"White Kitchen" was an Upper West Side kitchen renovation for a recently retired couple on a budget. The husband and wife wanted the new kitchen to accommodate their love for cooking and their habit of leaving things out in the open. They didn't want to constantly have to open doors and drawers. Additionally, the wife, who is from Hawaii and of Japanese descent, wanted a place to display pottery made by her mother, an important raku potter.

Marcia's solution was an entire wall of open shelving for both kitchenware and the pottery pieces. The shelves are cut from a gorgeous piece of wood that had been sitting in the Long Island studio of shoji screen and Japanese-inspired furniture maker Mr. Hanafusa (of Miya Shoji) for twenty years.

Marcia included easy-to-clean counters, a striking red coconut-tiled backsplash, and found pot racks from a Bowery restaurant supplier. To stay on budget, the stove, range hood, and refrigerator, which were fairly new at the time of the renovation, were reserved from the original kitchen. To make the existing toilet room more usable, Marcia added lighting, a tiny sink, and an extending mirror to turn it into a proper powder room.