Before & After: the “3-4-5” Decorating Rule That Transforms This Dark Kitchen
In case you haven’t heard, it’s the summer of stripes, and striped decor can continue into September, October, and beyond. Renter, DIYer, and decorator Nancy Cavaliere (@casacavaliere) gave her NYC kitchen a serious case of the stripes in her kitchen upgrade, and the result is maximalist and fabulous.
“Over the years, I have really streamlined my personal style and what I want my home to look [and] feel like,” Nancy says. “I love layered, colorful interiors with a fun mix of period styles and patterns — and my kitchen just did not reflect that.” Nancy did several DIY projects to add a bit more color and whimsy.
White peel-and-stick replaces the brown tile from before.
Nancy has wallpapered many rooms in her house and has done several other DIYs, but “the peel-and-stick tile was a first,” she explains. “I can’t believe how easy it was! I did watch a couple of videos on TikTok to get some pointers on how to install, but the directions were also very helpful.”
The project cost her about $200 and made a big improvement.
Painted stripes were a cheap alternative to wallpaper.
As mentioned above, Nancy loves wallpaper, but in order to wallpaper the kitchen, she would have to skim-coat the walls, and that simply wasn’t in the budget (or schedule).
“We had to get crafty,” she says.“I knew I wanted a pattern as a base for all my art and the other fabrics I planned to use in the room, and what’s more classic than a stripe? I knew we could get the look without breaking the bank by using painter’s tape and paint, and I wanted a punchy color to contrast with my yellow pagoda cabinet.”
She and her husband, Alex, used about $200 worth of paint (Behr’s Shamrock Green and Benjamin Moore’s Chantilly Lace) and painter’s tape to create the pattern.
Nancy’s stripes are part of what she calls the “3-4-5 Method,” something that might appeal to all the maximalists and eclectics out there. In her spaces, she likes three patterns, four interior design eras or styles represented, and five colors.
Two sewing projects added big style.
Nancy calls her sink skirt, made in part to cover up unsightly, water-damaged cabinets, “inexpensive and really cute,” and a “lazy girl DIY.”
“I don’t know how to sew so I pretty much just used Fabri-Tac fabric glue to put it all together,” she says, and she found her Lee Jofa fabric at a fabric warehouse for $5 a yard.
“I put a strip of Velcro all across the top of the cabinets from left to right under the countertop edge so I could attach the skirt,” she explains. “I added a strip of Velcro to the top of my sink skirt so I could easily attach it to the Velcro on the cabinet. The best part about this is that it’s removable; if you get it stained, you can just remove it and throw it in the wash.”
She used even more discounted Lee Jofa fabric to create DIY Roman shades. “I used aluminum corded blinds as my base, cut out most of the slats, and only left 6 slats for each blind.” She glued fabric over top of those blinds and played with the cords to get the folds where she wanted. “It’s not the best, but it looks really good considering it only cost a few dollars, and I did it myself,” she says. “A professional one would be hundreds.”
The room is complete with vintage finds.
Nancy was pretty thrifty throughout the entire kitchen makeover; all of her furniture and artwork is thrifted or vintage. (Pretty much the only new things are the yellow shades on the sconces.)
“I love the lamp on the countertop — best $15 thrift find ever!” she says. But technically, she loves “EVERYTHING about the after!” she says. She gives credit to her friend Rafael (@thebeauideal), a vintage shop owner, for helping her make decor selections, too.
“I love how the stripes came out,” she adds. “I love how the art pops against them. I love all my art and how it’s layered, and collected, and it doesn’t look styled like Pinterest but like somebody actually lives here and picked this up because they love it … I love that everything feels brighter, and fun, and functional and very much just feels like me. And I love that my family loves it as much as I do.”
Inspired? Submit your own project here.
This post originally appeared on Apartment Therapy. See it there: This NYC Kitchen Makeover Follows the “3-4-5” Decorating Method (It’s Perfect for Maximalists!)
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