Tiffany and Nate Mueller first met in an art class at St. Cloud State University in St. Cloud, Minnesota. After graduation, Tiffany went to work as a graphic designer, while Nate focused on UX design. So when the couple was ready to buy a house, they knew exactly what they were looking for.
“We have always loved midcentury architecture, especially the California-style, Palm Springs vibe,” says Tiffany. “It’s rare to find that kind of house in Minnesota.” But she and Nate weren’t going to stop until they fulfilled their retro dream. When Tiffany came across a listing for a home built in 1964, it didn’t matter that the listing didn't provide photos. She did a Google Street View search to see a fuzzy image of the building’s exterior and immediately knew that they wanted it.
The Muellers moved in four years ago and have been renovating—and documenting the process on their blog, Hello Refuge —ever since. Their warm, wood-clad kitchen, which marries the couple’s taste for period decor with sleek, contemporary details, was finished in 2018. Here’s how they created their perfect kitchen.
Tiffany and Nate removed many of the existing upper cabinets to make a clean, open space with a single floating shelf.
Kitchen location : On a wooded lot in Edina, Minnesota, the Muellers's classic midcentury home is just 15 minutes from downtown Minneapolis.
The "before": “It had the perfect bones and the previous owners hadn’t really done anything to it, which was ideal because we wanted it to be as original as it could be. It didn’t have any bad ’80s renovations,” says Tiffany. Nevertheless, run-down, moldy cabinets had to be replaced and poorly placed appliances needed rearranging. Plus, the beautiful hutch that divided the kitchen and the living room proved to be inconvenient, as it closed off the space and thwarted communication from room to room.
