Before & After: A Tiny Brooklyn Kitchen Opens Up

Purchasing an apartment in New York is no small feat (financially or otherwise). Rima knew she wanted to renovate as soon as she bought her Brooklyn co-op, but was a bit hesitant about pulling the trigger. After four years of dreaming of a new kitchen, she finally worked up the guts (and the money!) to make a big change.

Her previous kitchen had a problem common to a lot of NYC kitchens: lack of space. Rima was concerned that the kitchen’s unusual layout would prevent expansion, but her contractor showed how knocking out a couple of walls could enlarge the kitchen dramatically. Originally the plan was just to tear down the wall between the kitchen and the entryway and create a pass-through to the living room, but eventually the size of the proposed pass-through grew so large that Rima decided to embrace the open kitchen concept.

As a first-time remodeler, Rima struggled with choosing cabinets for her kitchen — but as someone who’s “not a fan of color”, she knew she wanted something in neutral tones. She finally settled on glossy modern cabinets from IKEA’s RINGHULT series, with white uppers and black lower cabinets. A few glass cabinets on the kitchen’s right side keep things interesting, and a pantry cabinet flanking the fridge significantly expands the available storage space.

For the countertop, Rima chose a snow-white quartz that provides a beautiful contrast to the black cabinets. A waterfall edge caps the bank of cabinets on the living room side, for a more finished look. The new wide-plank flooring throughout the apartment is an engineered wood in a light maple.

The last big decision for the kitchen was how to tile the backsplash. Family and friends pushed her to choose something more colorful, but in the end Rima found something that was a perfect fit both for her kitchen and her tastes: a grey and white hex tile mosaic that gives the space just the right amount of texture and personality.

Rima found her contractor, Bobby, on Sweeten, an online resource that connects homeowners with local design and construction experts for home renovations. You can read more about the project, see more photos, and find sources on the Sweeten blog.