I’m so excited to be sharing the first of our reveals of the new Oh Joy! Studio starting this week (Here’s the backstory on the studio if you missed it)! While it’s my office, it’s designed very much like a house, and I’m excited to provide you with more inspiration and ideas for your own home projects with these reveals. With each room’s post, I’ll be sharing the inspiration/process first and then the final reveal photos later that same week. First, is our kitchen which you’ll find right now on the cover of Domino Magazine!

Because this space needed to function as a kitchen both for my work needs and for guests and visitors, this kitchen’s needs were a little different than the needs of my home kitchen…

Inspiration & Materials
The inspiration for this space was based on our needs for function, the unique shape of the house, and the materials we discovered in the process. Once we found the Chelsea cabinets by Reform and the open shelving by Amuneal, it really laid the ground-work for developing a playful, yet chic, kitchen. This space is a play in texture, shine, shape, and color with the mix of terrazzo floor, color-blocked cabinets, textured tile, and more.

Shelving and Cabinets
Open shelving works well in this space because there are a limited amount of plates and cups used on a regular basis, and I wanted to be able to mix the functional pieces with the decorative items that could be on display. I really felt like we could push the boundaries with color and trend here because of the way the space would be used. These cabinets may seem bold (which they are!) but the colors are muted enough to work well with other colors in the space. The materials are durable and long-lasting, yet feel reminiscent of a restaurant or retail space which I love so much.

Function and Layout
You can see the layout from above here with the kitchen located between the back wall and the stairwell that leads up to the top floor.

This kitchen needed to…
-have some storage, countertops, and all major appliances of most kitchens
-be functional for guests so they could prepare meals
-work as a great backdrop for creating content and any food stories

But it did not need to…
-house a ton of small appliances
-have a lot of counter space
-have an island or any built-in seating areas

The Plans
Because the studio space is one big open area, the kitchen became the focal point when we decided to place it on the back wall of the A-frame shape. Its needs and functions suited itself well for being against a wall and not in the center of the room.

The team at Project M Plus made some incredible design decisions on how to frame this space so that it could sit in such a unique shape but also feel contained as a focal point of the kitchen. The choice of placement of the tiles to line up at the top of cabinets and meet up with the open shelving helped to create a defined space within this open studio layout.

This is kitchen is truly an incredible mix of form and function and feels like a glamorous studio apartment. Stay tuned later this week for the final reveal!

P.S. See all house posts right here!

Credits:
Progress photos: Lily Glass
Renderings: Project M Plus
Design: Cleo Murnane of Project M Plus and Joy Cho
Architecture: Project M Plus
Construction: Boswell Construction