{"id":23920,"date":"2026-05-14T13:21:59","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T13:21:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/smartbizearnings.com\/?p=23920"},"modified":"2026-05-14T13:21:59","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T13:21:59","slug":"cramped-dark-kitchen-opens-up-with-a-blue-and-white-palette","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/smartbizearnings.com\/?p=23920","title":{"rendered":"Cramped, Dark Kitchen Opens Up With a Blue-and-White Palette"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div compid=\"img\" class=\"hz-editorial-gallery-main-content__item__image-wrapper hz-track-me\">\n<p><span class=\"hzi-font hzi-Before-Photo hz-editorial-gallery-main-content__item__before-tag__icon\" aria-hidden=\"true\"\/><span class=\"hz-editorial-gallery-main-content__item__before-tag__text\">Before Photo<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" compid=\"credit\" href=\"https:\/\/www.houzz.com\/user\/jaycip\" class=\"hz-editorial-gallery-main-content__item__owner\">Cipriani Remodeling Solutions<button class=\"btn btn-primary btn-lg hz-editorial-gallery-main-content__item__action--sign-out\" type=\"button\"><span class=\"icon-font icon-heart \" aria-hidden=\"true\"\/><span class=\" btn__label \">Save Photo<\/span><\/button><\/div>\n<div class=\"hz-editorial-gallery-main-content__item__comment\"><i>\u201cAfter\u201d photos by Ronnie Bruce Photography<\/i><\/p>\n<p><b>Kitchen at a Glance<\/b><br \/><b>Who lives here:<\/b> A couple<br \/><b>Location: <\/b>Lumberton, New Jersey<br \/><b>Size: <\/b>204 square feet (19 square meters)<br \/><b>Design-build team:<\/b> Anne van de Rijn (designer) and Nick Zizzamia (project manager) of Cipriani Remodeling Solutions<\/p>\n<p><b>Before:<\/b> <span>The former kitchen felt stuck in time. Short, dark wood cabinets \u2014 none reaching the ceiling \u2014 made the space feel low and cave-like, and creamy beige solid-surface counters did little to lift things. Storage was a constant frustration. \u201cThe kitchen was beautiful in its day,\u201d designer Anne van de Rijn <\/span>says<span>. \u201cI knew it was a quality kitchen when they originally did it, but it needed to be brightened up.\u201d<\/span><span\/><\/p>\n<p><span>The island was a particular pain point \u2014 slender, matching the dark perimeter cabinetry, with seating for just two and storage on only one side. A pair of small pendants hung too low overhead. The sink location worked, but across from it a refrigerator shared a wall with a built-in desk that had long since stopped functioning as one. \u201cThe desk was the first thing you hit when you came in from the garage, so it became a landing space for clutter,\u201d van de Rijn says.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The cooking wall was equally cramped: Two wall ovens squeezed in on either side of a gas cooktop left almost no counter workspace, and a microwave mounted above the cooktop couldn\u2019t properly ventilate the space. \u201cAnd it just wasn\u2019t pretty,\u201d van de Rijn says. One bright spot the homeowners wanted to keep: the red oak floor, which they knew would bring warmth to whatever came next.<\/span><span><br \/><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Before Photo Cipriani Remodeling SolutionsSave Photo \u201cAfter\u201d photos by Ronnie Bruce Photography Kitchen at a GlanceWho lives here: A coupleLocation:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23921,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6159],"tags":[7682,7678,7679,7680,7681,7683],"class_list":["post-23920","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-blueandwhite","tag-cramped","tag-dark","tag-kitchen","tag-opens","tag-palette"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/smartbizearnings.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23920","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/smartbizearnings.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/smartbizearnings.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smartbizearnings.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smartbizearnings.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23920"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/smartbizearnings.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23920\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23922,"href":"https:\/\/smartbizearnings.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23920\/revisions\/23922"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smartbizearnings.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/smartbizearnings.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smartbizearnings.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smartbizearnings.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}