This Is the Prettiest Blue Kitchen We’ve Ever Seen

updated Apr 30, 2019
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a white kitchen with blue cabinets
(Image credit: White Arrow)

You know how in every ’90s and early aughts teen movie there was a makeover scene in which a “nerdy” girl becomes “pretty,” but all that really happens is she loses her oh-so-undesirable glasses and replaces her generally tragic hair and wardrobe situation with a cool coif and a twin set from Contempo Casual and, ta-da!, she’s the most popular girl in school? Yeah, well, that’s not this kitchen (big lead-up, huh?).

The home this blue beauty resides in is more like that car-wreck-of-a-show from 2004, The Swan, where actual plastic surgery occurs.

Meaning: This was not a slap-a-coat-of-paint-on-it situation, but rather a gut renovation of a charming rowhouse in the historic district of Ridgewood, Queens, (check out the before photos here).

Owned by Peggy Wang (BuzzFeed Life’s Editorial Director), the home had undergone some pretty run-of-the-mill renovations a few decades back, but the soulless builder-grade kitchen (as well as the rest of the house as a whole) was just not living up to “dream home” status. So she called in reinforcements via design firm White Arrow to help with the overhaul.

(Image credit: White Arrow)

“The kitchen took inspiration from British farmhouse kitchens, but we made it feel more playful with the added copper faucet and lighting, as well as the open white shelving,” Peggy noted in the House Tour originally published on our sister site, Apartment Therapy. “We added additional storage through a freestanding ‘larder’ and hid the appliances to keep things cohesive.”

While we’d guess that amazing English-inspired larder would be the apple of her eye (we’ll take two), Peggy actually says that the Farrow & Ball Hague Blue chosen for the cabinetry is her favorite element in the whole townhome. “In many ways, color was the driving force behind this project,” she said. “White Arrow brought in deep blues in the kitchen and bathroom and connected the color throughout the home with accessories.”

(Image credit: White Arrow)

What was a pretty standard townhome layout with closed-off rooms is now a really open space, thanks to some walls being torn down in the kitchen and dining room. The light and easy flow helps to make what might otherwise be a dramatic and moody color still feel cheerful and effervescent.

(Image credit: White Arrow)

To keep things from getting too serious, they opted to bring in a non-traditional copper finish in the faucet (from Watermark) and pendant lights (by Menu). And because the budget was tight, Peggy and her designers got resourceful, using IKEA base cabinets with hand-painted custom Shaker fronts by Scherr’s. They also sourced some of the high-end appliances (like the Sub-Zero fridge, Bertazzoni range, and panel-ready Bosch dishwasher) from Craigslist and eBay.

Now Peggy, who previously had only lived in pint-sized New York City apartments, has “yards and yards of kitchen counter space and an actual pantry (fairly certain this is an unbeknownst word to all New Yorkers) where I can store such luxuries as a salad spinner and six different kinds of salt blends.” She adds, “I never thought I’d be able to live with this kind of space in NYC, and it’s turned me into the homebody I never wanted to become. But here I am.”

(Image credit: The Kitchn)