A Playful, Pink Kitchen in a Seaport Condo

An added perk of the Venetian plaster on the island? “It’s very forgiving and will hide any scuffs and scrapes from your feet on the barstools,” Austin says. / Photo by Sean Litchfield

When a stylish Manhattan couple was looking for a change, they decided to pack their bags and relocate to a condominium in the Seaport. To help them settle into their new home, they enlisted Boston-based designer Dane Austin and asked him to create a playful space inspired by fashion and art. “We wanted a kitchen that spoke to both sophistication and fun—a place equally befitting of salon talk over cocktails and late-night laughs over Uber Eats junk food,” the husband explains.

The first step in renovating the 200-square-foot space? Landing on a color palette. “I said, ‘Everybody does gray. It’s very trendy and I’m not one to follow trends,’” Austin recalls. “I just thought, ‘Let’s do something a little bit more unexpected.’” For that element of surprise, Austin selected Benjamin Moore’s “Paisley Pink” for the walls and paired the hue with a graphic Carrara-marble-and-ceramic backsplash, white quartz countertops, and ceruse oak cabinets. “What I liked so much about [the cabinetry] is that it references the lighter, brighter kitchens that are very much in vogue without being the plain old white,” he explains. “I see white as a blank canvas.”

Next, Austin turned his attention to the center of the room. To inject the space with a harmonious splash of color, he called upon Pauline Curtiss of Patina to cover the island’s drywall in a tinted Venetian plaster. Above it, Austin hung a pair of mint-and-cherry-red cage pendant lights from Roll & Hill, which complement the green-and-red palette within the husband’s office as well as the accent colors featured in a painting in the dining room. “It’s all sort of referencing each other and playing off each other,” the designer says.

Austin painted the front door of the condominium in a bright navy hue to create a “sense of entry,” he says. “It sort of grounds that area and adds gravitas to the space.” / Photo by Sean Litchfield

DETAILS

Appliances Refrigerator, dishwasher, and range, all Bosch.
Countertops Quartz, Caesarstone.

CONTRACTORS

Cabinetry Ray Hachey
Contractor Metric Corporation
Interior Designer Dane Austin Design

The island separates the cooking zone from the entertaining zone, which extends to a dining table just beyond the kitchen.

See the rest of the Kitchens Guide 2019.