Olive + Baxter

08/31/2026

✨ NAPERVILLE KITCHEN REVEAL! ✨

I’m so excited to share this recently completed Naperville kitchen remodel! There are simply too many beautiful details to choose just a few photos, so enjoy this full project reveal. 🤍

This transformation was about so much more than updating a kitchen. We removed the wall separating the dining room and kitchen and completely reimagined the space, creating one large, open kitchen designed for cooking, entertaining, gathering, and everyday family life.

One of my favorite things about this kitchen is the different zones we created — including a dedicated drink station and baking area — so several people can use the kitchen comfortably at the same time.

For the cabinetry, we mixed a beautiful warm wood tone with a soft, linen-inspired ivory, giving the room warmth and contrast without feeling heavy. And the tile work is absolutely one of the stars of this project! We combined classic subway tile with a gorgeous herringbone pattern to create texture, movement, and just the right amount of drama.

And that island! ❤️ It’s truly the heart of the kitchen — plenty of room for pasta making, Christmas cookies, homework, morning coffee, or gathering around with family and friends.

I couldn’t be happier with how this project came together. Our Olive + Baxter team did an incredible job bringing every detail to life, and most importantly, our clients are thrilled with their new kitchen.

This is what I love about remodeling: taking the space a family already has and finding a way to make it work beautifully for the way they actually live.

Olive + Baxter
Interior Design + Remodeling

📍 535 S. Washington St., Suite 7, Naperville, IL

📞 630-519-6277

🌿 oliveandbaxter.com

Concept to completion. One team. Everything handled.

08/19/2026

If You Want a New Kitchen by Thanksgiving, We Need to Talk Now

Every year around the second week of August, the phone starts ringing with a version of the same question: can we have a new kitchen by the holidays? Sometimes the answer is yes. Often it is yes, but only if we start immediately. And occasionally — usually in October — the honest answer is that we would be doing you a disservice to promise it. The difference almost never comes down to how fast anyone swings a hammer. It comes down to lead times on things that are ordered, not built, and to how quickly decisions get made in the first three weeks.

Ordered in spring, hosting by fall

Appliance placement drives the cabinet order
The Real Timeline
For a full kitchen renovation — new cabinetry, new counters, new tile, updated lighting and electrical — plan on four to six months from first design meeting to final walkthrough. Roughly three to five weeks of that is design and selections. Cabinetry, once ordered, typically takes eight to twelve weeks to arrive. Demolition through substantial completion is usually five to eight weeks on site. Those phases overlap less than people expect, because almost nothing can be ordered until the design is locked, and very little can be installed until the cabinets are standing.
Count backward from the fourth Thursday in November and the math gets clear fast. A project starting design in mid-August is comfortable. One starting in mid-September is tight but workable. One starting in October is a spring project that will be beautiful in March.
What Actually Causes Delays
Three things, almost every time. The first is cabinetry lead time, which is a manufacturing queue you enter the day you approve the order — not the day you decide you want new cabinets. The second is stone. Countertops cannot be templated until the cabinets are installed and level, and fabrication runs one to three weeks after templating. That gap is real, it is unavoidable, and it is why we install a temporary work surface rather than pretend it does not exist. The third is appliances, which have become the most unpredictable variable of all. A single back-ordered range can hold a project hostage, because the surrounding cabinetry was built to its dimensions.
Notice that none of those are labor. Crews are schedulable. Supply chains are not.

Full bloc link ……https://oliveandbaxter.com/blog/kitchen-remodel-timeline-holiday-deadline

Candy Brock Kloster
Olive + Baxter

08/11/2026

Beyond White: Why We Keep Painting Vanities Navy, Green, and Olive

We have made the case before that plain white is the wrong choice for your walls. The same argument applies, with more force, to cabinetry — and the bathroom vanity is where we make it most often. A vanity is a contained piece of joinery, usually under eight feet wide, surrounded by hard surfaces that are already neutral. It is the single best place in a house to commit to a color, because the commitment is small, reversible, and disproportionately effective.

Why the Vanity Is the Safest Risk in the House
Consider what surrounds it. The counter is stone. The floor is tile. The walls are painted, the mirror is glass, the fixtures are metal. Everything else in a bathroom is already doing a neutral, textural job — which means a colored vanity has no competition and nothing to clash with. Compare that to a kitchen, where a bold cabinet color has to survive alongside a backsplash, appliances, an island, and an adjoining room. In a bathroom, the vanity is the room's only piece of furniture. Let it be furniture.
It is also, practically speaking, the most changeable permanent element you own. Cabinet doors can be sprayed a different color in a weekend, years from now, without touching the tile or the plumbing.

