Green with Envy

BY KERRIE KENNEDY PHOTOGRAPH BY LIFE AND LENS PHOTOGRAPHY Interior designer Chad Esslinger injects a bit of nature into a Downers Grove kitchen

PHOTOGRAPH BY PICTURE PERFECT PHOTOGRAPHY

When interior designer Chad E s s l i n g e r , owner of Chad E s s l i n g e r Design, was approached by a Downers Grove homeowner to rescue her kitchen from the 1990s, he knew immediately what was needed. “The kitchen was pretty small and cramped and outdated as far as finishes go—a lot of brown woods, beiges and dark counter-tops,” Esslinger recalls. “It was also closed off from the rest of the house and not really functional.” The goal? To lighten, brighten, update, and create a flow that worked for this busy family of five.

Located in a Georgian style home on a col-de-sac in the north part of Downers Grove, the scope of the project also included a powder room update and a redo on the front entryway staircase. But Esslinger set his sights on the kitchen first, chiefly its cabinets. “The cabinets were in really good shape and top quality cabinets, so I didn’t want to have to rip them out,” he says. Like all good designers, Esslinger knows that paint can transform just about anything, and these dark outdated cabinets were no exception. The homeowner felt white would be too boring, so Esslinger started to experiment with grays, until he remembered the homeowner mentioned that she liked the color green. While green may not be the first color that comes to mind when painting cabinetry, Esslinger, who’s appeared on HGTV’s House Hunters Renovation, decided to give it a whirl.

“Initially we looked at lighter grayer greens, but then decided to go a little bolder, live with it throughout the day and see how it felt,” he recalls. “Very quickly we realized that there was no other choice than Rainy Afternoon, a Benjamin Moore color that feels new and trendy but also classic. It’s a color that’s found in nature, and it went well with the knotted wood finishes we had

planned to incorporate.”

The unique color allowed Esslinger to integrate some new cabinetry as well. “Since the new cabinets were painted the same color, it all worked together,” he says. After removing the kitchen table (“it didn’t make sense to have a kitchen table and an island within a few feet of each other,” he says), Esslinger used the found space to incorporate pantry storage, as well as a microwave and coffee station. That helped to make up for the wall of cabinets they decided to remove next to the range and hood. “It just felt too cramped,” he says. In their place, Esslinger put up floating rustic wood shelves set off by brass sconce lights from Restoration Hardware. “I’m always a big fan of opening things up and putting in shelving to showcase décor,” he says. “It was a nice way to open up the space, and it gave us the opportunity to create a custom built hood.” ■