Design secrets revealed: How to Green a Kitchen

An interior design team from San Rafael, California, shares the secrets behind this spectacular remodel.

September/October 2007

By Carolyn Robbins

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We tore vegetable-dyed handmade paper into square and rectangle shapes and applied it to the face of this wall using a diluted, nontoxic wallpaper paste. We wanted to create a bark-style texture reminiscent of the old-growth oak trees outside the windows. We trimmed the windows and the tops of the cabinets with Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)-certified ash stained to look like redwood (to match the original ceiling beams). Using the stained wood on the top of the bamboo cabinets creates an illusion of space between the lighter bamboo and the dark wood beams.

Barbara Bourn

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Photography by Barbara Bourn

In remodeling this kitchen, our first consideration was how my design team, Carolyn Robbins Site Design (www.CarolynRobbinsDesign.com) along with Green Builders of Marin (www.GreenBuildersOfMarin.com), could work around the existing windows, plumbing and structural timber, which helped keep both resource consumption and cost lower.

Click here for an expanded view of this kitchen (downloadable PDF).

1 Comments

Penelope Peck 12/31/2007 12:00:00 AM

Love your magazine and would like to be able to make better use
of your web site. The full-age ad for your web site in the
January/February 2008 issue shows a Tip of the Day about creating a
great natural stone backsplash and says you'll tell me how -- but I
cannot find that tip of the day anywhere! I've searched on
backsplash, Tip of the Day -- kitchen remodels, etc. and came up
with nada. Can you please tell me where to find this how-to
article? Thank you!

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Design secrets revealed: How to Green a Kitchen

Photography by Barbara Bourn

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Design secrets revealed: How to Green a Kitchen

Photography by Barbara Bourn

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