5 Ways to Update Your Kitchen This Weekend

You don’t necessarily need to overhaul the kitchen to make it feel modern and fresh. Though Savvy Interiors’ principal designer and owner Susan Wintersteen did a complete remodel in this Santa Luz kitchen, she offers a few tips to invite earthy colors, different materials and fixtures from outside into the space that many consider the heart of the home.

1. Add open shelving.
True, it’s been a trend for some time, but this good advice is here to stay. Susan suggests replacing a cabinet on one side of a kitchen window with shelving. “This allows for more light and visually opens up your space,” she says.

2. Don’t overdo it.
The key to introducing pattern in the kitchen is to give it one place or moment to shine. The designer only used the bold Spanish-influenced tile as the backsplash behind the cooktop and employed simple hand-molded, subway-like tiles throughout the rest of the space.

3. Mix in a touch of black. 
Designers have long advocated for bringing in something raven. “A little black can ground a space,” Susan explains. Here, lighting, stools and accessories provide a welcome contrast to the clean, white room.

4. Shop outdoors.
Skip the traditional small pendant lighting above the island, and opt for oversize lanterns typically used in exterior entries. “I also swapped the candelabra bulbs with round ones,” Susan says. “It changes the whole look of the light; it feels a bit more modern.”

5. Don’t crowd the space.
The island is actually long and rather narrow so having a barstool with a seat back could potentially “overwhelm the eye,” Susan says. Instead, she selected small, whiskey-colored, leather stools to slide underneath.