Reworking the Heart of the Home: A Kitchen & Bath Remodel Story
Every remodel begins with understanding how a home wants to work, and where it quietly resists daily life. In this project, the kitchen and bathrooms were original to the house, layered with decades of use, dated finishes, and layouts that no longer supported how the homeowners lived or entertained.
By Zee McCoy, January 2026
A kitchen remodel Story
The Kitchen: Function Hidden Beneath Time
The kitchen was generously sized, but its potential was buried beneath heavy wood cabinetry, patterned tile countertops, and finishes that absorbed light rather than reflecting it. Storage was abundant yet inefficient, sightlines were visually busy, and the space felt disconnected from the surrounding rooms.
Our goal was not simply to “modernize,” but to clarify, to reveal the structure of the space and create a kitchen that feels open, intuitive, and inviting. We studied circulation patterns, window placement, and how the kitchen functioned during gatherings, knowing this room would become the true hub of the home.
“Corrine and Zee have a remarkable talent for designing with a deep sense of place. Both the kitchen and bathroom reflect the surrounding woods and the chalet-style character of our home, while still feeling fresh and elevated. Their ability to integrate these new spaces seamlessly with our living and family rooms speaks volumes about their taste and vision.” Jay Conger
On site during construction, the design and build team reviews ceiling details and lighting placement, ensuring scale, alignment, and proportion are correct before finishes are applied
Standing together during construction, the team reviews details, asks questions, and works through decisions in real time, measuring, adjusting, and refining as the room takes shape. These conversations are where trust is built and design intent is protected, ensuring every choice supports how the homeowners will live in the space. It’s in these unscripted moments, between trades and designers, that thoughtful homes are truly made.
Kitchen Color Palette: Grounded, Natural, and Timeless
The kitchen’s color palette was designed to feel quietly grounded, rooted in the surrounding landscape while remaining refined and enduring. A soft, muted green cabinetry finish forms the foundation of the space, introducing a sense of calm and connection to nature without overwhelming the architecture.
Matte black accents bring contrast and definition, anchoring the palette and providing a contemporary edge that sharpens the overall composition. Warm wood tones, visible in shelving, architectural detailing, and flooring, soften the palette and add richness, reinforcing the home’s mountain setting.
Together, the palette strikes a careful balance between warmth and restraint, modernity and timelessness. Each color was selected not as a statement on its own, but as part of a cohesive whole, designed to age gracefully and support both everyday living and gathering with ease.
In Progress: Building a Kitchen with Intention
A successful remodel is rarely defined by a single moment. It is shaped gradually, through framing, proportion, material selection, and countless decisions that happen long before the final styling. These progress images capture the quiet but critical middle of the process, where ideas begin to take physical form.
From Plan to Structure
With demolition complete, the kitchen began its transformation through careful reconfiguration. Cabinetry was designed to sit cleanly within the architecture, respecting window placement, ceiling height, and circulation. The new layout prioritizes openness and function, allowing the room to breathe while supporting daily use.
Seeing the cabinetry installed without countertops or hardware reveals the clarity of the design: balanced elevations, thoughtful drawer sizing, and long horizontal lines that ground the space.
The floating shelf
crafted from reclaimed wood, holds drawings, notes, and materials during construction, quietly reflecting the hands-on collaboration behind the scenes. Even in progress, it hints at the warmth, texture, and lived-in quality the finished kitchen was designed to have.
Crafting the Focal Points
The custom hood became a defining architectural element early on allowing the home to touch base with its Chalet identity. A key architectural shift followed in the decision to raise and subtly slope the ceiling. By reshaping the roof plane, we were able to introduce additional light and create a more expansive, gracious sense of volume. This move also allowed for a deliberate layout of recessed can lighting, using the same shape and scale found throughout the rest of the home. The lighting strategy was not simply functional, but intentional, embracing continuity and echoing the way historic European Chalet mountain homes thoughtfully integrate modern kitchens within centuries-old architecture.
