white living rooms on houzz

what does home mean for me? it's the most important placeof our lives. it's where i can properly relax. chefs don't spend thatmuch time at home. so when we are at home,we want to relax, enjoy and unwind. i'm gordon ramsay,and this is my houzz. christina wilson is one of the mostendearing, humble chefs i've ever met, and she puts herself last.

it's all about other people. she grew up outside philadelphiain a close-knit family with three older brothers, and it's an amazing story because before she cameto "hell's kitchen", she was working in a restaurant and renting this small, intimate1920s philadelphia row house. she was working hard,slogging away 65, 70 hours a week, struggling to pay the rent.

she enteredthe fox's "hell's kitchen" competition back in 2010, and she won it. and the quarter of a million dollarsshe won in prize money then went on to buy the housethat she was renting. it was the first time everacross this competition that i wanted to employ the winner. christina wilson,over the last seven years, has been promotedto my group executive chef,

so she runs several businesses. she handles all the businessesin vegas, she's overseeingour latest opening, it's the first everhell's kitchen restaurant at caesars palace. so she movedfrom philly into vegas, works two weeks on hard in vegas,runs home for five days, two weeks on, five days home. this home is somethingthat she's never had a chance

to reinvest in. i'm gifting this incredibletransformation of a house to christina wilson because this lady's so humble, and the amount of timeshe's in the limelight, she's asked for nothing, and this is the least i can do. i don't liveanywhere near philadelphia, so i turned to houzz

to redesignchristina wilson's living room, dining room and kitchen. the big advantage of houzz is thatyou can go online and find a pro that understandswhat's happening in philadelphia. and can really tailor-make the spacethat we've got. we found philly designermatthew ferrarini. and now,i'm getting ready to meet him to discuss the renovationand finalize a design plan. gordon, thank you so muchfor meeting me today.

not at all. great to see you.amazing suit, by the way. - oh, thank you very much.- immaculate. i was going throughsome of the pictures of christina's space. - she's in a philadelphia row home.- yes. so it's a pretty tight space - yeah.- that we're dealing with. but it can still havethat executive-chef feel to it... sure.

by bringing in certain elements,multiuse spaces, knocking down some of the wallsthat are separating, like, the kitchenfrom the dining room and so forth,opening up the space a lot. i've put together some photoson houzz's ideabook. right. this is the general look directionthat we're going for. it has an industrial feel to it. we don't want it to betoo masculine, too dark,

so we want to brighten it up a bitwith some bold colors, add some distressed elementsto it as well. also, i love that rustic charmcause it's not too shiny a floor. and you can seeit's an aged floor as well, so texturally... yeah. beautiful. so there's a light herethat i kind of like. - what do you think about this?- that looks [bleep] stupid. i mean, you need to grow someand get a [bleep] grip 'cause you're never gonnatarget yourself as a top designer.

no, bad choice. it couldn't have been gordon ramsaywithout getting cursed at. thank you. that was nice. chefs are control freakswith lighting. they want their dining rooms at homelit like their restaurants. this is one of the lightsi was thinking about for over the dining room. mm-hm. i like that. - it's a black wrought iron.- yeah, love that.

we can order thisright from this photo here. so we're gonna add that to the cart. the most important partabout this whole renovation, for me, is the chef's kitchen. you've got your work cut out for you,trust me. i know. because we don't like wasting space. we're actually gonna havethis multiuse cabinet where it pulls out...

i love those little hidden elements. one of the most prominent featuresyou're gonna see aesthetically are these navy blue cabinetsthat i want to introduce. it's the same colori've got at home, at mine. - oh, excellent.- so that pops immediately. it should feel like it's gotthose rich tones, those colors, - textures...- yeah. 'cause she cooks on a daily basis,and it's all about ingredients. philadelphia is a four-season city.

i wanted to introducea living garden in the space so that she can have herbsall year round. knowing full well thatone of my amazing chefs has a better kitchen than mealready is pissing me off. however, i love this idea. and so it's like a featureon a wall? yeah. and how close would that beto the stove? so this is actually gonna beright off the kitchen

on the dining room wall. love that, what a great idea.can i have one, please? - you can, too.- thank you. in the living room, i wanted to introducea really unique couch, something with some color and to bring some vibrancyinto the space. what do you thinkabout this couch here? does it come in any other colors?

it does, it does. so this is in a softer blue,it's more of a teal. so houzz has this really cool toolcalled visual match... where if you see something you likefrom one of the photos, we can simply click on the tag, and it will show you similar couches. so although the shape of thisis not ideal, i want to gowith something similar in color. so it pairs it for you

in a way that it gives youa great alternative but in keeping with your, you know... your aesthetic that you're going for.absolutely. so because it's such a small space, philadelphia row homes tend to bea little bit cold towards the front because that's where the windows are, so i wanted to introducean electric fireplace to warm it up a bit. what do you think about this concept?

