Hey everyone! I’m Cassandra LaValle, founder of Coco Kelley – a lifestyle blog and housewares shop, and I’m an Interior & Prop Stylist in Seattle. I’ve had my blog since 2007 which makes me old school around these parts. It also means that I’ve actually known Emily since we were both starting out in this industry! It’s been nothing short of amazing to watch her grow this community, and I couldn’t be more thrilled to be here today to share the reveal of my most recent home project – a total renovation of our basement kitchen into what I’ve dubbed our Garden Suite and Cellar Kitchen. Sounds fancy huh? Well, it didn’t start out that way.
When I first moved into the house owned by my then-boyfriend, now-husband, I had mixed emotions about the whole thing. I had never owned a home, and as a decorator, I was so excited to be able to put my touch on everything. I was also, however, slightly disappointed that I wouldn’t be going through the process of actually choosing my first home. (Now, with the real estate market being what it is I couldn’t be more grateful to be spared that adventure!)
One of the things that I despised the most about the house was the basement. Not just the fact that it was an old, musty-smelling, poorly remodeled basement, but the fact that it had cold, saltillo tile covering every surface (not just the floors, but the window sills and stairs!) was baffling. A 1920s brick craftsman home in Seattle, with saltillo tile floors? This made NO sense in my design brain.
So when we finally decided to tackle the basement renovation in the fall of 2020, I was ecstatic. I was finally pulling out those tiles. And then… I started designing. And budgeting. And realized that maybe… just maybe… they weren’t so bad after all?
I debated. Yes, terracotta floors are having a moment, but would I like them in another year or two? On the other hand, not tearing them out would save us so much money. What if we painted them? Finally, after several Instagram polls and walking a few design friends through the space, I made a decision. The floors would stay.
It’s amazing what can happen when you embrace a design element that you may have seen as a challenge or eyesore and work with it instead of against it. In this case? It became one of my very favorite parts of our entire basement kitchen remodel.
Once I knew what I’d be working with, I decided that the entire basement would have a Mediterranean vibe. I’m Italian by heritage and I began to imagine the space as an homage to my grandparent’s basement. A true cellar kitchen!
Before I start designing, I always think about the function of the space. Seeing as this was a secondary kitchen, it was almost more important to consider its use. Connected to our backyard, its ultimate purpose would be as a garden kitchen. A place we could easily duck in and out of while planting, harvesting and processing flowers and veggies from our garden. It would also serve as a guest suite when friends and family came to visit, and – ultimately – a space that we could rent as an apartment down the road. I wanted it to feel welcome and charming, like a true vacation for guests, while keeping things classic enough that we could rent it out in the future. It may sound like a tall order, but really, all of these elements felt cohesive and easy to me because they are already such a part of who I am and how I design.
Now, let’s break these design decisions and materials down, shall we??
First off, the cabinetry. To keep things budget-friendly, even though we gutted the entire room, the layout stayed exactly the same. I love having the sink right below the window, and by opting for floating shelves along that wall instead of cabinetry, the space immediately felt lighter and larger. Plus, they provide a fun place for me to style – always a bonus.
Wooden Accordion Reg Rail | Strawberry Terracotta Pot (similar) | Dutch Door (custom) | Brass Door Handle | Brass Dead Bolt
Rather than continue the cabinets on the opposite wall from the sink, I opted to use a storage piece I already had, and I love the way the oak brings an additional material into the space. A vintage bench and some storage for garden hats complete that little ‘entry’ moment.
Brass Mister (similar) | Cabinets | Pulls | Sconce
I worked with Master Brand Cabinets Diamond line, choosing the Liberty style. The beadboard ties so well with the age of the house and brings the European look I was going for. Choosing the paint color was hugely important because – as some of you may know from experience – when you have a floor (or wall) with such a strong tone (terra cotta) it will reflect in the colors around it. One surefire way to tone this down is to choose the color opposite on the color wheel. So in this case red/green. That’s how I landed on the ‘Limestone’ option for our finish. It has a subtle green undertone that I knew would balance the terra cotta floors perfectly!
