The Kitchen Reno That Taught Me Patience

Notes from a Remodel - After years of doing styling for others, GH Group Visual Styling Director Lis Engelhart took on her own home and discovered that designing for your life can mean making peace with your budget and your partner—and, sometimes, your nearly 100-year-old plumbing.

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What We Had vs. What We Needed

Before Felix and I embarked on a renovation, this room was just a 1980s kitchen in our 1930s house. It was functional(ish) but full of quirks that had become more challenging over time. The grout never got fully clean, even after we tried every trick from Carolyn Forté, executive director of Good Housekeeping's Cleaning Lab. The upper cabinets were big enough to keep out natural light but still didn't hold a sufficient amount for a family of three (our son is 4). The appliances were too large for the room's footprint, and everything was crammed on one side, leaving the other mostly unused. The dishwasher sat awkwardly in the corner and was impossible to load without bumping into something else. No matter how we arranged it, the space just didn't work.

When we considered a renovation, we had lofty goals: more light, better organization, appliances that fit. But more than anything else, we wanted the kitchen to feel as if it belonged to the house. So we opened a doorway, restored some details that were original and added more, rethought the layout and brought the space into the 21st century.