AN ARRANGED MARRIAGE

Whether through color artistry, feng shui or a fortunate fusion of the two, the small kitchen combines green, orange, purple and red in a harmonious whole. While Lynne White chose most of the colors for their meaning, she picked the "sunflower" stain on the maple cabinets because she liked its name.

SPACE & SYMBOL HAPPILY UNITE, ON A BUDGET

A DECADE AGO, the "relationship corner" of Lynne White's dingy, unfinished kitchen was sadly neglected. Even though White had begun to study the Chinese practice of feng shui, she hadn't applied its room-arranging principles to the shabby kitchen in her Phinney Ridge home. When White's son went off to college, she pretty much stopped cooking and ignored the tiny, dismal room altogether.

Then a roommate moved in, bringing with her pots, pans, flowers and plants, and White let her take over the kitchen. The roommate installed one of those plastic dolls used for yoga or acupuncture on her desk, which just happened to sit in the neglected relationship corner. "It brings good energy no matter who in the house does the feng shui," explains White, a realtor who now teaches classes in the ancient practice of arranging spaces to harmonize them with spiritual forces.

White hung her newly acquired painting by an Argentine artist in the home’s "relationship corner" to inspire dancing. In the Chinese practice of feng shui, the woman’s red dress connotes romance, and the soft green of the sun room walls and furniture is the color of healing.

A mere month after the doll had taken up residence, the long-divorced White met her fiance, Matt Kearney, and started cooking again. As their first joint venture, the couple undertook remodeling the kitchen into a bright, airy space filled with plenty of positive feng shui. Now White is amazed that she lived with a kitchen she describes as "a dinky little hole" for nearly 20 years. The cabinets and doors were layered in peeling, singed wallpaper, and what is now the adjacent sun room was a rickety enclosed porch. White and Kearney began ripping off the wallpaper and "just started pulling down walls," and for the first time she got an idea of how open and light-filled the space could be.

The new "heart of the house" kitchen and sun room used to be a dingy, isolated little kitchen and enclosed porch. After a budget remodel, the checkerboard linoleum floor and lively color palette unite the two into one warm and welcoming space.

Though they started the project with a little home demolition, White was savvy enough to call in experts to get the job done right. While the under-$40,000 budget remained the bottom line, she hired contractor Victoria Holland and consulted artist and colorist Jenny Beedon Snow on the unusually lively and varied color scheme. "I just kept using my words over and over," says White of the way she described her wishes to the two women. "Whimsical, fun, exciting, playful and bright," became the mantra as the trio chose green tile, Creamsicle-colored checkerboard floors and an eggplant-purple wall. The hand-blown hanging lamps over the island are in scrumptious shades of lemon, lime and mango, and all is enlivened with touches of brilliant red in art and tiles.

Handmade green glass tiles are inlaid with touches of romantic red above the cooktop. The spiral motif in the center of the tiles is symbolic of the cycle of life, and is repeated in the cupboard handles and garden pathway. Handblown Italian lamps in subtle shades of lemon, lime and mango reflect the kitchen’s spirited color scheme while illuminating the island and adding visual separation between kitchen and sun room.

While the daring palette lends distinction, warmth and surprising harmony to the small space, White chose colors for meaning before looks. The cream and orange of the floor represent both new beginnings and playfulness, its colors kept shiny bright with a professional biannual stripping and waxing. In feng shui, the green of the backsplash, countertop and sun room walls is a healing color, and the bravado purple wall signals prosperity and self power. Because glass is symbolic of reflectiveness, White had the green tile crafted by Whidbey glass artist Meredith MacLeod of Cultus Bay Glass.

White applied feng shui concepts not only to colors but to shapes and finances. The tile over the stove features a spiral, as does the cabinetry hardware. The spiral symbol is repeated in the garden to represent the cycle of life; it's also an Irish motif reflective of both White's and Kearney's ancestry.

Rather than installing a straight-sided island between the sun room and the kitchen, White chose a piece sinuously shaped to look like floating, free-standing furniture, even though it is built-in. The curved corners allow the chi, or energy, to flow freely. White saved money by using a minimal amount of cabinetry because feng shui advocates simplicity. "If something doesn't fit into a drawer, we find something to get rid of," she explains. Other cost-savers are the mossy-green laminate countertops, classed up by the glass tile backsplash, and the old-fashioned linoleum floor, a cheery, glossy focal point in both kitchen and sun room.

The view deck off the sun room is connected to the garden below by potted plantings and a staircase.

The transformation of White's kitchen has leaked into her life, shifting her focus and professional emphasis. As a real-estate agent for many years, White passed through a great many homes, absorbing and reflecting on the varying energy patterns she observed. Studying feng shui taught her about those energies and how to direct them with intention. The remodel of her kitchen gave her confidence to plunge into rehabbing houses. These days, White spends her time teaching feng shui to other realtors, consulting with clients and restoring houses as well as selling them.

What was once a walled-in covered porch is now an airy sun room opening to a view of Green Lake and the Cascade Mountains. Lynne White and fiance Matthew Kearney enjoy meals outdoors on the deck, where a staircase leads to the garden below.

White is also taking care to nurture that newly renovated relationship corner in her kitchen, adding accents of red for romance. On a recent trip to Mexico, she and Kearney bought a painting of a dancing couple to create the intention of doing a little more dancing in their own lives. The checkerboard floor in the painting reminds White of her boldly patterned floor, and the woman is wearing — what else? — a bright red dress.

Valerie Easton is a Seattle free-lance writer and contributing editor for Horticulture magazine. Her e-mail address is valeaston@comcast.net. Barry Wong is a Pacific Northwest magazine staff photographer.