Refridgerator | Stove | Hood
Opting for smaller appliances appropriate to the scale of the room also helped immensely in opening up the space, as does the white finish! When considering stainless steel, my concern was that it would feel like a wall of gray with the cabinetry, and nobody in Seattle needs more gray – especially in a dark basement! The white finish with the brass handles is perfection and I was even happier with that choice when I saw it all come together. As a total stroke of design luck, the white also brought in that freshness I needed to create a more Mediterranean vibe, which I hadn’t even considered.
Woven Sconce | Faucet | Blue Lamp
Kitchen Towel (unavailable)
Speaking of brass – one of the details I had the most fun with was mixing my metal finishes, which is something I’ve not done much of elsewhere in the house. On the main floor we have a lot of brass (you can see the main kitchen here for reference!), so I continued that finish downstairs in the lighting fixtures, selecting a polished nickel finish for hardware and plumbing fixtures. I’ve always found this is a great way to figure out how to mix your metals, by assigning finishes to categories for consistency. The gorgeous faucet and classic pulls from Rejuvenation blend nicely with the cabinet color which was intentional as I wanted them to be more subtle, less statement. I’m secretly hoping they’ll patina a bit too! We also used Rejuvenation for the custom dutch door hardware, and it’s such an elevated moment.
Countertops | Dutch Door Latch
As for surfaces, I had seen Caesarstone Cloudburst Concrete countertops at a friend’s home about a year prior to our renovation and instantly fell in love with the finish. So much so that I didn’t even consider other options, which is very unlike me! I love how visually soft it is in the space, while offering the durability of quartz.
For tile, I opted for a fun accent color in the backsplash behind the range, choosing not to wrap it around into the walls for two reasons. 1) It feels a bit more old-world to have tile just over the stove and 2) I love color but not that much color. We used Fireclay Tile in their brick style, which has a nice organic feel to it. I chose San Gabriel, which I happen to think might be the most perfect blue/green tile ever.
Last but not least – the question everyone always asks – what color are the walls!? After many swatches (why is white SO hard?) we landed on “Marshmallow” by Sherwin-Williams for every room in the basement. It’s a super lovely soft white with a warmer undertone. I learned very quickly that in a basement there’s almost no such thing as too bright a white, but you definitely don’t want it to feel cold. This one strikes the perfect balance for me. I almost painted a green trim around the window and doors to match the backsplash, but panicked at the last minute (gah! color!) and decided to go with ‘Extra White’ which is a pretty standard trim color.
One place I did insert a lot more color was in all the accessories! It’s definitely my style to choose neutrals for the large items in a room, and top everything off with items that I can easily switch out if I get tired of the palette. It was important to me to use a lot of vintage elements in styling the open shelving as a way to bring some old-world style into the space. I pulled most of the pieces from my own shop, and it’s been fun to rotate through items and restyle the shelves as I find new treasures, since I’m always hunting! There are a few items, however, that are more permanent, like that perfect art piece. We also stock the shelves with more practical glassware and coffee mugs when visitors come. I guess that’s the perk of open shelving – it’s easy to switch up!
Overall, this space has become as beautiful as it is functional for us in so many ways!! Our guests and families have been loving it too. And – yes – I’m still SO glad that we kept the tile floors. They’re easy to clean (while hiding dirt trekked in from the garden!), they lend a lot of character to the space, and – as we most recently discovered – they keep the basement very cool during the craziest of heatwaves!
And there you have it!! Every major decision made about this renovation in the most condensed format I could possibly muster. If you’re interested in more info on any of these topics specifically, you can find all of my more in-depth design posts on my blog, and I’ll happily answer questions in the comments too! Thanks Emily & Team for having me share this joyful space with you!!
*Design by Cassandra LaValle
**Photos by Ellie Lillstrom
I’m so glad you kept the floors! They’re beautiful!
The garden kitchen looks great.
Emily – are you aware how hard it is to read your wonderful blog? The ads are every few sentences within the content, and make it quite confusing and not enjoyable to read. I read a lot of blogs, none of which have this, so could you please investigate? It reads like an advertisement blog with some content around the ads. Would be hugely helpful if the ads could be at the sides and not within the articles 👍🥺
I love my ad blocker, I read on my laptop. I haven’t figured out how to make the ads stop on my phone, but I prefer the larger format to see all the photos anyways.
