Ilse Benard used Benjamin Moore’s Kelly Green paint on her kitchen cabinets. Burst pipes during Winter Storm Uri prompted her to remodel her kitchen.

A burst pipe damaged Ilse and Basil Benard’s kitchen in February; now it sparkles in a blue-and-green color palette.

The Benards’ home flooded in Hurricane Harvey and the person who owned it then remodeled it in a brown-beige palette.

Basil and Ilse Benard’s new kitchen in their League City, Tuesday, July 20, 2021. The pipes in the couple’s home froze and bursted in their home from Winter Storm Uri and had to completely redo their kitchen.

Basil and Ilse Benard’s new kitchen in their League City, Tuesday, July 20, 2021. The pipes in the couple’s home froze and bursted in their home from Winter Storm Uri and had to completely redo their kitchen.

Both Basil and Ilse Benard are from South Africa, so a colorful palette was a must.

Cup holders in the Basil and Ilse Benard’s new kitchen in their League City, Tuesday, July 20, 2021. The pipes in the couple’s home froze and bursted in their home from Winter Storm Uri and had to completely redo their kitchen.

Ilse Benard used blue-gray floor tile and backsplash, paired with much brighter kelly green paint.

Emser tile’s Diva pattern in blue-gray was used as backsplash tile. For a side cabinet, the Benards shifted to Benjamin Moore’s Hale Navy paint.

Ilse and Basil Benard, along with their son, David, were eating a meal in their warm car in the driveway after their house lost power during February’s winter storm.

David eventually headed back inside to do homework but came running out again with terrible news: a pipe had burst and water was pouring out of the ceiling and into the kitchen.

The Benards struggled to find the shut-off valve for their water and then for their gas, and by the time they got things under control, they had 2 inches of water in the kitchen, dining room and foyer, and it was creeping into the living room of their League City home.

Sheetrock was damaged, carpets were ruined and a long list of work lay in front of them.

An adjuster told them they’d cover damage only for the lower kitchen cabinets, but, of course, who replaces just lower cabinets?

“I never liked it. I knew (when we bought the house two years ago) that I wanted to change it, but not quite like this — not in desperation mode,” Ilse said of her kitchen remodel. “From the time I lived here, I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it.”

The home was built in 2006, and the prior owner used it as a rental. It flooded during Hurricane Harvey, and the post-flood remodel was completed in a beige and brown palette.

The floor plan was funky, with little space around a too-small island. Any time there were more than two people in the kitchen trying to get something done, they had to do a stay-out-of-my-way dance.

“That island irritated me like you couldn’t imagine. I had barely 36 inches on either side. If there were two of us in the kitchen at the same time, we had to make sure we ran for the opposite side of the island,” she said. “And the box over the range just drove me nuts. I could never understand why it was there.”

One of Ilse’s first moves was to shift the refrigerator and pantry placement, then get the sink in a more centered spot on a peninsula between the kitchen and living room. An odd box between the ceiling and microwave needed to go, too.

Because of her nonstandard floor plan, Ilse — an interior designer (Ilse Benard Designs), home stager (Staged for Perfection) and design blogger — opted for custom cabinets.

Both Ilse, 63, and Basil, 58, are natives of South Africa who came to America 35 years ago, marrying 20 years ago. They moved from a home in Galveston to League City so their 17-year-old son, David, could attend the high school of his choice.

Their South African heritage informs their style preferences, so an all-neutral kitchen was never in the cards.

“I love green and knew it would look great in here,” Ilse said. “Because I grew up in Africa — there’s so much color there — I could never imagine living somewhere with no color.”

She initially planned to use green tile for the backsplash, but when it came time to purchase it, the color she wanted was discontinued, prompting her to use Benjamin Moore’s “Kelly Green“ paint on the cabinets.

A visit to Beyond Floors in Clear Lake secured Emser Tile’s arabesque-shaped Diva pattern in a blue-gray color for backsplash tile and Emser’s Nostalgia glazed ceramic floor tile in blue and white.

Ilse shifted to Benjamin Moore’s “Hale Navy” for a side cabinet with glass-front doors, which serves as a china cabinet for pretty things that deserve display.

“There are a lot of things to consider when you redo a kitchen. People don’t think about how everything has to go together — your floors, your backsplash, your counters, hardware and cabinets,” she said. “You can’t look at any one thing as an individual because it’s not. They’re all part of a whole.”

With all of that color and pattern, Ilse opted for Cambria quartz, a white background with simple blue, black and gold veins, after also considering quartzite and porcelain.

If “Kelly Green” cabinets sound like a bold move, consider that Ilse used turquoise for the cabinets in a previous home.

“People say you shouldn’t put colorful things into your house, what if you have to sell it? Well, you’ve got to live in the house long before you sell it,” she said. “My house with turquoise cabinets did not take very long to sell. It’s all about how you present things.

“My husband was not sure about this green,” she continued. “I said, ‘It’s a paint job, that’s all it is. If you don’t like it we can repaint it.’”

Ilse loves to cook, so her new kitchen is likely to get a workout when the coronavirus pandemic dissipates and the Benards start entertaining again.

After this experience, Ilse encourages area residents to be ready for hurricane season and the next weather emergency.

“People should know where their water shut off is. We should know where these things are. If there’s a disaster, you can take care of them and minimize damage,” she said.

Diane Cowen has worked at the Houston Chronicle since 2000 and currently its architecture and home design writer. Prior to working for the Chronicle, she worked at the South Bend (Ind.) Tribune and at the Shelbyville (Ind.) News. She is a graduate of Purdue University and is the author of a cookbook, "Sunday Dinners: Food, Family and Faith from our Favorite Pastors."

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