When designer Abbie Naber’s clients, a couple with three boys, told them they wanted their Southern California kitchen to evoke memories of their camping trips in the Northwest, she had two choices. The first was to trick out their kitchen with a tiny stove, open shelving, and pot rails to make it feel as cabin-y as possible. The second was to tie the space to the wilderness with earthy hues and lots of wood. Naber chose subtlety. “I could have taken the concept very literally—I’m from the Northwest, there’s lots of tiny cabins, I get it,” says the founder of a. Naber Design. “But it was really about dissecting what it means to them.” Hits of blues and greens and rich walnut tones brought them one step closer to feeling outdoors.
Before
Before the designer could bring her client’s rustic vision to life, she had to address the fact that the existing 132-square-foot kitchen was super choppy. The space was long and narrow like a galley; the small peninsula automatically left one of their children stool-less; and the extra slice of countertop near the hallway had become a dumping ground for random papers and water bottles. Naber saw an opportunity to shift the kitchen into the adjacent dining area and create a new eat-in banquette where the old sink used to be. She even found space to plop in a 5’x5’ island that can fit all their little ones. Tour the finished space, ahead.
The Woodsy Color Palette
White oak has made its way into many of Naber’s kitchen designs, but this space was calling for a much deeper walnut paneling. The stain took a bit of trial and error: it had to be dark, but not so dark that it made the kitchen feel like a dungeon. On the cabinets, Naber used a hue with a fitting name for the wilderness-inspired project: Herb Garden from Benjamin Moore.
The Kid-Proof Stone
Quartzite was always on Naber’s radar for the countertops and backsplash: it’s much more kid-friendly than stain-prone marble. The designer exhausted her search, aiming to find a light gray slab with minimal brown streaks. Once the stone was in the space, she had some fun with it, mitering part of the backsplash around the globelike wall sconces. “The homeowners are down-to-Earth, not buttoned up. This detail made the kitchen feel a little less serious,” she says.
The Breezy Buffet
Naber’s strategy for streamlining the buffet-side of the kitchen was to relegate the storage to lower cabinets and a single open shelf. The stretch of cupboards offers plenty of closed storage for extra serveware as well as a few handy drawers for everyday clutter. Farrow & Ball’s Hazy powder blue (a color created in collaboration with Kelly Wearstler) is Naber’s nod to the Pacific ocean.
The Textured Lighting
When it came to lighting, the designer honed in on pieces made out of organic materials. The ceramic pendants over the island are by Clay Cafe (via Etsy), the rattan sconces that frame the buffet are Anthropologie, and the basket-like fixture in the new dining space is crafted out of veta vera, a naturally durable grass, from Golden Editions.
The Storage-Packed Banquette
By pushing the kitchen back, Naber gained around 40 square feet of new and improved dining space in the kitchen. She maximized the long stretch of wall with a built-in banquette with pull-up storage hidden underneath the seat. “My formula with families is to always do the bottom cushion in a high performance vinyl leather and the back in whatever fabric they want,” says Naber, adding that she’s followed the same foolproof combo in her personal home. The faux leather seat is made out of fabric from Logan Montgomery and the backrest is dressed up in a swatch from Block Shop Textiles. Sure, it’s not quite as cool as sitting around a campfire with your family exchanging ghost stories, but it comes close.