I read the blog on my phone with feedly — no ads at all!
I second this. I never swipe up from Instagram anymore. The blog is almost unreadable on mobile, unfortunately. I usually pause my adblocker on sites I visit over and over (like this one!), but ads are so poorly integrated here that I don’t.
I think people have been mentioning this for years, to no avail. I suggest installing an ad blocker and reading on a laptop or desktop. Much better experience.
Same here. I have a couple ad-blocking extensions and use Firefox. I have it set up to pause everthing on whitelisted sites, which used to include *this* site. But the way it works is just so awful, I don’t know who is doing Emily’s site but they are not using the latest lean and clean scripts or best practices for how to integrate everything. I’m not a programmer, but my husband is and he works on custom sites for businesses – he has shown me what kinds of improvements have come over the years and examples of good vs. bad site designs. This site, without ad-blockers, is about 4 years behind where it should be. I make sure to click links to still contribute to revenue on every article I read, but I’m sure it doesn’t make up all the difference and I do wish I could whitelist this site again.
please share how to block the moving ads! I can’t read when they continue to flash and have to hold up something to block them on my desktop!
Really have to agree with this. I feel like I spend half my time trying to get videos to shut down or the entry pop up to go away (can there be a feature that after you’ve clicked out of it 100 times you don’t have to do it anymore?), and the ad banners are a LOT. The content is good, but it’s getting to be like trying to watch old-school TV in between commercial breaks around here. I have big love for this team and complete respect for the work and the business imperative, but it would help the reader experience a lot to pare back.
This is a business, and the reason we can all enjoy this free content is partly because of the ads. It’s the internet, they are everywhere. Deal with them if you want to enjoy this amazing content they provide to us every single day. It really isn’t that hard to close a video or scroll past an ad if it doesn’t interest you.
care to share how to do this on a mac desktop in firefox because the flashing ads makes it impossible for me top read this blog!
Oh man I thought it’s the only one. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve swiped up to read a blog post and then just given up since the text is blocked by all the ads. I love Emily’s blog, but it’s gotten so frustrating to have to fight the ads to read the content. I still keep doing it, because I love the content, but I do wish the experience was a little welcoming for us readers.
I have the same experience and on my older ipad, the number of ads seems to crash the page as I scroll down. The minute I visit each page on this site, I reflexively close down as many ads as I can, particularly the bottom one and the video. It’s automatic now. That usually helps me get to the end of each article but sometimes it reloads so many times I just give up. I rarely experience this on other sites.
I just do “Reader View” in Safari and it makes it just the text and the pictures meant to be on the article! It’s awesome.
Such a pretty space; so glad the tiles were spared! Personal preference, but I adore Saltillos; there’s rarely a place I don’t love them; I’ve even seen them in historic New England homes and been enamored (weird, I know).
I’d love to hear some color experts weigh in here. This article mentions something completely at odds with my understanding of color theory: that if you’re trying to tone down a color…e.g., orange floors, you should choose a color (or undertone) ADJACENT on the color wheel; anything opposite will highlight the orange. Indeed (at least to my eye) the pops of blue and green accent/highlight the orange (in a good way IMO). I think the cabinet color is neutral enough to not affect the color much either way, but I think I might have gone with a shade a touch warmer hoping for a little less contrast with the floors. Do I completely misunderstand how color works? Should I go back to elementary school? All serious questions, as I try to choose a cabinet color that plays down my very orange Douglas Fir floors!
Yeah, you have a little bit of a misunderstanding of color theory in practice going on here.
Choosing a gray with greener undertones helps keep the floors from bouncing orange all over the room. Think of it like that concealer trick that went around a few years ago – adding a greenish tinted concealer to hide redness; adding an orange/red tinted one to hide green/blue under the eyes. Same concept!
Using stronger versions of these colors creates a complimentary color scheme (when two colors are across from each other on the color wheel), which can highlight both, as you noted with regards to the tile and other accent pieces. But she’s talking about undertones here, so in practice that’s a bit different.
