When Brittany Butler and Rachel Kwaw of the New Orleans and Atlanta-based firm, B. Noelle Design, began working on a Georgia client’s home, they had to build it from the ground up — literally. “After nearly three decades of building her dream house, she had a house fire that cost her almost everything,” the designers explain.
Thanks to Butler and Kwaw, the kitchen, specifically, got the most charming update. Before the fire in 2023, the kitchen had last been updated in 1993, and the designers described it as “outdated with a peninsula and laminate cabinets.”
The duo had to approach the renovation with sensitivity and tact. “Designing for a client actively coping with trauma is a bit of a different process,” they share. “We had to listen carefully to the nuanced details and the things expressed. We noted, empathized, and revisited the highlights.” The designers drew inspiration from happy times, such as the client’s annual visits to Martha’s Vineyard, for the design of the new kitchen.
The designers suggested adding more windows to flood the room with natural light, and the client loved the idea. After getting her approval, or as the designers put it, “her smile,” they moved forward with adding colors inspired by Martha’s Vineyard. The kitchen walls were coated with Sherwin-Williams’s Fleur de Sel, a dreamy green-tinted white. The butler’s pantry walls were painted with Sherwin-Williams’s Sea Salt, a gorgeous seafoam green; the cabinets were painted Sherwin-Williams’s Upward, a soft gray-blue; and Wall Blush’s Tally wallpaper adorns the ceiling. The counters are even a gorgeous blue calcite.
Sentimental pieces, like artwork restored from the fire, dot the walls of the kitchen and butler’s pantry. And because the room was built as a “forever kitchen,” the designers added easily-accessible storage options like minimal upper cabinets and built-in storage. The entire kitchen renovation took around three and a half months and approximately $50,000 to complete from start to finish.
