We are so pleased to welcome this weeks guest blogger, award winning kitchen and bath designer Susan Serra, of Susan Serra Associates.

I am honored to be a guest blogger for The Interior Revolution, and the area of design that I specialize in is kitchen design. I am especially excited to talk about greening one’s kitchen because there are just so many interesting and innovative ways to create a green kitchen. Today, I’d like to focus on the philosophy of reuse.

I have personal experience designing an entirely new kitchen with a (mostly) reuse philosophy. Reuse, to me, by definition, means thinking creatively, first and foremost. You tap into a part of your brain that may be programmed by default to “buy new”. That IS how most of us are programmed! You change that preprogrammed channel to “reuse”, you open yourself bit by bit to finding useful AND creative solutions for your kitchen design, and miraculously, the solutions appear!

Here is one of several interesting stories about reuse for my kitchen renovation. I purchased tiles for a room in our home, and unfortunately purchased too little square footage. The tiles sat in our garage for eight years! Suddenly, I realized that these tiles would become our countertop and part of our hood design! The tiles were heavily (but not rigidly) textured, and being an adventurous sort, I felt confident that a countertop does not ALWAYS need to be a smooth surface. I can report that (now having moved from that home last year) I LOVED the look of that countertop, and cleaning it, truly, was a non issue. Textured flooring tiles on the kitchen countertop? Why not? We also reused our cabinets and reconfigured most of the cabinetry into a new plan. We reused a sofa which was stored in an attic space over the garage and used it for seating in the breakfast area. THAT was the prized seating area for the family!

Reuse can be defined in so many ways. It can mean taking a fresh look at an object and redefining its use. This kitchen was a laboratory for me to experiment with new ideas and to give new life to older items. It was one of the most fun experiences that I have had designing a kitchen, as I took stock of my existing possessions and materials and visualized new, creative, purposes for them. Reuse does also not mean all or nothing! The cabinets that could not be designed into our new plan were used as storage elsewhere in the home or were donated. Too much or too little of something, whether fabric, salvaged tile or wood, lighting, etc. is not a negative…it’s the path to your own distinctive look, to new design opportunities. And, the kitchen was published!