Over on our sister site, The Organized Home, we’ve tapped The Faux Martha blogger Melissa Coleman several times in the past for her expertise on streamlined, straightforward cooking. (See The Only 5 Pots and Pans You’ll Ever Need and The Only Five Things You Need to Cook a Delicious Thanksgiving Turkey.) Recently, when images of her kitchen remodel landed in our inbox, we discovered she also prefers an appealing simplicity when it comes to design. Unfortunately, though, the renovation process itself was anything but simple.
Melissa and her husband had purchased their lakeside chalet (great bones but in desperate need of attention) in Grand Marais, MN, and decided to overhaul it at a particularly inopportune time—just before Covid hit and phrases like “global supply chain” and “Zoom meetings” entered daily lexicon. Compounding the poor timing: they were also about to welcome a new baby, their second child, into their lives. Suffice to say, the road to completion was bumpy and long—two years long—but they couldn’t be happier with the results and, in particular, with the kitchen.
“Being in this kitchen makes me want to pack up our life and head north,” says Melissa, whose full-time residence is 4.5 hours away in Minneapolis. “The steam somehow rolls off your coffee differently here. I love that the kitchen feels beautiful and special, yet not too precious. Like you can come in and cook and make a mess.” Below, she walks us through all of her design decisions that culminated in this hard-working space that also invites lingering.
Photography by Melissa Coleman, courtesy of The Faux Martha.
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For more green kitchens, see:
- Kitchen of the Week: A Historic Kitchen in Shropshire, Recast in Monochrome Green
- Kitchen of the Week: A Greatest-Hits Kitchen for a Danish-American Couple in London
- Trend Alert: 10 Favorite, Time-Tested Dark Green Kitchens
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