Inspirations

Steal This Look: A Remodelista’s Minimalist Galley Kitchen in Brooklyn Heights

When my husband, Josh, and I moved to Brooklyn Heights a few years ago, we were lucky enough to find a parlor floor flat that hadn’t been updated for a couple of decades, so it was a blank slate. The kitchen in particular needed work, so we called on our friend Malachi Connolly, a New York/Cape Cod-based architect, preservationist, and longtime board member of the Cape Cod Modern House Trust to oversee the renovation. Here’s how to get the look:

Photography by Matthew Williams, with styling by Alexa Hotz, for Remodelista.

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Above: My inspiration for the kitchen was English couturier Anna Valentine’s London apartment, which we featured on Remodelista a couple of years ago (see Kitchen of the Week: A Culinary Space Inspired by a Painting).
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Above: We turned to Brooklyn-based Jeremy Pickett of Pickett Furniture (one of our earliest Remodelista advertisers, back in the late aughts) for the minimally detailed cabinets. The countertops are Carrara marble. (For countertop guidance, see our post Remodeling 101: The Difference Between Carrara, Calacatta, and Statuary Marble.) A repurposed florist vase holds stalks of garlic from the farmer’s market (I was inspired by David Tanis’ kitchen storage ideas).
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Above: I dithered on the kitchen pendant decision, so as a placeholder, we went with hardware store porcelain fixtures and decorative oversized Nostalgic Collection lightbulbs from Bulbrite, discovered at John Derian’s West Village shop.
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Above: The wall-mounted Chicago Kitchen Faucet with articulated spout is a model we’ve used before; it’s well priced, American made, and incredibly durable. We installed a dowel in the cabinet above the sink to hold paper towels. (See Aha! Hack: Tension Rod as Paper Towel Holder.)
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Above: We tucked a stacked Bosch washer/dryer behind a full-height door; instant laundry room.
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Above: We chose a Bertazzoni PRO304GASX Range for its good looks and relatively slim profile (compared to a Wolf or a Viking).