“Most of the homes are old with character, tree-lined beautiful wide streets,” interior designer Anja Michals says of Piedmont, California. “It is a beautiful classic place with character.” It’s where the Northern California designer’s recent remodel project was for a young family of five. “A young bustling family,” she adds. “When my clients purchased the house, they discovered this home had been owned by a similar family for 25 years. It had beautiful bones but was quite outdated. They wanted to put their spin on it and make it feel fresh.”
Anja was tasked with a complete kitchen remodel, as well as overhauling the powder room and adding a functioning bar off of the living room. They also entrusted her to update the lower level with new flooring, wallpaper, paint, lighting, and furniture. “We also gave new life to two fireplaces in different rooms, and added a banquet area in the kitchen,” she recalls.
The original kitchen felt very “cabinet heavy,” with a desk that didn’t add to the room’s function and a small island that didn’t feel like it was in the right place. “We created a 12-foot island with maximum storage and seating and faced it the other direction,” Anja tells us. “The most special part of this kitchen is the gorgeous Calacatta Monet marble—which we sourced from IRG and Benattar Marble fabricated. This marble is throughout the entire kitchen as well as the new fireplace we designed with a small lounge area off of the kitchen.”
For lighting, she added new Roll and Hill pendants, as well as sconce from Jessica Helgerson’s collection for the brand. The plumbing is Waterworks and the hardware is Pruskin. “I also love the niche across from the island with white oak paneling detail and a ceramic sconce from Natalie Page Studio,” Anja says. She also worked with a lot of favorite vendors, including Lawson-Fenning, Nickey Kehoe, Armadillo, Audo Copenhagen, Apparatus, Faithful Roots, Brendan Ravenhill, Serena Dugan, Zak + Fox, Lake August, and Zia Tile.
It took about a year from start to finish, with few hiccups. “The biggest surprise was that once we removed the upper cabinets on the left wall, we discovered a large pipe hanging from the ceiling connected to a bathroom on the second floor,” she recalls. “To solve this, I had an idea to wrap a white oak beam around the pipe that would run the entire wall. It ended up being an amazing architectural detail to add and tied in the white oak throughout the kitchen, and really warming up the space.”
The end result is classic California—it feels approachable and playful, but with a cool-factor infused in the details. “The clients love their kitchen,” Anja beams, “and cannot believe the before and after.”
Take a tour in the slideshow.