Analogous color schemes are when colors are next to each other, and that could really warm up this whole room and feel very “HI! I’M ORANGE!” in this space.
Hope this helps a bit 🙂
Re: color theory, colors opposite each other on the color wheel do contrast. However, when you mix them together (think red paint plus green paint) it creates a form of brown, neutralizing the intensity of the color. In a subtle form, it’s the reflection of light onto the Saltillo tile that would cast a red/orange glow onto the cabinets here, therefore choosing a slight green undertone would keep the cabinets feeling neutral, instead of going red/orange during the day. The same is true if you have a bunch of trees outside a window and get a lot of light— the green cast from the trees comes inside during the day and totally shifts the colors in the space— more dramatic if you’ve got a forest lifestyle.
I think the problem with the colors of the tiles and cabinets are that they are not the same undertones/overtones for warm/cool, and (!) they do not appear to be any of the usual pleasing contrasting, complementary, split complementary, or analogous color combos (at least in the pics we got). Therefore the floor tiles and cabinets clash.
There’s also a lot going on with the colors of the woods (shelves, bookcases, door) that also are not harmonious with the floors or cabinets.
I think the oven backsplash is my favorite part. It’s a gorgeous remodel. I think they were off on the cabinet color. It looks like a pale gray which clashes with the brown floor. A pale sage green maybe would have complemented the floors better.
Sage green would be so good in there!
The range hood should have been incorporated into an overhead cupboard. It’s looks like a beacon which detracts from the lovely tiles.
…..and lose the lamp on the bench. Who has a lamp on their kitchen bench?! Styling too hard.
I actually wish we could have gone a bit more sage green in here – that was part of the original plan! But, we had set colors to choose from with the cabinetry, and the only green they had was way too dark for this space!. This color was the next best option.
Lovely kitchen, and I really like the Saltillo tiles, so I’m glad you kept them.
Thank you so much Susan!
I love this kitchen so much! It’s neutral without being boring, especially with the pops of bright blue. That woven pendant is perfection.
Thank you Erin! The pendant is one of my favorite accents, for sure!
It looks nice and fresh! I wasn’t realizing how gray it is (at least that’s how it looks to me on screen) until I saw the side-by-side with the old kitchen.
Your pendant light above the sink is perfect for your space! I love the mix of textures this pendant brings. How do you choose the perfect smaller scale pendant light for above a kitchen sink? I’m stumped!! Thank you.
I’m so glad you kept the Saltillos – they gave your design a wonderful jumping off point, and I love where you ended up. I do have to laugh a little at the appliances being described as “smaller” – they are unequivocally full size appliances, maybe not the largest you can get but quite standard, and that’s fine!
I know! I have never had anything larger than a 30″ range, not growing up, not as a renter, and not now as a homeowner. Emily’s recent post about whether she could have a “small” range was still so much larger than I’ve ever had.
Thanks BW! Ha – that’s a fair point! They are definitely still full size standard appliances, but both were a *bit* smaller than the appliances that were previously in the space, which made a huge difference – to me anyway!
Ah, that makes a little more sense! Thanks for clarifying.
Our living room, kitchen and kitchen cabinets (!) were originally paneled in a beautiful, high quality but super dated vertical wood paneling. We had always planned to keep the paneling in the living room, but when we redid the kitchen I decided at the last minute to return the tile and keep the paneling behind new cabinets. It was the best decision! One of my favorite elements now and really gives it old-world charm. (we painted it the wall color though).
I’m here to say kudos to whomever installed the baseboard under the cabinets. There looks to be a significant challenge with the level of the floor and the installer did a wonderful job cutting and installing the baseboard to follow along the level changes. Most would not care enough to do that and would hope you didn’t notice. Great job!
wow, good eye. that is very impressive!
I am bothered by the extra piece of trim at the ceiling in the corner by the light over the sink. Is it to carry the eye around the corner? But then it just ends. Maybe I’m missing something (or I love symmetry too much)
Hi Amanda! That piece had to be placed there as it’s covering a spot where the main water line bumps out into the space *just* enough that we couldnt do much about it. This was the solution we came up with. Good eye!!
