Cy Winship's kitchen confidential

Cy Winship is not a morning person. But he likes mornings a lot better now that he likes his kitchen.

The designer (www.cywinship.com), TV personality ("Decorating Cents") and style scout for Metro magazine had lived with a dark, outdated kitchen since buying his century-old Minneapolis house in 1997. He'd spruced it up with paint and new hardware, but not a full-scale makeover.

Frankly, the kitchen wasn't a high priority for Winship. "I'm not a cook," he said. "I make salads, ice cream and coffee." But his partner is an avid cook. So Winship finally put the kitchen on the front burner.

Going against the grain

Winship loves bold colors (his dining room is chartreuse, his living room tangerine), and he changes them every couple of years. He paints woodwork white, "so I can put colors around it." But he rewrote his playbook after spotting some sleek wood cabinets at Ikea. The Danish modern cabinets became the starting point for the design. "The grain of the wood dictated everything," he said. "They made me appreciate what lovely wood can feel like and do."

Color balance

Winship set off the warm brown of the cabinets with a palette of cool neutrals. "Usually, when people start with brown, they head to gold, but that makes it tired and '90s to me. Browns are prettier with soft whites and grays," he said. "They settle each other. It's more sophisticated." The pale gray countertops are concrete, with a bit of ground glass for shimmer. Porcelain tiles with a steel-wool texture, and a row of bubbled glass tiles in turquoise, gold and bronze add interest to an accent wall behind the new five-burner stove.

Winship also replaced the room's one 26-inch window with two 37-inch windows to bring light into the kitchen and open it to the garden. "I had no idea how this would change my day," he said. "To get up and have my cappuccino while watching the birds play in the fountain, with the sun coming up -- it makes a massive difference."

Tight budget

Winship was able to complete his kitchen makeover for about $30,000 by doing a lot of the work himself, including assembling the cabinets and all of the painting. Some of the materials that look expensive aren't, such as the faux marble backsplash. It's a porcelain tile, digitally "veined" to mimic Calcutta marble.

New attitude

Creating an understated, neutral space in his own home was a design stretch for Winship. "The subtlety of that room is its surprise. I'm not the most subtle person. But going subtle in here was smart." And the room has changed how he and his partner use the house. "We take a little longer making meals, and we actually eat in here. That's what [design] is all about -- things that bring you joy."