Yesterday we showed you home-improvement projects from two of our editors' homes, and today we're bringing you the bright and cheery renovated Westchester County, NY, kitchen of Features Director Jenny Rosenstrach.

BEFORE

Jenny wanted a kitchen where she could cook but still be able to talk to her two daughters or dinner guests. "Before the renovation, the kitchen was not eat-in," says Jenny. "It created a real divide between the cook and the diners and made everything feel so uncharacteristically formal. When I get home from work and start dinner, the last thing I want to do is not be in the same room as my girls for another half hour."

AFTER

The house is a 1920s Dutch Colonial with a lot of American antiques on the first floor, so Jenny wasn't sure she could get away with the sleek mid-century modern kitchens she loved. "The working philosophy behind selecting materials for our kitchen was 'traditional with a twist,'" she says. She and her husband chose paneled cabinets (but clean and subtle), rustic marble countertops (but with a straight edge instead of a bevel), and gridded subway tiles for a backsplash (instead of staggered classically). "It still feels very much like my home as opposed to a completely separate addendum like I.M.Pei's glass pyramid at the Louvre!" she says.

The cabinets are from Ikea, and the hardware is from Gracious Home. The table and chairs are from Design Within Reach. The pendant lamps are from Circa Lighting.

Jenny's favorite part about the kitchen is the openness. "I grew up in a house where my mom would be cooking and my brother and sister and I would be doing homework at the kitchen table or just off the kitchen in the dining room." she says. "Though the homework years in my house are not yet in high gear, they're definitely starting, and I feel like I'm going to end up replicating what my mom did."

The girls like perching on the peninsula while Jenny cooks. "We trade chips [and salsa] for 'details,'" she says. "They get a chip for each story they tell me about their day. In other words, they're not eating a lot of chips."