Cris, I LOVE this comment! Our contractor has one of the best trim guys I have ever seen. He works magic in our very wonky, uneven old house. I’m going to absolutely pass this on to him – he’ll be so proud!
Love the woven sconce and the floors! How practical, esp coming in from the garden all the time. it’s beautiful, and I’m sure guests love staying there.
Great post. This is exactly how I’m approaching my kitchen renovation and I really love the idea of embracing a design element you’ve previously seen as a challenge. End result of your reno is really lovely. Oddly enough, I’ve got bamboo floors but have been really researching Saltillo terracotta because I think it better suits the Spanish mission vibe of my 70s house (with its arches that everybody else hates and wants me to square off and which I love). So I’m definitely a fan. PS Also like the dress!
I also was wondering about the dress. May have to do a reverse image search!
Thanks to you both! The dress is from Koo de Ker!
Wow this is so gorgeous, love the floor tiles, love the whole thing! Stunning!
Dying over that mini green coffee pot. Does anyone know the maker?
The metal plate on the front says “Amaste”.
Would you mind mentioning where the dish towel is from?
It seems ironic that with all of the posts about “scallops” over the past 6 (12?) months, that this blog post eliminated the scallops! Yes, it looks different than the “before”. I truly hope the home owner likes it and that it meets their needs. To me, the “after” looks like it’s trailing the trends with chunky above the counter shelves (instead of cabinets) and brass everywhere and painted cabinets. I don’t know anybody in my life who wants less cabinets (i.e. closed) storage in the kitchen and more open shelves (i.e. less storage) in the kitchen. If I wanted to update this space on a budget, I would have gone after the ugly grout on the walls and floors – changing, dyeing, bleaching, etc. would have really helped it. Maybe updated the cabinet hardware (the layout of shelves/cabinets looked good!) or maybe changing out the doors for a shaker style door. I’m not a fan of scallops per se but in this space it felt authentic and charming in an old school way. Maybe an updated paint scheme and change out to the white appliances (like they did). Somehow the warm floor tiles and cabinet colors just feel clashing.… Read more »
My understanding is that it is a second kitchen, in the basement for guests, and for doing extra work, marinating, not heating up the entire house in the hot months. The update makes sense. There’s no need for additional storage because maun kitchen would contain everything else. Choice of cabinents is based on budget. Old kitchen was too worn perhaps to do anything else. I like the transformation.
The poster said it was “a space that we could rent as an apartment down the road.”
A renter won’t be thinking “oh well, there’s a better kitchen upstairs (that we have no access to) so this is OK”.
IMHO, there was nothing wrong with the cabinets. They could have freshened it up with new hardware or color. Either on the walls/cabinets/grout. They could also have only changed out the doors and not the boxes/drawers/configurations.
It’s OK that you like it. I don’t. Differences make the world go round.
I love the look of open shelves and they seem to let in a lot more light than wall cabinets, which is why I assume others like them but I’ve rented two houses with open shelves in the kitchen and on a practical note, things get dusty VERY quickly. If you’re in a humid climate (hello Sydney!), they also can get a bit grimy and sort of sticky. It’s a pain washing everything before you use it. I think this every time I see them on the Internet.
Thanks anon! The cabinets in the basement were beyond repair, the plumbing was old and needed replacing, and the wiring needed updating – hence the full gut of everything! I’d never pull out perfectly good cabinets if we didn’t have to! As for the floating shelves, not having closed cabinets there really helped open the space up and we balanced that by bringing in the furniture cabinet, which actually has MORE storage! Anyways, I totally understand that not every design will be someone’s cup of tea! Just thought I’d clarify some of the decisions made. There’s a lot more info on the process on my blog if you’re interested! Thanks!
Thanks for that additional info. I haven’t made it over to your blog yet. I do hope you like your space as you redid it.
FYI: Refrigerator or fridge for short. Sorry but I’ve seen this misspelled a few times on your blog.
I don’t understand why they don’t hire an editor. It makes the whole blog seem unprofessional and way less credible. I understand no one is perfect and mistakes slip through but that’s what the squiggly red lines under words are for!
yay for keeping the floors! i have brown tiles in our entryway of our new house and i’ve been wanting to replace since i saw them. this makes me pause and consider keeping them….. maybe.
love that woven sconce and the blue lamp! and that dutch door!