you know, that looks likesomething out of "hell's kitchen". it does.so she'll feel right at home. she'll want to reminiscewith the flame in the background, but it's lovely. can we add that to the cart? absolutely. excellent. so, gordon, you've been great. you gave me a ton of great ideasand insight to run with.

is there anything else i can dobefore i get started on this project? like you, i'm frantically busy... christina's big brotherwith his wife, jon and jenny, are gonna beon location helping you, whatever you need. but you can always call me. listen, she's worked hardto get this house, she put her winningsfrom hell's kitchen towards buying this.

so if you're gonnaredesign a chef's house and turn the kitchen into a dream,then, yeah, tread carefully, but good luck. okay. it's been a few days. and today, jon and jennyare meeting with matthew at christina's house to go over the renovation plansand get started. - hey.- hey.

- how's it going?- matthew. - jon. nice to meet you.- nice to meet you. - this is my wife.- hi, i'm jenny. - hi, jenny. how are you?- good. the philadelphia row home is definitely a love-hate thingin philadelphia. we love it because of the charm,the history, the brick, however, there's challenges. - here it is.- okay.

the whole space. - yeah, this is it.- it's a huge space. this is what you have. try not to put your arms outtoo wide. all right, seems like it's stillin it's 1923 form. for the most part. what are some of the thingsthat you would definitely like to see modernized and updatedwithin the space? it doesn't show her personality.

christina likes to relaxwhen she is home. she's an aunt.she plays with the kids. she is silly, she's charismaticand charming and wonderful, and this doesn't display that at all. now from the moment i walked in, the staircase, i saw it instantly. is there any emotional attachmentto this staircase? i don't think there's much attachedto this staircase at all. so christina won't mind if they go?

absolutely not.i think she'll be quite thrilled. i see the landing, you know,protrudes out a good 3 feet or so, so it's taking up a lot of space. so i'm gonna remove these walls,and we can eliminate this landing, and just keep it straight so that you don't have this returnhere. so we're gonna buy backmaybe 2 or 3 feet, you know, from here. and then getting rid of this

and doing a more modern railing that's on par with what she's into. is christina the type of cook that likes to interactwith her guests while she's cooking? when she's cookingwith our daughters, for example, she really likes to teach themhow to do it, so she likes to be right therewith them or have them watch her.

she likes to feel connectedto the space... yes, yeah. jon, if you're herewatching the game, - you know, in the living room...- sounds about right. you guys might behollering back and forth, "hey, sis,when is dinner gonna be ready?" - absolutely.- that might be a... - yes.- okay. christina would absolutely love

to have her family and friends herea lot more. but the spacejust doesn't provide her the movement, the freedomto do her creative work with food that she does on a regular basis. right now, the wall,there's an opening here, but the wallreally separates the cook from the rest of the peoplein the house. so by opening that wall up, you're gonna be able to havea fluid social environment

that i thinkcaters more to her style. what i like to do in smaller spacesis capitalize off of everything. so if you can imagine,like, two french doors, you know, or a sliding door,all glass, all right? okay.or a sliding door that's bringing in natural light, so from the minute you walk in, you'll be ableto see straight through because the vestibule is gone,

and you're gonna see greenery,you're gonna see outside, you're gonna see the light, and that's the key to really makinga small space better. christina, being a chef, i want to make thisa special, special place for her. what aresome of her favorite cuisines? she can make anything. but she also likes the basics, you know, she likes mac and cheese,and, you know...

- she runs the... she runs the gamut.- yeah, yeah. even in this kitchen,she could probably throw down... - absolutely.- and make this work. without a question. yeah, in a spacethat encompasses her passions but also gives her that peaceof being home at the same time. appliances are gonna bevery important in this remodel because we want herto be able to cook and perform at a level that she's used to.

so we're gonna incorporatea commercial range along this wall and maybe our sink and storageand prep along this wall... - so that she can really go to town.- okay. i want to make it fun,you know, i want it to be christina. - she's fun.- that's true. i have all of the information i need. i'm just gonna go back to my office,finalize the plans, and we can get demosstarted pretty soon. - yay!- all right, sounds great.

all right,it was a pleasure meeting you. - my pleasure.- thank you. thank you. with the plans finalized,today, we're starting the demo. - jon.- how are you? good to see you, matthew.how's it going? everything is good.good to see you guys. how are you doing? so jon is actually, like,quite the handyman himself, and over the years, he's beenthe go-to guy for christina

to help with repairsand things like that. and i have a special project for you,jon. all right. so i know you havea love-hate relationship with this railing here. so i'm gonna let youkick-start our demo by getting rid of this thing. sounds good. - there you go.- woah!

