Bloomfield Hills, Michigan | Family Kitchen Remodel
The Project
This Bloomfield Hills, Michigan kitchen remodel was thoughtfully designed to create more room for real life — for toddler footsteps, weeknight chaos, quiet mornings, and spontaneous kitchen dance parties. As a women-owned design-build firm serving Oakland County, we reimagined the layout to open the space for a busy family of four, improving flow, functionality, and connection.
The renovation features warm wood cabinetry, soft stone countertops with subtle veining, and personalized details like curated art and vinyl accents. By combining custom kitchen design with expert craftsmanship, this remodel balances modern aesthetics with everyday livability — creating a space that feels both elevated and deeply personal.
The Design
The existing kitchen layout wasn't working for how this family actually lived. Traffic flow, counter space, and the relationship between the kitchen and adjacent living areas all needed rethinking. We opened the floor plan, repositioned the island to improve movement through the space, and created clear sightlines that allow parents to stay connected to the rest of the home while cooking.
The result is a kitchen that accommodates the beautiful chaos of a busy family without feeling cramped or cluttered — a space that works as hard at 7am on a school day as it does on a slow Sunday morning.
Warm Wood Cabinetry
The cabinetry is the soul of this kitchen. We specified a warm, straight-grain white oak in a natural finish — chosen specifically for its ability to bring softness and organic warmth into a space that could have easily skewed cold with marble and stainless alone. The wood grain runs vertically on the upper cabinets and horizontally on the lowers, creating a subtle visual rhythm that feels intentional without being obvious.
Floor-to-ceiling cabinetry on the refrigerator wall maximizes storage while creating a clean, furniture-like quality that elevates the whole room. Open shelving sections break up the run and give the family space to display the art, books, and objects that make the kitchen feel like theirs.
Stone Countertops & Surface Selections
The countertops are a soft white marble with subtle warm veining — chosen to complement the wood tones without competing with them. The veining is gentle enough to feel quiet and calm while still providing the visual depth that a solid surface never could.
The backsplash behind the range continues the marble in a full slab application, creating a seamless, uninterrupted surface that's both practical and beautiful. No grout lines to interrupt the eye — just the natural movement of the stone.
The Details That Make It Personal
The best kitchens aren't just well-designed — they're specific. This one has a vintage art print leaning against the open shelving. A turntable on the counter. Protea stems in a dark ceramic vase. A bread board left out because bread actually gets made here. These aren't styling props — they're evidence of a real family living fully in a space that was designed to hold them.
This is what we design toward at Costello & Co: not a kitchen that photographs well, but a kitchen that lives well.
The Result
A Bloomfield Hills kitchen that finally matches the life being lived in it. Warm without being heavy. Elevated without being precious. Open enough for a family of four to move through together, and detailed enough to feel like it was made specifically for this household — because it was.
Project Details
Location: Bloomfield Hills, Michigan
Project Type: Full Kitchen Remodel / Layout Redesign
Style: Modern Warm / Contemporary Family
Key Features: White oak cabinetry, marble countertops and backsplash, open shelving, island repositioning, floor-to-ceiling storage wall, brass fixtures and pot filler, personalized styling details
Services: Kitchen Remodeling, Layout Redesign, Custom Cabinetry, Design-Build Family: Family of four with young children
Photography: Shelby Dubin Photography
Materials & Finishes
Every material selection in this Bloomfield Hills kitchen was made with durability and daily life in mind — because a kitchen with toddlers needs to be as functional as it is beautiful.
White Oak Cabinetry — natural finish, straight grain, no stain. Oak was chosen over painted cabinetry specifically because it hides the inevitable daily wear of a family kitchen more gracefully. Fingerprints, light scuffs, and the passage of time make natural wood more beautiful — not less.
Marble Countertops — a soft white marble with warm undertones and gentle veining. Sealed and maintained properly, marble in a family kitchen is absolutely livable. It develops character over time in a way that engineered quartz never does.
Full Slab Backsplash — continuing the countertop marble up the wall behind the range eliminates the grout maintenance of a tile backsplash in the highest-use zone of the kitchen. Practical and stunning.
Brass Fixtures & Pot Filler — unlacquered brass develops a natural patina that deepens over time, staying warm and evolving with the kitchen rather than looking the same as the day it was installed.
Designing for Real Family Life
One of the most common things we hear from Oakland County families with young children is that their kitchen doesn't work — not because it's ugly, but because it wasn't designed for how a real family actually moves through a day.
The morning rush. The after-school snack. The homework spread across the island while dinner gets made. The need to see into the living room while you're at the stove.
These aren't design afterthoughts. They're the brief. And designing toward them — toward the actual life of the family who will live in the space — is what produces a kitchen that works for years, not just for the listing photos.
This Bloomfield Hills kitchen was designed from that starting point. Every layout decision, every storage solution, every material choice was made with a family of four in mind. The result is a kitchen that's elevated enough to feel special and durable enough to be used hard.