the most industrious of home chefs.
09:36They also come in an array of beautiful colors.
09:39So on the walls, I really like this whole notion of the wallpaper going completely from the counter all the way to the ceiling.
09:46I think that's kind of cool, but it's not practical.
09:49So in my vegetable garden, I want to do vegetable portraits all over the wall.
09:54It would look kind of like a wallpaper, but it's just different, really playful, painterly portraits of like bell peppers and corn on the cob and an eggplant and a turnip.
10:04I'm like, I don't know, like a carrot.
10:07But again, I can't go ceiling all the way down to the countertop with just decorative paint or like a mural that's not enough waterproofing.
10:16So I found this like beautiful mosaic tile by artist Patty Franklin.
10:21And the mosaics that she makes are literally little vegetables.
10:29For the lighting, in addition to the overhead lighting and the natural light that's coming in from the blown out window.
10:36I would love to add two small workspace lights above the sink and the workspace next to it just for functionality.
10:43I love this ambient sconce.
10:46It's from the 1970s.
10:48It's called the Lampara Lamp by GPA Monti.
10:50It's just a really fun piece.
10:52I love how the red picks up on the red concrete flooring.
10:55And also the design is quite fun because the two sides open and close like a ladybug.
11:00I wanted to have some fun with the lighting here.
11:03Again, it's like a small space, but it's a special space.
11:06And I want everybody to sort of think about their homes that way.
11:09Size doesn't matter when it comes to your home.
11:11You need to make it special.
11:12So what we're going to do here is channel the lights of Ocean Drive with some ambient lighting around the base of the cabinets.
11:17And in my mind, this lighting changes color.
11:20So maybe sometimes it's pink.
11:21Right now it's kind of an amber color.
11:23And it kind of gives like a modern touch, a little nod to the art deco vibe of South Beach.
11:29And then we're going to add these beautiful leaf wall sconces.
11:32We're in a, you know, tropical climate.
11:34So they're kind of like shaped like a palm leaf, again, using the brass.
11:38Lastly, above the sink is this cute little travertine and resin pendant.
11:43It's pink and travertine.
11:45And I just love the shape.
11:46Again, it's a very sort of like nod to art deco with the arch and the little globe.
11:51And I think it's perfect.
11:53We're just going to do proper recessed cans for functional lighting.
11:56Then underneath the shelves, we'll have down sort of like concealed undershelf lighting so that the counters are fully lit.
12:03And then decoratively, just for a very cheerful, funny moment, I want to do the cabbage lettuce lamp of my dreams.
12:11So Bordalo Pinheiro is like a 19th century Portuguese ceramics artist.
12:17And they still make like cabbage ware and like other funny vegetable vessels and like pitchers and stuff.
12:25And so over the sink, I want to do like a cabbage light.
12:30Just go with it.
12:36The other reason why I want to do a shelf that is at 30 inches high, because I don't want to lose all of that height in terms of storage capacity,
12:44is I really love displaying pots and pans, especially if you like had copper ones.
12:49I don't know, like maybe.
12:50Your pots and pans are beautiful.
12:52So you could actually hang your pots and pans underneath the shelf and have them out on display.
12:57There's something very sort of like Italian inspired about it.
12:59And I think that's cool.
13:01Then we're going to have the cabbage light.
13:03And then all of the other little friends.
13:05A pitcher that's shaped like an ear of corn.
13:08And then we're going to have a cabbage bowl, because I love cabbage ware.
13:10And then we're going to have this one that sort of looks like a Jimmy Nardello pepper, but maybe it's a bell pepper.
13:15I'm not really sure.
13:16There's so much hilarious, amazing, beautiful stuff that's actually like beautifully handmade and so rich in color and vibrancy.
13:23And every single one of them is vintage and actually serves a purpose in a kitchen.
13:29And I think it's really important in a kitchen environment to decorate with things that you are actually able to use,
13:34because you don't have that much space for things that are just for beauty.
13:38So I would love to be really intentional with the decor I bring into this space.
13:43And this is a small space, so I don't want to overcrowd it.
13:46But I do really want to introduce some organic, earthy wood accents.
13:51I love this stool.
13:53It's from the 1950s.