all right, jon, take it easy. - are you feeling okay?- i'm all right. i think we got it. you think? we're gonna get started, my contractorand his crew's gonna get in here, start tearing everything apart. so it looks empty now, but it's gonna look even more emptyby the time we're done today.

it's been two weekssince the renovation started on christina's house, and today, jon and jennyare stopping by to get an update. oh, my gosh. it's so open. - it's pretty crazy, right?- i love it. it's gorgeous. yes, it is. that's definitelyone of my favorite parts, - those exposed beams and...- that's gorgeous. matthew shared an ideabookwith me on the houzz app.

it shows the furniturethat him and gordon picked out. it's a cool tool in the houzz appcalled view in my room 3d, and it actually allows youto place the furniture in the room - live, so to speak.- right. then you can manipulate it. so that's the rug. very cool. i love it. i see a button there,can you add something there? yeah, so if you click that,you go back into the ideabook,

and there's the couchthey picked out for the design, and you can bring that in,and then manipulate that as well. - and there you go.- i love it. very good. - hey, look who's here.- oh, hey. - jon, how are you?- matthew. excellent.it's great to see you as well. good to see you. you know what,we can actually get gordon

- on the computer...- okay. and show him the space,kind of do a walkthrough with him. - sounds good.- okay. hey, gordon,i'm here with jon and jen. - hey, good to see you again.- jon and jen, nice to see you. hi, matt. how's it going? yeah, all good, thank you. i cannot wait to seewhat you're about to show me,

but looks likeyou guys have been busy. oh, super busy. i just wanted to give youa quick update and show you, kind of, what's going on and the progress we've made. great. we knocked down all of the wallsaround the vestibule, really opened it up there. wow. that looks great.

the place,it looks bigger from here, matt. absolutely.and that's what we're going for. over here, gordon,we have the fireplace set up, where we did a bump-out, it's gonna be a fireplacedown at the bottom, and then a tv recessed inat the top. i love what you've donewith the recess. so it doesn't look like it's awkward,it almost looks like it's a painting. love it.

so as we come in,i wanted to show you this brand new kitchen conceptthat we introduced. the first thingthat's gonna jump out to you are those two french doorsleading out to the patio. lot more depth to the kitchen. is that the beamson the ceiling there? what is that? yeah, those are exposedindustrial-style beams. now that first beam that's thereis the original beam of the house

from the early 1920s. wow! you stripped that back? hey, jennifer,do you mind opening that... pulling that cabinet mechanism,pulling on those blue tabs. stop it. come on! i mean, push it back in,please, jennifer. does it go back flush?wow, she is gonna go crazy. you know whatcontrol freaks chefs are like,

so that looks incredible. love that. gordon, i know you're super busy, so i just want to goover one last thing with you and get your feedback. yeah, so i was a little bit divided just because we're gonna havethat beautiful herb garden against this wall, this brick wall, and that's gonna have likea distressed wood framing

around the herbs, and i just didn't want it to betoo busy, so i'm thinking maybe paint it white and let the herb gardenbe the true focal point. i wouldn't paint that,definitely not. i know christina would lovethat industrial look. guys, well done.can't wait to see you. all right, gordon, take care. - bye, thanks.- all right, we'll see you soon.

it makes it all worth it to get the gordon ramsayofficial seal of approval. gordon's a pretty intense guy,clearly. but i want to brighten upthe space, so i'm gonna paint the bricks. i thinkchristina will really be happy. i'm finally here in philadelphiato show christina her new house. i'm on my way to meet matthewto add the finishing touches. holy smokes,this is amazing, amazing.

- good to see you.- what do you think? it's beautiful. - all right, so...- what can i do to help? put this, jon,right above the french doors, - right there.- all right. it pays to be tall. should fit right on. wow. oh, my goodness.

are you kidding me? come on. wow! look at this place. - great job.- thank you. - you good?- excellent. - good to see you, gordon.- good to see you too, my man. oh, man! my first impressions,walking through the door... you know, breathtaking.

the colors, the textures, beautiful. i mean,everything is from houzz, right? you can get this stuff online? yeah, so all of thiswas based on ideabooks created with houzz. so now you've done this one,ready to come to london and do mine? just tell me when. let's go. now we hada little bit of an argument

- about painting this wall...- we did. you said yes, i said no, right? so looking at it now,i mean, it looks great, so i was wrong, you were right. it means a lot coming from you,gordon. yeah, i know, i know.but it annoys me. and tell me why did you paint it? once we put the herb garden up, and i saw itagainst that original brick,

- it was too busy.- right. you know,your eyes didn't go right to this. so when we painted it, it just allows you to focuson the freshness - of the herb garden...- right. which is what christina's all about. yeah, we're equal now, 1-1. we're 1-1, exactly, yeah. let's keep it like that.

