A Kitchen Design with Functionality and Personality | Neil Kelly
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A Kitchen Design with Functionality and Personality

Last Updated November 24, 2025

Manchester Place Kitchen
Kitchen Projects Project Profiles

Portland Kitchen Remodel

This Sellwood kitchen remodeling project features bold colors and elegant materials.

Neil Kelly design consultant, Therese DuBravac, has a special passion for highly detailed kitchen and bath design. So, when Portland homeowners asked for a unique kitchen that was not the trendy grey or white palette, she was excited to have fun with color and details. The homeowners wanted a color palette that reflected their travels, materials that would reflect the passage of time through the aging process. Most importantly, the homeowners and Therese shared a passion, sense of humor and joy in the planning and considerations that went into this home remodel project. “This project brought together many interesting design elements,” shares DuBravac. “We designed it to be beautiful and functional – by creating kitchen zones that included prep, cooking and workspaces as well as entertaining and guest spaces. The homeowner’s warm, artistic and energetic personality comes through by incorporating their favorite color (turquoise) for the cabinet color, live brass finishes, a hand painted hood by a local artist, locally sourced madrone countertops and multicolored terra cotta tiles for the floor.”
This project brought together many interesting design elements. We designed it to be beautiful and functional. – Therese DuBravac
Design Objectives and Client Wish List     Together, Therese and her clients talked about their kitchen wish list and came up with the following.  Efficient Use of Space (Functionality)
  • Incorporate a non-functional nook area into useful space
  • Organize the kitchen into zones: baking, clean up, coffee station, guest seating and entertaining
  • Open kitchen to dining room but retain architectural character for home’s age
Unique Look and Feel (Personality)
  • Add rich and warm colors and material pallet (Turquoise is client’s favorite color)
  • Maintain lots of window daylight while maintaining backyard view.
  • Create a unique kitchen (not the typical grey or white) with materials that will age and reflect time.
  • Update appliances to match the updated style and offer high quality
Design Challenges From DuBravac, “This kitchen was long and narrow, which can be challenging for creating functional spaces without long distances in between. Our goal was to layout the kitchen for both day-to-day use and entertaining.”  Other challenges included opening the wall between the kitchen and dining room without diminishing storage; work around a stairwell that limited cabinet height in a portion of the kitchen, and selecting durable materials that would age and but hold up. Design Solutions “Seeing the remodeled kitchen after completion and how all the elements you worked so hard to get right come together is very exciting!” shares DuBravac. “We were able to come up with a design that created the client’s dream kitchen.”   Functional zones (but feels like one welcoming space)
  • Day-to-day use can be at the sink end and feel compact and very functional.
  • Entertaining: The peninsula end is the overflow area for multiple cooks or entertaining
 Opening the wall to the dining room and placing the seating area and peninsula just inside created a place for guests and allowed space for cabinets and windows. The partial stairwell encroaching on the kitchen is hidden behind a panel but still utilizes the area with extra storage space. Special features: Finishes such as live metal plumbing fixtures, locally sourced madrone wood countertops that would patina and age over time; cabinets that had some minor distressing and the multi-color terra cotta tile floor adds a warm, old world feel to ground the space. Thinking about a kitchen makeover? Get in touch with Neil Kelly today.

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