So I’ll be honest–I feel like the elements of the space work better than everything all together. At least in the photos, the cabinets don’t really work with the tiles (both because of the color and because of the beadboard). And while I love the tile over the stove on its own, it looks weird with the cabinets and the floor–oddly, I think it might have worked better with the floor if it covered more space, but just as an accent, it’s a little strange. I also don’t get mediterranean from this at all. But that said, I totally embrace the spirit of the post and actually kind of love it–it really is the case that everyone has things that they hate in their space and everyone has to figure out what to do with them. And I also like, frankly, how this just doesn’t have that professional/everything looks perfect vibe. It has a homey spirit and a certain degree of personality that is too often missing in this perfect instagram world we live in.
Annie – funny enough I kind of agree with you on all of this! It’s a bit of a hodgepodge, and I worried about the tiles and the cabinets not really ‘making sense’ together, but I really went with what I loved in this space instead of worrying too much about matchy matchy, and I sort of adore how it all came together! It feels a little more like it was built over time vs all at once, and I really like that aspect of it. Thank you!
I had the same feeling when I first saw the finished kitchen but the more I looked at the details and materials I liked how they DO work together and achieve a homey European vibe. I think I would like to see the trim painted in a blue-green color as you mentioned which would help tie the tile and accessories in a little more but otherwise it’s really great. Thanks for sharing.
Cassandra, I was so happy to see your content here as I also follow you!! Nice work on your basement. And you make a great case for living with things that you want to replace, because you may find that they are perfect there in the space!!
Oh my goodness, I am so excited to see white appliances! I am sick to the point of death (a little hyperbole) of stainless steel appliances. We had that same frig in stainless steel (because we were selling) and it required an enormous amount of care and specific cleaning techniques.
When we sold, I loved having our home staged, it looked so great.
We are currently remodeling a somewhat Spanish style home and everyone wants us to ditch the arches! I love the arches. And I want to find a stager to help me arrange stuff.
I’ve got a somewhat Spanish house with arches too, that everyone thinks I should square off. I love them too – there is no way I’d get rid of them. It’s mystifying to me why people say that.
This is so cute! Can I ask where you got those two smaller bowls on the counter? I just want to eat lunch salads out of those.
HI Lyndsee! They are vintage!!
Hello. Just wondering if those little rounded things that you have on the wall are extractor/ventilation fans? Looking for something nice and chic to compliment my kitchen without looking ugly. Thanks.
Hi, I think you may be referring to the sconces above the floating shelves! They are alabaster, so have a unique look to them! Not fancy fans, although they would certainly be chic ones!
So glad you kept the tiles! Classic Euro looking.
I don’t really like the choice of colour for the cabinets…it is at odds with the rest of the room. Aqua would’ve been better, IMHO.
Love the woven light and the split door- the tiles are gorgie too! Here’s my predicament- a late 90s kitchen with brown brown brown! Brown granite, brown and cream backsplash and wooden cabinets- none damaged or in need of replacement but how do you design around an overall look without spending a fortune changing everything! I can’t bring myself to paint the wood cabinets🤪
I love the story of the floors and how you overcame and kept them! We had them in one of our flips homes, and I loved them, but just not in the space and the direction we went and had to remove them. They are the perfect backdrop to your european cellar kitchen! It’s all just preference, but I would have liked a warmer color cabinet to go to the warm floors. I also like monochromatic scenes and I’m not getting the opposite color theory vibes through the pictures. I’m sure it looks amazing in person and I would love to be your guest! I love the white appliances and styling with color on the open shelves!
Beautiful kitchen. The beadboard cabinets especially caught my eye. I am in the process of designing a section of my kitchen to match an already existing section with well-made cabinets that have beadboard fronts. My original plan was to do an IKEA kitchen, with nicer fronts that we can paint and also have the beadboard style. I saw this post and. am going to check out Diamond Cabinetry because they look great. But I am curious how they would compare. Is the quality similar, or any main deciding factors between the two if anyone has considered both as DIY kitchen renovation options?