PublishedMar 30, 2022 1:02 AM EDT
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Domino Reno: Before + Afters, DIYs, and Advice From Pros Who Think Big
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Six years after moving into their Phoenix home, Sarahli Wilcox and her husband still hadn’t cracked the code on their dining room’s 15-foot ceilings. ‘Everything looked comically small,’ she says. The wall beside their table originally held a sideboard, but the far-too-tiny piece looked like it was waiting to be moved somewhere else rather than belonging to the room (plus it couldn’t stash all of Wilcox’s serveware). To properly fill and intentionally outfit the space, the couple had to think big—bar-cart/credenza/buffet-table-all-in-one big.
Thanks to the uneven length of that long wall (just under 9 feet), Wilcox faced an awkward cabinetry width. ‘I didn’t want it poking into the hallway,’ she says. So to keep things from encroaching, she spec’d one 36-inch, one 24-inch, and two 13-inch IKEA Sektion cabinet boxes. Tambour wood door fronts (deliberately different from the kitchen’s Shaker style) in a custom cherry oak stain make the separate pieces read as one long built-in. For counters, she picked a custom quartz slab that nearly matches the white walls for a seamless, borderline-invisible look.
Because she’s constantly scouring thrift stores and online marketplaces, Wilcox has amassed an alarmingly large vase collection. She needed somewhere to flaunt her treasures and keep cocktail glasses within arm’s reach, so she had a pair of 6-foot floating shelves built above the cabinetry. ‘I had to use the height and length of that wall, or the cabinets looked totally random,’ she explains. Custom shelves were eye-wateringly expensive, so building them herself let her save cash and match the stain exactly to the cabinet doors. For cleaner lines, she skipped brackets entirely, which also allowed for thicker planks and higher weight limits. (The ledges are held up by anchors drilled into the back of the beams—live a little.)
Wilcox was desperate to sneak a brass pot rail into the dining room—she’s always had a thing for the traditional English kitchen look. But everything online cost more than the entire renovation combined. Luckily she had a loophole: the rail didn’t need to hold heavy cookware—just the occasional mug or dried floral arrangement—so she could improvise. ‘I found hollow brass tubing on Amazon, plus the hooks, and it nailed the exact look,’ she explains. Better yet, installation—the rods hang from brass rings, another Amazon score—was a 30-minute breeze. Now Wilcox’s serving boards and napkins have a cozy home of their own.
Kate McGregor covers all things home, from design inspiration to IKEA hacks you didn’t know you needed. She was previously the market assistant at ELLE Decor, where she curated product for the print magazine’s market pages—and developed a very refined shopping habit.
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