A Work of Art All is cheery and bright in an illustrator’s Tampa, FL, kitchen

Adam and Melissa with their 6-month-old twins, Jonah and Ezra

every piece of artist Melissa Koby’s bold, colorful work features a sun. “It’s meant to be joyous and empowering,” she says. “Dark and moody is definitely not my vibe.” But when Melissa and her husband, Adam, first moved into their Tampa, FL, home, the kitchen was just that. “Honestly, it was a little depressing,” she says. The couple had been renting an apartment nearby, but with their careers taking off—Melissa was working on a line for World Market, and Adam, an emergency room doctor, had just finished his residency—they decided to invest in a bigger place. Their timing was impeccable. Two months after closing on the 1926 bungalow, Melissa found out she was pregnant with twins. She and Adam quickly hired their friend, designer Ann Cox, to update the space and infuse it with charm. They painted the lower cabinets blue because “I like having fun with color,” says Melissa, and they removed some of the uppers to open up the space. Then they swapped in lighter versions of pretty much everything else. “My art is an ode to hopefulness,” says Melissa. “Why should my home be any different?”

a blank canvas

The Kobys fully embraced white, in the form of matte white subway tiles from Glazzio Tiles on the backsplash and a white quartz counter. Ceiling Bright White on the walls and Pure White on the upper cabinets, both by Sherwin-Williams, let the family’s pottery collection take center stage.

natural accents

Light teak barstools from Four Hands match the reclaimed wood shelves Melissa found on Etsy. “We left the original dark wood floors throughout the house, but I wanted to mix in lighter shades,” she says.