Many designers and DIYers are inspired by faraway travel when it comes to designing the places near and dear to them. Photographer and artist Kara Harms incorporated Nordic influences from her summer in Copenhagen while reimagining her 1970s cabin in Arnold, California, especially its kitchen.
Kara was renovating the entire house, and while the kitchen layout was “fantastic” with views of the trees lining the property, it wasn’t working aesthetically for her and her husband, Robin.
“The kitchen itself, like most of the cabin, was seriously outdated. It looked like it hadn’t been touched in at least 20 years. The cabinets were a mess — mismatched on top and beat up on the bottom,” Kara explains. “Plus, the oven was ancient, and the flooring was drab. It definitely needed an upgrade, both in how it worked and how it looked.”
Even though Kara felt that the kitchen needed a facelift, she still wanted the space to honor the “mountain cabin charm.” Kara used Canva to create a mood board to imagine what her space would look like and pulled from her travels to bring a modern, whimsical vibe: A Copenhagen bakery inspired the green-and-white checkered floor, and the floral wallpaper is the same as that of a Quebec cafe she visited.