Easy Being Green

By Lisa Arnett
February 2026 View more Home

This home’s architectural features and woodsy setting inspired its kitchen remodel

When you’re friends with an interior designer and your kitchen needs a revamp, patience pays off. Just ask Downers Grove resident April Katsafanas, a longtime friend of Christie Hines of Christie Hines Designs in La Grange. “I had been asking her if she had any openings, and at the time she did not…until eventually she did, and we were so excited to get on her schedule,” Katsafanas says.

Katsafanas’s home was built in the early 1940s and designed by architect R. Harold Zook, known for his Cotswold-style cottages. “There are three [homes designed by him] in our neighborhood, and ours is probably the least Zook-looking home,” Katsafanas says. “He’s known for his undulating roofs, which we don’t have, but we do have a couple of his [signature] features, like the chevrons on our front door and garage doors.”

The home also has significant family history. “Both my parents grew up in Downers Grove, and my dad had a paper route through Denburn Woods, and he always said, ‘Someday that’s where I want to live,’ ” Katsafanas says. In 1987, his childhood dream came true when they purchased this home. After Katsafanas’s mother died in 2013, she and her husband, Nick, eventually decided to purchase it and live there with their twins, now juniors in high school.

Hines reimagined the kitchen with a new layout, and Warrenville-based Tite Construction handled the renovation. Now, it’s truly the heart of the home for their family. “It’s almost constant that we are all in there together,” Katsafanas says. “My husband is Greek, and his family loves food, so I feel like we use every inch of that kitchen. My daughter is a baker, so she uses it as much as my husband and I do. It’s warm and lovely and comfortable—it just makes me smile.”

1. (above) Inspired by the home’s forest-like surroundings and knotty pine woodwork, designer Christie Hines selected Benjamin Moore’s Backwoods, a warm forest green, for the custom cabinetry made by Bourbonnais-based Amish Custom Cabinets. For the countertops, they chose Taj Mahal quartzite from MSI Surfaces in Elk Grove Village. “We wanted to use real stone because we really wanted to embrace the natural environment,” Hines says. “We didn’t want to use anything manmade for the backsplash and countertop.” The stools are from Ballard Designs, and the lighting fixture is from Visual Comfort.

2. Though the original home was built in the ’40s, this part of the house was added by Katsafanas’s parents in the ’90s. “The original island was very dated looking and it was angled, with an old-school box TV in the base,” Hines says. “We squared it off and decided to make it deeper than what you would traditionally do, so you could have seating on each side of the island.”

3. “The area around the island is wider than standard, and it’s amazing,” Katsafanas says. “As a family, we are never really getting in each others’ way and we all feel so comfortable.” They also bid goodbye to the kitchen’s original small oven, which made entertaining a challenge. “Now we have a big range and a double oven and we love it,” Katsafanas says. A custom panel covers the refrigerator so it blends in with the rest of the cabinetry. Appliances are by Sub-Zero, Wolf, and Cove.

4. The kitchen’s custom hood was inspired by the chevron pattern on the home’s front door, a signature motif of architect R. Harold Zook. “We wanted to try to give a nod to the architect by making sure we incorporated that design element.”

5. A kitchen bar area features a copper sink and cabinetry with a wood-paneled backing that echoes the same chevron pattern as the hood and front door. “For hardware, we did a combination of different styles: pulls, knobs, and latches,” Hines says.

6. One non-negotiable was keeping the existing terracotta tile floors. “I wasn’t thrilled about that but our contractor said it was laid on top of a couple inches of concrete, and we’d have to bring in a jackhammer,” Katsafanas says. Hines wasn’t fazed. “I told April, ‘You know, terra cotta is wildly popular right now.’ I do a lot of old homes and I’ll often say to clients, ‘I don’t know if you should get rid of that. We can modernize it in other ways.’ ” she says.

Photos: Federica Ghidelli