Olive + Baxter

For the full blog follow link to our website.

A vanity is the lowest-risk place in your house to use real color — small enough to change, permanent enough to matter. Here's how navy, green, and olive behave in a bathroom, and what to pair them with.

08/07/2026

The Hardest-Working Six Feet in Your House: Designing a Mudroom Drop Zone

Every home has a drop zone. The only question is whether it's designed — or whether it's the kitchen counter, the stair landing, and the floor just inside the garage door. By late July, most families are feeling it: pool bags and sunscreen are still in full rotation while the first back-to-school lists are already arriving. It's exactly the moment to give all of that stuff a real home. A well-designed mudroom doesn't need much square footage; six linear feet of smart cabinetry can absorb an astonishing amount of daily life. Here's how we design them.

Read full blog …. The Hardest-Working Six Feet in Your House: Designing a Mudroom Drop Zone | Olive + Baxter

08/04/2026

Tile work in a bathroom makeover.

08/03/2026

Why Choose Olive + Baxter for Your Kitchen or Bath Remodel?

Your kitchen and bathroom are some of the most used spaces in your home, so why not make them exactly what you want? At Olive + Baxter, we specialize in kitchen and bath remodels, bringing function, style, and quality craftsmanship to every project. With a designer on staff to guide your selections and a team of licensed and insured professionals, we’re committed to making your dream space a reality—efficiently, safely, and beautifully.

Let’s bring your vision to life! Call us today at 630-519-6277 for a consultation. Trust Olive + Baxter for a remodel done right.

05/07/2026

Introducing the Spring/Summer 2026 Paint Collection

follow link to my website and take a peek at the 2026 spring collection of paints!!!!

Nine new colors from Olive + Baxter for the season ahead — warm, quiet, and a little bit romantic. Meet Absinthe Dreams, Lovers Sage, Sacred Hour, and the rest of the palette.

04/08/2026

Bring Home More Than Memories: Why I Buy Art, Textiles, and Pottery While Traveling

As an interior designer, I have always believed that a home should tell your story. One of my favorite ways to make a home feel personal, warm, and layered is by bringing back meaningful pieces from my travels. When I vacation, I love to shop for art from local artisans, beautiful textiles, handmade pottery, and special decorative pieces that can live in a home for years to come.

Anyone can come home with a T-shirt or a trinket, but I think there is something much more lasting and beautiful about choosing pieces that bring pleasure every single day. A hand-thrown bowl from a small pottery shop, a woven pillow from a local market, a painting from an artist you met in person, or a beautiful textile made in a region known for its craft can become part of the soul of your home.

These pieces do more than decorate a shelf or fill a wall. They hold memory. Every time you walk past them, you remember where you were, how you felt, and the experience of discovering them. That is what makes a home feel collected rather than decorated. It gives your space depth, character, and meaning.

I often encourage clients to think this way. Your home does not have to be filled with expensive things to feel special. It should be filled with things you love. Local artisan pieces often have a richness and authenticity that mass-produced accessories simply cannot match. Handmade pottery has texture and charm. Textiles add softness, color, and history. Original art gives a room personality. These are the pieces that start conversations and stay with you for years.

From a designer’s point of view, these finds are also wonderful because they help create a layered, timeless home. A vintage textile can soften a modern room. Handmade pottery can bring warmth to a kitchen. A small painting from a trip can become the perfect finishing touch in a hallway, bedroom, or bookshelf. Even one meaningful piece can change the feeling of a room.

Travel shopping also slows us down in the best way. Instead of buying just to fill space, we choose with intention. We look for beauty, craftsmanship, and connection. That kind of decorating never goes out of style.

So the next time you travel, consider bringing home something that will become part of your everyday life. Look for the local artist, the handmade bowl, the woven fabric, or the little piece of art that makes your heart happy. Years from now, it may still be one of your favorite things in your home.

That is the beauty of decorating with memories. You are not just filling a room. You are creating a life that feels personal, meaningful, and beautifully yours.

Olive + Baxter
535 S. Washington St, Suite 7
Naperville, Illinois
630-519-6277
oliveandbaxter.com