The Everygirl Office Kitchen Makeover

Last September, five years after officially launching The Everygirl, we moved into our first office space. Our team had always worked remotely from home with staff in both Boston and Alabama, but after hiring two full-time employees in Chicago, the timing was right for a centralized workspace.

As luck would have it, we found the perfect studio loft in Chicago’s West Loop – a bustling area that’s growing every day with new start-ups and co-working spaces. Our space is an open room with exposed brick walls, oversized timber beams, and high ceilings. The walls were dark gray and the kitchen was a little dated, but we had big plans for this little space.

Fortunately, the team at The Home Depot was on board to help us transform our tiny kitchen into the gorgeous space it is now!

THE BEFORE

As you can see, we were working with a fairly basic kitchen — all function, no beauty. We wanted to brighten the space and make it better suited for shooting food and entertaining stories. We also have north-facing windows with no direct sunlight streaming in, meaning it can get pretty dark in here, especially in the winter. We knew that lightening up the kitchen would brighten the whole space, but we could never have predicted just how much better it would be.

There were a few questions we had to ask ourselves before getting started:

1. What is the goal?

For us, functionality. We definitely needed a lot more storage to hide our props, kitchenware, and even office supplies. The old kitchen had very little cabinet space with only one functional drawer and wasted space above the refrigerator.

Aesthetically, we wanted lighter colored surfaces for photo shoots and to brighten our dark office. We had plans to paint the walls white, but adding a reflective backsplash tile and open shelving would definitely pretty it up.

2. What is the timeline?

Our deadline was simply “as soon as possible” since we were hoping to unveil the finished space in time for our five-year anniversary party. And it was incredible how fast everything got done after our first meeting! The designers and contractors we were working with were always available and great at setting expectations, communicating any delays, and working efficiently.

Kitchen renovations can take several months, but The Home Depot had our space done in just under two weeks. If you’re on a tight timeline or don’t want to live through months of construction, The Home Depot offers cabinet refacing where you’d work with a professional from start to finish on design options.

THE DESIGN PROCESS

Once the process was in motion, the first step was an in-space consultation with the team from The Home Depot. They brought in samples based on our inspiration photos — light colored quartz countertops, nickel hardware, light neutral swatches for the cabinet color. They took measurements, we hashed out a plan for increasing the height of the cabinets, adding in more drawers and open shelving and expanding the storage over the refrigerator.

As soon as we saw the samples, the design decision process took about two minutes since we had a very clear picture of what we wanted. The team from The Home Depot was impressed.

Light greige shaker style cabinets in the color Morning Dew, marble-looking quartz countertops (a custom color named Rococo — not available online, only available through the custom in-home installation process), and understated nickel pulls and knobs. Lovely light options for The Everygirl kitchen.

We also settled on a large farmhouse sink and polished nickel bridge faucet from Kohler as the perfect centerpiece to anchor the whole space.

In less than two minutes, we had drafted plans (drawn in front of us!) for our new space. We were amazed at how quickly it came together.

Orders for everything were placed and work started just a few short weeks later. We spent two weeks working remotely during construction because, well, it’s a one-room office and all of our desks were pushed up against the wall. Expect to not have a kitchen during the renovation time, and cover everything near the construction zone with plastic cloths. Dust gets everywhere.

THE AFTER

Flash forward two weeks and voila!

The icing on top was the custom island that the Home Depot team conceptualized for the space. It is long and narrow so it doesn’t cut into the workspace, and we now have the luxury of having three additional drawers and cabinets for hidden storage. The best part? It’s on tiny sliders making it easy to move around for events or out of the way for photo shoots.

We could not have expected how much brighter the lighter colored kitchen would make the space. We had hoped it would, but the reflection off the white subway tile with white grout completely changed the room. And the design decision to extend the backsplash all the way to the brick wall really gave the space that finished look.

THE ACCESSORIES

No kitchen would be complete without functional (and beautiful) accessories lining the countertops. Lucky for us, The Home Depot has all of that too! We added a classic knife block, white and colorblock mixing bowls to style the open shelves, and of course — a white KitchenAid mixer for baking shoots.