Cypress Hills Kitchen Renovation: A Brooklyn Home Refresh

This Cypress Hills kitchen renovation changed a couple’s Brooklyn cookspace by centering the sink on the window and swapping yellow walls and a fruit-tile backsplash for layered grays and a marble-look quartz. It added an island to increase storage and return appliances previously kept in the living room to the kitchen. They also introduced a compact media station with a flatscreen TV for easy watching while cooking.

• Homeowners: Rosalind, a business analyst, and her husband, Lawrence, posted their kitchen project on Sweeten.
• Where: Cypress Hills, Brooklyn, New York.
• Primary renovation: They reworked the kitchen by centering the sink on the backyard window and replacing yellow walls, orange fruit-tile, and wood cabinets with a gray palette. The remodel also added new cabinetry, a quartz countertop with a marble look, a ceramic tile backsplash, and a farm sink. New floor tile and paint completed the finishes; a kitchen island added storage and brought appliances back from the living room into the cookspace.
• Homeowner’s quote: “The contractor was extremely patient with me as I mulled over some decisions and provided me with valid information to assist me in making my decision.”

Getting started with their Cypress Hills kitchen renovation

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Rosalind, a business analyst, and her husband, Lawrence, longed to return to Brooklyn after a decade in Long Island. In 2015, they decided to downsize and bought a 100-year-old house in the neighborhood of Cypress Hills. Over time, they renovated two bathrooms, the stairway, and a walk-in closet. Their goal was to give their outdated kitchen a media nook and more storage.

“The kitchen was last,” said Rosalind. It was functional, but didn’t suit Rosalind’s taste, and the floors were flimsy. “There were holes that had been roughly covered with other flooring,” she said. The limited cabinet space also meant storing larger kitchen equipment, like the slow cooker and cake mixer, in the living room. Rosalind cooks four to five times a week, so heading into the living room to get what she needed grew old, fast.

Once she posted her project on Sweeten—a free service matching homeowners with vetted general contractors—the couple’s Sweeten contractor worked fast and completed the job in five weeks. There were only two weeks where the kitchen couldn’t be used (Rosalind and Lawrence went out to eat a lot). While much of the layout stayed the same, Rosalind wanted to take advantage of the kitchen window that looked out over the backyard, so the kitchen sink was lined up with the window to make washing up more enjoyable. 

The wooden cabinets, yellow walls, and orange backsplash tiles—some with sketches of fruit on them—had to go. Instead, Rosalind went with a sleek gray palette with a quartz countertop that looked like marble. The different gray tones she picked meshed perfectly with the hues of gray, as well as sage, in other rooms on that floor of the house. 

To move the appliances from the living room and into their Brooklyn cook space, the couple added a kitchen island as part of their Cypress Hills kitchen remodel. It now doubles as both storage and as a gathering point when friends and family come over.

Entertainment while cooking with a kitchen media station

With plenty of time spent in the kitchen, Rosalind wanted some entertainment. “I like to watch TV while I cook,” she said. The solution: installing a “media station,” which included a 32-inch flatscreen.

Renovation materials

• Floor Tile: Lumber Liquidators
• Kitchen Cabinets: Sourced by contractor frosty white with PVC finish
• Cabinet Hardware: Cool Knobs and Pulls
• Countertops: Quartz Calacatta Gray
• Tile Backsplash: MSI Highland Park, Dove Gray ceramic tile
• Kitchen Sink: AJ Madison, stainless steel farm sink
• Appliances: Samsung fridge, dishwasher, and stove
• Bar Stools: Amisco Washington Swivel Counter Stool
• Paint: Benjamin Moore, Baltic Gray