Green kitchen and breakfast room

Hinsdale, 2026

Sample project

A family of four who cook every night, in a 1928 brick house in the Robbins Park neighborhood. We drew the kitchen and breakfast room; their own builder of twenty years did the work.

Service: Interior design, with the owners’ builder
Scope: Kitchen, breakfast room and back hall, 340 sq ft
Schedule: 14 weeks of design, 11 of construction
Finished: March 2026

The brief

The kitchen had been redone in 1994 in white gloss and granite. The breakfast room held a desk, the mail and a treadmill.

The owners wanted a kitchen that looked like it belonged to the house, and a table where everyone could eat breakfast without moving a laptop.

Green painted cabinets, a butcher block counter and an unlacquered brass bridge faucet — Painted cabinets, butcher block by the sink and an unlacquered brass faucet.

What we had to work around

The original 1928 windows stayed, so the upper cabinets stop short of them. The budget was fixed before we started, and the family lived upstairs through construction.

Kitchen mid-renovation with new white cabinets wrapped in plastic and the floor covered in paper — Week 6: the new cabinets wrapped and the floors papered while the plaster was patched.

What we decided

A deep green paint on the cabinets and the paneled walls, chosen from eleven samples painted on boards and looked at in morning and evening light.

Butcher block where the family chops, stone only around the range. The desk moved to the back hall, and the breakfast room got a round table and chairs that fit six.

Round oak table with bamboo chairs under a pendant light by a sliding glass door — The breakfast room, with the desk moved out to the back hall.

How it turned out

Construction took 11 weeks against a schedule of 10. The fee in our proposal was the fee on the last invoice.

Planning something like this in Western Springs or nearby

Send the town, the rooms and a budget range. Johanna will tell you which service fits and what the fee would be.

Start a project

Or call (708) 555-0163

Johanna reads every inquiry herself and replies soon, usually with two or three questions and a time to talk.