Kitchen & Bath Business - September 2017 - 56

Small Spaces

Kitchen with a Punch
A retired couple gets the space of their
dreams in a mobile home
WHEN A COUPLE DECIDED TO RELOCATE from
Iowa to California to retire, they were caught off
guard by the housing prices in sunny San Diego.
Their solution was to purchase a low-maintenance
mobile home in a trailer park to maximize their
money and do a full kitchen makeover.
"A mobile home in this area can run from
$300,000 to $500,000, and you own the land,"
said designer Barbara Preston, who was with
the Home Remodeling Center in San Marcos,
Calif., when she completed this project. "Investing $40,000 in a kitchen seemed like a reasonable
amount for the value of the home."

ABOVE Two other clients I was

working with saw a picture of
this kitchen and purchased
the same pendant lights; they
look spectacular but different
in each of the projects. The
perimeter cabinets are white to
keep the space light and bright.

BELOW Homeowners Rich and

Sus in their San Diego kitchen.

not include the appliances, but Preston, who is
now with Coles Fine Flooring Kitchen + Bath
Center in San Diego, did handle their installation.
To bring more light into the kitchen, the designer removed a small wall and installed bright
pendants over the island, which she says cast an
unexpected light show on the ceiling. Because
the wife is fond of glass figurines, Preston chose
a sparkly glass and stone backsplash, which was
another way to bounce light into the space.
The only challenge to the kitchen renovation
was fitting installers into the small space. This
added a week to the timeline, but once the space
was cleared it was less of an issue.
"We did a lot of cutting outside," explained
Preston, "and the installers were highly capable
and got along well."
CLIENT CARE

The designer and the homeowners worked easily
together; the wife suggested colors she was drawn to
and was delighted that Preston listened to her needs
and pulled together samples that expressed them.
"There is a cliché that Midwesterners have
friendly and easy-going personalities, and these
clients fit that mold," said the designer. "If the
wife was happy, the husband was happy, and it
was so fun to watch her light up when she liked
something. They said they tell each other every single day that they are happy they did their
kitchen exactly the way they did."


MAKING UPDATES & STAYING ON BUDGET

The main goals of the kitchen renovation were
to repaint the garish purple walls, eliminate the
awkward peninsula, open up the room to the
main living space and add tons of drawer space to
make everything easily accessible. Preston selected
moderately priced but well-made cabinetry that
didn't require a lot of modifications or customization and chose subtle colors to make it appear
more expensive than it was. She did splurge on a
large gray-painted island with ample seating and
a quartz countertop. The $40,000 price tag does

BY CHELSIE BUTLER

Kitchen & Bath Business / SEPTEMBER 2017 / KBBONLINE.COM / The official publication of KBIS (KBIS.com)

SOURCES
DESIGNER: Barbara
Preston, Coles Fine
Flooring Kitchen + Bath
Center; PHOTOGRAPHER:
Mark Krause
APPLIANCES: GE;

BACKSPLASH: Bedrosian;
CABINETS: US Cabinets;
COUNTERTOPS:

MS International;
FAUCET: Kohler;
FLOORING: Happy Floor;
HARDWARE: Amerock;
PENDANTS: Lamps Plus;
SINK: Schon

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Kitchen & Bath Business - September 2017

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