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When Minneapolis designer Anne McDonald first met the homeowners of her latest project, she had a feeling it was going to be fun. “They were just super cool people,” she says. One look at their renovated kitchen, and you’ll see what she means. The young family had recently swapped New York City for Edina, Minnesota, moving into a 1960s split-level with plenty of potential but almost none of its original charm. A year in, they were ready to go all in on a gut renovation—handing McDonald the budget and full creative license, including permission to go bold with color.
New windows were a must, as was restoring the mid-century character that had been watered down over the years. But the most important request was less about materials and more about mood. “It’s more of a feeling of warmth,” McDonald explains. “Not so much warm colors or warm textiles. But how can you feel really taken care of and seen and cozy in a space?” Read on for the full transformation of a kitchen that delivers on all fronts.
Keep What Works
“The kitchen layout was the only thing to stay the same,” says McDonald. It’s something you rarely hear in a gut renovation. While the designer’s mantra is “anything is possible,” the flow just worked, save a sink location swap.
Rethink the Surrounding Spaces
McDonald’s focus turned to enhancing what was already there, like wrapping the vaulted ceiling and skylights in Douglas fir, extending the kitchen’s footprint to add storage, and reworking the adjacent rooms to improve the way they connect. Before, an oddly configured living room was open to the kitchen with the formal dining room around the corner. With the dining room so far away, the homeowners had to squeeze a tiny breakfast table into the kitchen for convenience.
Closing the dining room entrance and swapping the lounging and dining spaces were easy and impactful updates. A breakfast bar complete with a custom coffee cabinet, freezer and pantry pullout cabinet replaced the breakfast nook.
Find Your Balance
When it came to the budget, McDonald played the long game—splurging where it counted and saving where she could. Case in point: the three types of wood in the kitchen. The red oak floors? A save. She only replaced the planks that needed it, sticking with the one-and-a-half-inch boards that matched the home’s mid-century bones. The natural birch cabinetry? Another steal. “It’s actually one of the cheapest materials you can use on cabinetry,” she says. “It’s like a little secret superpower.” For McDonald, natural birch wins for its darker knots—details that feel richer and more interesting than the uniform look of plain-sawn or select birch. Then came the splurge: a ceiling clad in Douglas fir. “It’s not stained, just a natural finish. You get those little bits of blonde, but mostly it goes pretty amber,” she says. Worth it.
Let the Island Have Its Moment
The bigger balancing act? The design choices. Take the counters. The marble on the perimeter is different from the slabs on the island and coffee station—not because of cost, but because McDonald wanted a calmer L-shape and a show-stealing island. “I didn’t want too much vibration coming from the kitchen,” she says. “I wanted everything to flow, and then the island and breakfast bar have a little bit of a moment.”
That “moment” got a color boost with coral-painted cabinets—McDonald’s way of offsetting all the natural wood. Rather than cool things down, she doubled down on warmth. “For whatever reason, my brain was just like, let’s lean into it,” she recalls. The earthy marble grounds the space, while the coral reads as a surprise pop—barely visible unless you’re standing smack in the middle of the room. “It felt very psychedelic to me.”
Pick a Backsplash You’ll Still Love in 10 Years
To achieve a backsplash that was quiet, but not a “wallflower,” McDonald embraced a tonal checkerboard of zellige tiles. It’s a choice that might read as trendy to some, but is timeless to McDonald, who’s been wearing checkerboard Vans for years. “It was the right thing to do,” she says. “We knew right away.”
Future-Proof Your Space
Small refrigerators and cramped layouts have no place in an Anne McDonald–designed kitchen. “I have teens and a lot of my clients tend to be in their thirties, which sets up an interesting dynamic. I know what it’s like to have toddlers, but I’m also in teen mode,” she says. “I know how to future proof a kitchen for what life is like as the bodies get bigger and the appetites get bigger—before you’ve got six man-children coming over to raid your fridge.”
Add a Signature Feature
One thing McDonald will always try to work into a project? A custom feature tailored to the people who live there. It could be a smoothie bar, a coffee station—like in this kitchen—or even a fridge drawer stocked as a DIY lunch station so kids can make their own sandwiches. Little details, big impact.
McDonald’s parting advice: “If you are able to start from scratch, really go for it, because it can make a huge difference.”