13:55It's French, and I think it brings a bit of a rustic vibe to it.
13:58It's also quite functional.
14:00It can act as a perch or as a stepladder.
14:03I also want to bring in some vintage Dank's salt and pepper meal shakers.
14:07They come in all sorts of fun shapes and sizes.
14:10On the open shelving, I would love to bring in some beautiful plates and bowls in pastel colors.
14:16You know, it's okay to have your nice things on display within a kitchen, and also it's easier to access.
14:22In terms of decor, I've kept it really kind of clean and sleek here.
14:26I don't like too much clutter in small spaces, but we do have that floating shelf that goes around the whole upper perimeter of the kitchen.
14:32So if you had a nice set of matching dishes, you could stack them here, and it would kind of be that zen, calming moment.
14:38I think what you want to avoid in small kitchens is clutter and a lot of visual clutter.
14:43It's not a problem to have stuff, but I think one way to cut down on that visual clutter is to pick a color scheme and stick to it,
14:50like this cream vase that I've got in the top left.
14:53This vase is actually from my friend Cindy's shop.
14:55It's called Ink and Porcelain, and everything she sells is kind of made by female artisans.
15:00I love a hanging plant on a floating shelf.
15:02I think this one is a pothos, and they're like super easy to take care of, very low maintenance,
15:06and it'll just continue to trail and give you like a hint of a jungle feel.
15:09Lastly, we kind of have this very zen, sort of Japanese-looking plant on the counter.
15:15Just, again, no visual clutter, and keep your color palette simple when it comes to accessorizing a small space.
15:26What I really wanted to do with this kitchen is show you that, you know, the small spaces most of us live with can be special.
15:31So, my thought here was to recreate a memory.
15:34Every time I walk in this kitchen, I feel happy.
15:36It's nostalgic, but it's modern, it's functional, and it just makes me feel good.
15:40So, I encourage you to think that way when you're designing spaces in your home, especially small spaces.
15:45They deserve love, too.
15:46I really love how this kitchen turned out.
15:49It feels way more inviting.
15:51It feels way more open, and to me, it appears a lot larger than it used to be.
15:56I would personally love to cook and to hang out in this space.
16:00I also think the design, it could be from the 1970s, it could be a modern home.
16:05And I think that, again, is really important to make sure that when you're choosing finishes for a kitchen,
16:12that you're really thoughtful with steering away from trends,
16:15and also putting in materials that are really durable and can handle a lot of high-traffic action.
16:21My final thoughts on this kitchen are it's very cute, and I'm obsessed with it.
16:25This is kind of like the tiny, weird kitchen of my dreams,
16:29and I want to make eggs in this kitchen, in my vegetable kitchen.
16:34Thank you very much.
16:42Oh my god!
16:45This is incredible.
16:46Wait, I love that.
16:48Tell me about this red floor. Is it concrete?
16:50Yeah, it's concrete.
16:51I took inspiration from Frank Lloyd Wright.
16:54I did a red concrete because I felt like I wanted to bring in color.
16:57I love it.
16:58But something that wasn't overbearing to the space.
17:00And I think what people don't know is stained concrete gets better with time.
17:03Yeah, I think anything that gets patinaed becomes a bit cooler and more lived in.
17:07So, oh my god, please tell me about this.
17:09Lettuce lamp!
17:10It is real. You can buy it, actually.
17:14But it has origin story in 19th century Portugal,
17:17where they have this major tradition of doing all kinds of little vegetable pottery.
17:22But also, I feel like an artist lives here,
17:24and this is something they're obsessed with, and they collect.
17:27This is their interpretation of a salad.
17:29I love this so much.
17:31I'm obsessed with this mango, yellow, everything vibe.
17:34It's so cheerful. Where was the inspiration from?
17:37It's my little tribute to Miami.
17:38So I went to University of Miami, and I had a really ugly kitchen,
17:41but it was kind of the same layout.
17:43And so this is what I would have done had I had money.
17:45And it's kind of like a sunset, but then there's ocean drive, neon lights happening.
17:51It's Miami sand, sun, neon.
17:54Yes, it's like my little party.
17:56I imagine the lights coming down and just those ambient lighting.
17:59Yeah.
18:00It's a really fun party.
18:01It's so great.