Escape to Central America
A young couple, in their first home, had visions of the casitas in which they had spent many enjoyable adventures in Guatemala. The transformation of this modest little home was fabulously successful!! First we opened the kitchen to the entry/living room. We removed a swinging door between the kitchen and the dining room and the two modest modifications made a world of difference in the flow and open feeling previously lacking in the floorplan. All else was finishes only.
The kitchen went from drab to dazzling. The colors were derived from the existing granite countertops which they didn’t think went with the Guatemalan casita theme they pictured, but we persuaded them to keep them as they were solid stone, durable, functional and costly to replace. The cabinets were in good condition and therefore we elected to paint them. We added a few details above the range to house the new microwave and finish the end. We also built new cabinets beneath the new countertop at the pass-through. We dressed all the doors and drawers with Talavera cabinet pulls for more color-pop! They knew they wanted Saltillo tile floors. We added a bit of color with 2″ square Talavera insets in the vestibule that leads from the kitchen to the backdoor and laundry room. We selected a multi-colored Talavera tile for the backsplash with a full-wall treatment using it as a wallcovering not limited to between the cabinets. The rest of the colors were extrapolated from the tiles. Golden yellows, turquoise and pumpkins became the palette for the wall colors throughout.
A neutral off-white – also derived from the Talavera backsplash – was used on the new countertop tile going from the kitchen into the entry/living room. Royal Blue glass pendants are suspended from the new opening. Color POPS everywhere with splashes of accents in the couple’s collection of wall art, pottery and decorative accessories. A neighbor offered a sofa and loveseat which we reupholstered in denim. The denim was durable and soft – salvaging the great frames with a turn-around time of only 2 weeks once the fabric arrived! New accent pillows brought all the colors together for added comfort on the seating and also as pull-up seats for the floor to gather around the coffee table for parties. New locally custom fabricated draperies and hand-forged iron rods were added to the windows. The existing dining chandelier is a place-holder for a future iron fabrication. A collection of identically framed snapshots of their travels around the world became the wall-treatment for the entry.
