Annie Elliott Design

Greater Washington DC

Renovating your kitchen? Call Aidan Design (My kitchen renovation, Part 2)

Annie Elliott |

Putting aside the question of to expand or not to expand, I knew what I needed to do to get the ball rolling on our kitchen renovation.

I needed to call the brilliant Nadia Subaran of Aidan Design.

Now, you might be saying to yourself, “But you’re an interior designer! Why can’t you handle this?”

Because, Gentle Readers, I am not a kitchen designer. Kitchens are their own beast: they’re highly specialized and have great potential for, as a former professor used to say, “missed opportunities.” I HATE missed opportunities. I’ve worked with Nadia for years, and I can tell you this: she and her crack team will leave no opportunities missed as they tackle our space-challenged Wardman galley kitchen. The people at Aidan are kitchen experts. Why wouldn’t you hire experts for your project — any project?

Aidan’s 2014 Design House kitchen was swoon-worthy:

Kitchen with navy blue cabinets, marble floors, marble countertops, and brass accents, by Aidan Design
Aidan Design’s work in the 2014 DC Design House

I’ll need more color in my own kitchen, of course…but for a geographic area that strongly favors white kitchens, Aidan’s navy blue wine tasting room was a triumph.

This is an example of a project Aidan and bossy color did together last year. Aidan did the overall design — the layout, cabinet style and finish, hardware, countertops — and I came in for the “finishes:” backsplash, light fixtures, dining furniture, and soft goods (bench seats, pillows, window treatments).

Kitchen renovation with gray cabinets and marble countertops in Chevy Chase by Aidan Design and bossy color
Isn’t it gorgeous? Note the brass hardware, Gentle Readers!
DC-area kitchen with hardwood floors, round table and red chairs designed by Aidan Design with DC interior designer Annie Elliott, bossy color
Fabric Roman Shades (below) replaced these natural woven Romans — which we put in when I first decorated this house years ago! Jonathan Adler Puzzle chandelier. Jane Churchill fabric on the chairs
Red pillows on bay window with sheer Roman Shades by DC-area interior designer Annie Elliott, bossy color
Light-filtering Roman Shades and the bench seat overlooking the backyard. Anna French, Jane Churchill, and Robert Allen fabrics
Red bench cushions and accent pillow on dining bench in DC-area kitchen renovated by Aidan Design with DC decorator Annie Elliott, bossy color
Putting a bench on the short side of the island was a brilliant move on Aidan’s part

The butler’s pantry was a true collaboration as we tried to figure out how to make the tall cabinet doors — visible from the dining room — more interesting.

Butler's pantry with white cabinets and brass accents in Chevy Chase kitchen renovation by Aidan Design with DC interior designer Annie Elliott, bossy color
Butler’s pantry. Note that the cabinets are a different color from the main kitchen, the counter is gray instead of marble, and the backsplash is the same

The decision: faux leather panels, front and back, with a brass mesh overlay.

Liquor cabinet in butler's pantry with leather and brass mesh doors, by Aidan Design and DC interior decorator Annie Elliott, bossy color
We wanted the doors to look good from the inside AND the outside. I love how masculine the faux leather feels — it’s dark brown, by the way

Ok, back to MY kitchen :)

During our very first meeting, these were our questions to Aidan:

  • Expand or not expand? Expound
  • If we DO expand, what other folks do we need to add to the team (structural engineer, architect, etc.)?
  • How can we maximize storage? (Which actually is a dumb thing to even mention. No one goes into a kitchen renovation saying, “You know what? We really need less storage”)
  • Where are we going to eat?
  • Can we create a butler’s pantry that feels different from the rest of the kitchen?
  • How can we make this kitchen bossy?

To that last point: we’re going to live here forever, so we are NOT concerned about resale. How often do you hear that? Never. So here it is: we want this kitchen to work for us and make us happy every single day.

That should be doable, shouldn’t it?

Bossy color | Annie Elliott interiors is based in Washington, D.C. We create outrageously beautiful homes, starting with color.