Inspired by a beloved former home, this Old Southwest renovation layers sky-blue cabinetry, warm metallic accents, and tailored updates into a kitchen that feels timeless yet entirely personal.
Written by Stacey Manganelli / Photographed by Ashlee Glen
Sometimes history repeats itself in the best way possible, as with this dreamy blue kitchen. Sarah Blum has worked with Sean Doherty and Pitman Construction on multiple renovation projects over the years. Her most recent project, in Old Southwest, recreates a blue kitchen she enjoyed in another home.
The Love of Blue and First Kitchen
Blum first fell in love with blue paint as a little girl growing up in Atlanta, where her aunt’s porch ceiling was a calming shade of blue. That’s her earliest memory of being entranced by the color.
Blum revived this pleasant memory of blue when she updated and restored a 1910 farm in Charlottesville. The 200-acre farm property was perfect for her and her equestrian daughters, who could ride their horses right at home. However, the home hadn’t been used in more than 20 years and needed a new look.
When designing the kitchen in Charlottesville, Blum found a backsplash tile with blue in it and based the blue cabinet color off of the tiles, creating her first blue kitchen. Gazing at the cabinets was reminiscent of staring up at a blue sky, or porch ceiling, during childhood.
Updating This Kitchen
The Blums loved their blue Charlottesville kitchen so much that they knew they would recreate a blue kitchen somewhere else. They even bought their kitchen chairs years prior to renovating this kitchen to match the future cabinet color. “We bought the chairs knowing we’d eventually have another blue kitchen, so we’ve had them for a long time,” Blum explained.
Like the Charlottesville kitchen, Blum’s focus was on making everything “pretty and functional.” She chose marble for the island and had it honed, resulting in the soft look that she wanted.
Blum chose different backsplashes in the new kitchen and tweaked the shade of blue they had already used in Charlottesville for the cabinets.
While the home had a luxury Thermador oven, it was only semi-functional. Fixing it wasn’t an option, as the parts for repair are no longer made. This gave Blum the chance to buy an Aga oven with stainless steel and gold accents she knew she wanted. Then she color coordinated the rest of the kitchen.
The original farmhouse sink was cream colored, so she swapped it out for pure white. The polished gold coordinates with gold oven accents, the brushed gold feet of a planter that rests in the kitchen sink window and the sturdy gold wall hooks near the window seat.
Pampered Pups
Blum and the girls aren’t the only ones benefitting from the kitchen renovation. Their dogs are relaxing in style. Pitman Construction converted what was a regular window into a low window seat, and Blum placed dog beds on top for them.
For food and drink, the dogs saunter over to what was originally a space for an ice maker and mini fridge. Neither appliance was functional when Blum and the girls moved in, so they removed them and built the feeding area out of wood in its place. The dogs even have their own pot filler right there, as the space originally housed a sink.
Convenient, Cost-Effective, and Eco-Friendly Repainting
Blum made the decision to repaint rather than replace their cabinets out of convenience, not because of cost or environmental concerns. It’s easier to repaint cabinets than to rip them out and replace them.
But repainting existing cabinets rather than replacing is also an effective way to save money. While the exact savings vary, Marko Walters of LL Custom Coatings, who repainted the Blums’ cabinets, estimates the average homeowner will save 60 to 70% by repainting rather than replacing custom cabinetry.
Repainting cabinets, when done properly, yields more beautiful results than ever while also being more environmentally sound. The wood coating industry has advanced in recent years, and solvent-based coatings were outlawed because of health and environmental concerns.
Water-based coatings replaced them. These coatings don’t contain any volatile organic compounds, which are chemical compounds that evaporate into the air and cause pollution. The new coatings are also UV protected so that the paint color won’t fade and will stay true over time.
This superior product has opened up a whole new industry, as more people are choosing to apply industrial wood coating to their cabinets rather than replace them. Marko emphasizes the importance of using industrial wood coating, rather than regular house paint, if you want your cabinets to look professional.
Balancing Old and New
Blum also redid her downstairs bathroom off the kitchen in the spring of 2024. She’s kept the original shower intact, but the rest of the bathroom is updated.
Doherty paired whimsical elephant wallpaper with green paint for a festive feel. He painted the ceiling gold, updated the mirror, lighting and sink, and added a fun gold light switch plate.
The Blums also repainted the mantle of the living room when they moved in, and that was the first major blue thing in the home. An identical mantle is in the dining room, but Blum has kept that one in its original form for now, along with the rest of the brown wood of the home. She wants to honor the period of the house while also updating it to increase its beauty and value.
Blum’s other updates with Doherty include the following: removing the wallpaper in the foyer and painting the walls of the foyer and ceiling, painting the ceiling in the dining room and living room and hanging new light fixtures.
A Wish for History to Repeat Itself…Again
The blue kitchen in Roanoke isn’t the only thing that’s similar to the Blum’s Charlottesville property. The Charlottesville home was built in 1910, and this home was built in 1915, so their layout and “feel” are also similar. Blum immediately knew she loved the house as soon as she stepped into the foyer.
Blum hopes her daughters will feel the same way, and that history will repeat itself in ways other than home design and layout. The first time Blum entered this house, it “felt special” because she imagined it as a future family gathering space.
Blum dreams of her daughters bringing grandkids to the house. Blum grew up in Roanoke and was “so ready” to move back to the area when the girls went to college. While the girls mostly grew up in Charlottesville, Blum hopes they will feel as at home in Roanoke as she does as time goes on.
Trending and Classic
“I’ve been on a blue kick and here we are,” Blum said. I love color and I feel like blue is a classic way to incorporate color.” Design experts agree: Paired with neutrals, such as the white countertops, light blue is a classic color that has been accepted as a new neutral.
Blue kitchens also have trended on and off since the 1950s, and they have trended consistently in the 2020s. These trends suggest many other people might see history repeat itself in a blue kitchen of their own.
Meanwhile, the Blum’s kitchen is consequently both trending and classic, the best of both worlds.
The story above first appeared in our May/June 2026 issue.
