Pink chic: Inside a retro-inspired kitchen remodel

There’s no other way to say it: Chantel Olson’s newly remodeled kitchen has her tickled pink.

Over the past seven months, Olson has transformed the kitchen of the house where she grew up and now lives with her husband, Jerime, and daughter Grace into a wonderland of pink midcentury chic.

She has taken her favorite color and splashed it over new cupboards and then added it judiciously as an accent color on items either new or gleefully discovered in antique and secondhand stores from Minneapolis to Kansas City.

And to celebrate the kitchen’s completion, Olson brought in good friend Karen Bankowski of Sunflower Photography to shoot a photo series that depicts a day in the life of a ’50s housewife. Olson has shared some of the photos on Facebook at Art Moms LLC. That’s the business she owns with her mother. For more than a dozen years, the two women, both artists, have hosted pop-up holiday shops for local makers around the Midwest. The next shop will open Nov. 11.

Preparing for that is keeping Olson busy but not too busy to enjoy her kitchen.

“I walk in here every morning to make my coffee, and it makes me over-the-moon happy,” she said. “It’s everything I envisioned when I started designing in March.”

Olson interviewed multiple contractors before beginning the renovation. When she told them of her plans for pink cabinets, if they reacted in obvious horror, she knew they would not be a match. When she told her plans to Vitaly Netesov of Quality Cabinets & More, he offered only support.

The request for pink was a first in his 22 years of full-time and part-time cabinetmaking, Netesov said. The closest he had ever come before was a woman who wanted a kitchen island in a cross between red and pink. But one thing he likes about his work, he said, is that no two projects are ever alike, and he was intrigued by the challenge.

“I thought, it’s just pink,” Netesov said. “It turned out great. She chose the hardware, and everything blends in together so good. I built floating shelves beside the fridge, and they’re a pink color too. She has other pink colors in her house, and that ties in so well. Everything is so beautiful and great.”

Olson’s family moved into the house located in the neighborhood between Lincoln High School and the Minnesota Avenue Hy-Vee when she was in third grade. When she and Jerime married 22 years ago, they bought the house from her parents.

Over the years, the kitchen cabinets went from a wood tone to “yellow and then a coral-y color and then white six years ago.” It was always the original kitchen, though, until contractors gutted it for the renovation.

Olson’s husband knows how much she loves pink — their front door is pink, after all. But even he asked her, “How are you not going to get sick of pink cupboards?” She replied, “Jerime, have I ever gotten sick of pink since you’ve known me?’

Pink, Olson said, is a versatile color.

“I love baby pink for decorating but also hot pink, depending on what you’re using it for,” she said. “I love baby pink for decorating. It’s just a soft color; it kind of fits with anything. You can put it with any color.”

Her home has pops of pink in every room, Olson said, with a living room in mustards, oranges and pink and an office in greens, white and pink. When she goes antiquing, she picks up anything pink and finds a place for it. She also is drawn to items such as vintage glass coffeepots.

In fact, decorating the kitchen with what she found on antiquing expeditions both near and far was Olson’s favorite part of the process. That’s why a pink rotary telephone sits on the kitchen counter.

“I knew I wanted one, but I couldn’t find it anywhere. I looked in Kansas City, Omaha and Minneapolis,” she said. “Then, I went to an antique store in Tea, and I literally squealed when I saw it.”

Her pink toaster came from Amazon, and she gave her toaster oven to her brother just so she could buy a new one in pink. When Olson couldn’t find one, she had it made.

Her mother created fake cotton candy out of batting, and Olson bought an artificial strawberry pink ice cream cone from a maker on Etsy.

Olson describes the artwork she and her mother create as “happy, whimsical and positive,” and she takes that attitude when decorating. “We tell people decorate with what makes you happy,” Olson said. “Take the rules, and throw them out. If it makes you smile, who cares if it doesn’t match your sofa.”

Her customers have followed the renovation on her Facebook business page and frequently asked for photos. That’s why she asked her friend Bankowski to shoot photos of the completed midcentury pink kitchen. It was her husband’s idea for her to dress up in ’50s style, complete with apron, and he agreed to play a role in the tableaux.

The completed photos tell a story, beginning with serving her husband just home from the office and ending with sitting on the floor in front of a sink full of bubbles, smoking a prop cigarette, drinking a Manhattan.

“Like a ’50s housewife, I’m done with this,” Olson said.

Why does that period intrigue her so? Olson can’t really answer that.

“It was such a cool decade, but if I was in the ’50s, I would have been playing poker and drinking whiskey with the men,” she said.

She also wanted the photos to show those who helped make her dream come true: Netesov and the plumbers, electricians and countertop-installers.

“All men, mind you, and they were so excited to see the finished product,” Olson said. “One of the electricians, a young boy in his early 20s, he was just astonished. ‘You have the cutest house. I can’t wait to see pictures.’ That was super cute coming from a boy.”

Editor’s note: Photographer Karen Bankowski’s last name was misspelled when the article was originally published.