Collecting, Culling, Creating

Veteran designer Lisa Scalo McMenamin gives her own kitchen a fresh and personal look..
Photography by Dave Bryce.
This article appears in the Spring 2022 issue of *Pittsburgh’s Finest Kitchens*. Visit Don’s Appliances showrooms for a copy or buy one here.

For several decades, Lisa Scalo McMenamin of LSM Interior Design has been creating dream rooms for clients. But last year she also updated the home she and her husband built in Peters Township in 1986. And while they might be empty nesters, they were not ready to downsize. “It’s a nice, sound, well-built house that we love,” she says.

Lisa started by painting the exterior white and relandscaping, providing a view of the changing seasons from the kitchen window. She then redid the entire first floor, including the kitchen, creating a stunning space that is also well-organized and ready for hard use. “I love to cook,” Lisa says.

The pale wall tiles, cabinets, and quartz countertops provide an understated backdrop for the blue and white Mottahedeh English china Lisa has collected over the years. Her treasures are kept in open cabinets along with bamboo pieces she loves, as well as her favorite dinnerware. Larger Chinese porcelain pieces are a motif throughout the house.

“I’ve always loved blue and white—it’s kind of my signature,” she says. “Blue is a color of nature, easy to live with. It’s a good base, easy to mix with yellows, pinks, and lavenders.” In season, hydrangeas grow at Lisa’s McMurray office, where she tends a flower and vegetable garden that brightens the house with their blooms – very much in harmony with the overall color palette.

Ever-classic blue and white is a favorite color scheme of designer Lisa Scalo McMenamin.

To jump-start the kitchen project, Lisa adopted the same tough-love policy she uses with clients: she hired professional organizer Nikki Orsborn of Neat Method Pittsburgh to curate the space. “You know how much you collect: four carrot peelers, three spatulas,” Lisa says. “Nikki lays every little thing on six-foot tables. She determines what you’re attached to and throws out what you’re not attached to.” Nikki completes her intervention with trips to The Container Store to put in place storage systems that organize the essentials that remain.

Everything that survived the kitchen cull is organized nicely into custom cabinets by Phil Long (“my right arm,” Lisa calls him). Two-layer drawers, where space permits, offer practical storage. One such drawer holds fragile natural bamboo cutlery for special occasions on the bottom layer and faux bamboo on the top for everyday use. Another feature is a low drawer where her two granddaughters can help themselves to sippy cups, and plastic plates and silverware.

Refined and timeless details will make this kitchen and adjoining laundry room last a very long time.

Lantern fixtures over the center island by Urban Electric Company are painted in Sherwin Williams Sleepy Blue, the color that accents the adjoining dining room, powder room, and laundry room. Other lighting fixtures are of hewn brass. The faucets on the Franke farm sinks in the living room and laundry room, as well as the cabinet and drawer handles are of satin brass, “much softer and more beautiful than highly polished brass,” Lisa says.

Mixing her vintage Turkish Oushak runner and traditional crystal and china with cutting-edge touches like the quartz center island gives the kitchen a fresh but timeless look. Although Lisa describes her style as classic and stays abreast of what's new and popular, she prefers to stay in her own lane. “I don’t do anything trendy. I’ve already lived through all the trends.”