In progress, the hood’s form reads almost sculptural, paired with a reclaimed wood beam that brings warmth and texture to the composition. Even before finishes were complete, it established a clear visual hierarchy, anchoring the room and setting the tone for the kitchen as a whole.
Why the Middle Matters
Progress photos tell the story clients rarely see but designers value deeply. This is where proportions are tested, details refined, and the architecture reveals whether the design decisions truly work together.
By the time the final materials were installed, the kitchen already felt resolved, because the groundwork had been done thoughtfully and intentionally.
The result is not just a finished kitchen, but a space shaped by process, patience, and respect for how people live within it.
Custom beam straps designed and fabricated to thoughtfully conceal the required structural hardware.
Working closely with Henry Means, the original utilitarian elements were reimagined as refined architectural details, balancing structural integrity with visual restraint. The result is a solution that feels intentional and cohesive, allowing the beam to read as a design feature rather than a compromise.
“We had the great pleasure of working with Corinne Brown and Zee McCoy of Brown Design Group. The transformation they brought to our home was nothing short of extraordinary. They turned our 1980s kitchen into a bright, elegant space with high ceilings, beautiful custom cabinetry, and thoughtfully chosen hardware and other details. The layout flows effortlessly—every detail feels intentional and inviting. Our kitchen is now the place to gather in our home!
Our master bathroom and bedroom underwent a similar transformation. What was once dated and uninspiring are now spaces that feel like a special retreat. The wallpaper and tile work are stunning. The lighting strikes the perfect balance between warm and modern.We couldn’t be happier with the results—and we can’t recommend the Brown Design Group highly enough.” Jay Conger
A Kitchen Designed to Be Lived In
With the final pieces in place, the kitchen settles comfortably into the home, open, inviting, and ready for everyday life. The island becomes a natural gathering point, where meals are shared, conversations unfold, and the rhythm of daily routines takes shape. Thoughtfully layered lighting balances function and warmth, shifting easily from task-focused mornings to relaxed evenings.
Turning Our Attention to the PRIMATY Bathroom
With the kitchen reimagined as the heart of the home, our focus shifted to the Primary Bathroom, spaces equally essential to daily life, yet often overlooked in how they support comfort, flow, and routine. The original bathroom reflected an earlier era of the home: compartmentalized layouts, heavy finishes, and limited light. While functional, they no longer aligned with how the homeowners lived or how the rest of the house was evolving.
These original spaces presented an opportunity to rethink proportion, circulation, and atmosphere, to bring the same level of clarity, warmth, and intention found in the kitchen into more private, restorative rooms.
Before:
As construction moved forward, the bathroom began to reveal their new identity through material and form. These progress moments capture the careful layering of texture and pattern, graphic tile layouts tested in real time, stone selections grounded against clean architectural lines, and surfaces balanced to feel both refined and relaxed. Natural light from existing windows was treated as a guiding element, shaping how finishes were selected and where visual moments would land.
Even mid-construction, the space began to shift from utilitarian rooms to places of retreat. These photos reflect the quiet but critical stage where decisions are confirmed, proportions are refined, and the design starts to feel real, long before the final fixtures and styling complete the story.
Take a Walk Through the Finished Bathroom
To fully experience the transformation, we invite you to watch a short walkthrough of the finished bathroom. The video captures how light moves through the space, how materials interact, and how the room feels once complete, details that are often best understood in motion. From the layered tilework to the quiet moments of texture and contrast, this walkthrough offers a closer look at the design choices that shaped the final result.
Ready to Reimagine Your Kitchen or Bathroom?
A successful remodel begins with listening, understanding how you live, what isn’t working, and what your home has the potential to become. Whether you’re considering a full transformation or refining existing spaces, our team approaches every kitchen and bathroom remodel with clarity, craftsmanship, and intention.
If you’re ready to reimagine the spaces you use every day, we’d love to start the conversation. Reach out to Brown Design Group to explore how thoughtful design can elevate both function and feeling, and begin shaping a home that truly supports the way you live.
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Thank you for reading, and we look forward to bringing your vision to life,