How I Met My Mother-in-Law

When Maggie Cruz first met Daisy Macias, the young designer was dating Daisy’s son Alex. Then Daisy bought a Mediterranean-style house in Coral Gables, FL, and before long, Maggie was consulting on design decisions, including what to do with the basic kitchen.

They spent a year working on the space, and hit it off not only as designer and client, but also as friends. So when Alex proposed to Maggie toward the end of the reno, everyone was thrilled. “Not just because Maggie is a great person—it’s fun having a decorator in the family!” says Daisy.

Custom built-ins turned a narrow hall off the kitchen into a butler’s pantry. “I wanted something outside the norm,” says Daisy, so she had the wood cabinets stained blue with a weathered finish (try Deep Ocean by Minwax) and added chicken-wire door screens. The knobs are from Anthropologie.

When the women decided on two cabinet styles, “the carpenter told us we were crazy,” says Maggie. They ignored his advice and chose a creamy white beadboard for the top, and stained oak on the bottom and around the fridge. The hardware is from vandykes.com.