great job. thank you.that looks beautiful. love it. love it, love it, love it. - don't get too comfortable.- what? - we've got to finish this place up.- okay. all right,christina's gonna be here any minute. - yeah, okay.- all right. we're gonna put that in the kitchen. so, guys, put the coffee tableparallel with this couch here. i know you've been hands on,

but you can help outfrom time to time. you know, like, i'm visualizingeverything right now, gordon. - honestly. yes.- all right, i'm visualizing. - there?- that's good. that's all right. i'll grab this box. - [unintelligible].- yup. yup. i have no ideawhat gordon's been doing.

i know i surrenderedthe keys to my home a few weeks ago, and so i'm a little nervousand a little excited, but i really just can't waitto see what's been done. guys, thank you. christina's gonna be herein a minute, so you guys need to disappear. - all right.- all right, all right. i'll see you in therewhen she comes back. - cool.- sounds good.

- good job.- see you. this is gonna transformchristina's life tremendously. how can you not fall in lovewith this? i can't wait to see the reactionon her face. - close those eyes.- okay. close them. close. okay, yes, they're closed. you ready? all right, give me your hands.

- keep those eyes closed.- they're closed. - up the step.- mm-hm. - there's the door.- yeah, don't worry. - and stop there for two seconds.- okay. big deep breath. and... [unintelligible]. welcome home. open your eyes. what!

welcome home. oh, my god! - look at this...- shut up! beautiful. how bright is it in here! it's so open now, without the cut-outsand the vestibule. like, i had no ideathis could happen to my first floor. - i love the furniture.- wow.

sofa. sit there. how does that feel? it feels nice and plush,and like i could sit here and watch your cooking shows. or fall asleep in front of the fire. - that's amazing.- how beautiful is that? that's so gorgeous. oh, my god,look at all these little details. honestly, everything,getting that info from jon,

saying that you never usedto use this room in the winter - because it's too cold.- yeah, it's too cold. - there's no excuse now.- yes. i'm speechless,which you know doesn't happen. now dining room. what a lovely dining room! yes, it is gorgeous. i mean, just the fragrancefrom that herb garden on the wall. -oh my goodness -go smell.

basil? are you gonna make medo a blind taste test? no, those days have gone. the engine room of this row house,the kitchen. wow! unbelievable,i can't wait to get cooking. now in a narrow space, it's tight, but look at one of these... - tops.- look at that space saver! so you've got your workbench,chopping board. you know,we need our mise en place, yes?

- that's right.- i love it. the range is now on the right side,which just makes this great walkway. notice the difference in the doorsat the back there? yeah, i feel it throughout the housewith those doors, it just letsall that light come right in. and these exposed beams. they were here.and we've added three or four more. wow, i love that. thank you, thank you, thank you.

it is so nice to come home to. - it looks amazing.- it does. i cannot believe that this is the housethat i have been in for the last six-and-a-half years, and it is completely different. not one thing looks familiareven though it all feels familiar. and you knowi didn't do this on my own. i teamed up with an amazing designer.

can't wait for you to meet him. matt. jon. hi. hey! hi! what do you think? i think... you never keep secrets from me, - you did a good job with this one.- i know. amazing.

- yeah, i don't know how i did that.- christina, this is matthew. - hi.- there you go. - thank you so much.- nice to finally meet you. - what do you think?- it's so amazing. just the little touches. i remember what the pipeslooked like prior to that, - so thank you.- amazing. now this one's been amazing, giving his insightsto the dos and don'ts,

what you'd like,what you didn't like, and then all your little secretsinside this household... - not all.- not all of them. - not all.- okay, good. i noticed the banister got fixed. it got fixed all right. it got fixed. hey. oh, my gosh!

- good morning.- it's beautiful! you know, gordon is amazing,and i'm so lucky to work for him, for him to be able to choose me to gift this amazingnew renovation on my home, and i'm just overwhelmed. i've never hadsuch a generous gift given to me. high-five. boom! i love those shoes,those sparkly shoes. i know. they're so cute.

we're going shoe shopping actually,me and nessie. i love that. big thank you to you, but more importantly,congratulations to you, and here's to a brand new lifein this amazing house. - thank you, chef.- cheers. thank you. thank you, guys. - thank you so much.- cheers. amazing.

thank you, little ladies,for your all your help, too. and i'm hoping the first invitefor dinner is only days away. - yes.- promise? if you give me the day off, chef. - cheers.- cheers. i'm so excited. i was able to pull off thiswonderful surprise for christina. christina wilson is a down-to-earth,hard-working young lady, so hopefully with this amazing gift,

she will understandhow important she is not just to mebut to my entire family. there's no chef more deservingthan christina wilson.

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