A quick overview. For close-ups and greater detail, SEE Blog.
A quick overview. For close-ups and greater detail, SEE Blog.
A quick overview. For close-ups and greater detail, SEE Blog.
A quick overview. For close-ups and greater detail, SEE Blog.
A quick overview. For close-ups and greater detail, SEE Blog.
clients
Bath & Powder
Kitchens Are The Heart Of Any Home
Kitchens have long been considered the heart of any home, and it’s obvious why when you entertain: both your family and guests flock to the kitchen for instant community, to enjoy the aroma and maybe to assist in meal preparation.
​​
Most of my clients, whether building a new home, renovating or buying, are all looking for the same thing — a well-planned kitchen large enough to facilitate their lifestyle and relative love of cooking.
​​
So, when I design a kitchen, the client’s unique passions, talents, and preferences are all built-in. Here are some examples of recent projects:
Sharon’s Kitchen
​
Sharon is an avowed foodie, and because her medical profession is so demanding, cooking has become all the more a therapeutic and recreational passion. As a serious cook, she has very particular needs including plenty of storage and abundant prep space that is intelligently planned. (More and more homeowners feel this to be very important; even those who don’t cook often feel a need for a truly functional space when they do.)
​
The width of walkways within a kitchen are critical. The industry standard has been 3’ 9” but I try to allow 4’ 6” whenever possible as a minimum width for inside the working core of the kitchen. This affords space to navigate easily around open ovens, drawers and dishwashers when more than one person is present there. Of course, if you have bar seating on an island, you’ll want even more walkway space than that for circulation when the bar seats are occupied.
Back to Sharon: her Wolf range and Viking hood serve as a visual focal point as well as a central function in meal creation. With high-powered ranges comes the need for high-powered ventilation and there are a number of ways to incorporate these thematically into the overall look. Some traditional styles of hoods use beautiful wood treatments, stone and tile.
However, the trend in both Europe and America has been to embrace the stainless steel elegance often found in commercial kitchens. Stand alone hoods that parallel a large gas range definitely make the statement that the culinary arts are taken seriously here. But the commercial look is not for everyone. One glance through a few design magazines will convince you that the alternatives in wood, cast stone and variously treated metals are limitless.
THE ISLAND
​
The “Open Concept” which connects kitchens with great rooms, living rooms and dens, has invited, if not demanded, larger islands. Islands are no longer little 4’ counters that simply allow you to set something down. They’ve become very central, providing great function. In addition to greatly increasing prep space, a large island can present a buffet, offer drinks and appetizers and help keep the gathering of guests outside the main cooking area.
Sharon’s island is a good example of one that sets the perimeter of the kitchen and divides it from the great room. It’s a large working island that we kept free of a prep sink on purpose since there are two other sinks in this kitchen. It’s as large as the marble slab would allow it to be. In some cases, large islands use two slabs of marble in mirror images of each other specially cut for that purpose.
​
Sharon wanted dramatic dark walnut cabinetry as a counterpoint to the classic honed Nuvolato marble countertop.
WINE BAR:
On the edge of Sharon’s kitchen, on the way to the pantry, we built a wine bar. We allowed it to be its own personality though we did go with dark walnut again, adding beautiful textures and visual richness that contrasted with the sleekness of the kitchen as a whole. Stunning slate and gorgeous custom cabinets completed this elegant bar.
Becky’s Kitchen
​
Here’s another example of an open floor plan in which one of the four walls opens up to the great room and a second opens to their intentionally-casual dining room. The island serves as a breakfast bar since the clients didn’t want a separate breakfast room.
Although food prep takes place on this main island, we chose not to interrupt its beauty with a sink and faucets. Instead, we placed the cleanup area on one of the remaining interior walls. The range is the focal point behind the island and is centered as you look from the great room. By the way, centering focal points is a big issue in creating sight-lines in architecture. I’ve seen people experiment with using off-center key features without much success. A clean axis-view is critical.
​
Becky’s kitchen (as with Sharon’s) has painted cabinetry while the island is in wood. While Sharon’s is in walnut, Becky’s island features Alderwood and is more simple in its design, yet it still features dark wood wonderfully as a centerpiece.
Betsy’s Kitchen
​
This project was a renovation of an extremely odd existing kitchen. The home was originally built by a rather elderly gentleman who lived by himself. He’d hired a great architect who came up with an excellent plan throughout, except when it came to the kitchen which was obviously dictated by the homeowner’s unique desires reflecting his non-culinary lifestyle. That kitchen was 75% wet bar surrounded by a wood wall, chest-high, and 25% non-functional kitchen — the strangest one I’ve ever seen, with a two-burner cooktop on a tiny island 24” x 30.”
When the original owner decided to sell, the new buyers (my clients) loved the house and the secluded hillside setting.
​
Later they hired me to redesign the kitchen. We moved walls, moved a pantry and reconfigured the perimeter. Where you see the beautiful French armoire, that used to be open with stair railing that led down to the garage.
​
I found a French Armoire for a steal, and that’s what we built the kitchen around, adding the wall behind it to both conceal the stairwell and provide a space to feature the antique.
The clients also wanted an eat-in kitchen just for two. Although the island gives room for three more people, we made a half-circle for the empty-nesters to use as their breakfast spot. They love its convenience.
​
The hood over the range is a secondary feature after the armoire. For that we used hand-painted tile. I would have preferred a natural copper hood that would age and gain a handsome patina with time, but the client fell in love with the new copper look and so that’s what we installed.
The working pathway behind the range is not as wide as I would prefer — 3’ 9” distance instead of going beyond 4’. However, since it serves primarily just the two of them, it doesn’t get crowded. They do have gatherings for which guests contribute in a pot-luck style.
​
The concept of a pull-out rack became prevalent in 1990s and were commonly on either side of a range (which is the worst spot to store spices and oils — near a heat source).
Although space was a constraint throughout the project, I was able to give them the sized refrigerator they wanted (36” full depth) and still have room for the pull-out spice rack. There’s visibility on both sides of the rack and it’s just two steps from the range for baking and prep. I think this is one of the most successful locations for a pull-out rack.
Kathy’s Kitchen
​
The open concept for kitchens was just taking off about ten years ago when this house was built. The kitchen is quite central, opening up to the great room, dining room, sunroom and breakfast room. Since it’s visible from the formal great room, the kitchen’s design needed to match that level of elegance.
You’ll notice the upper cabinets go all the way to the 10’ ceiling. In addition to being an elegant look, those high cabinets reclaim storage space otherwise lost and are especially valuable to this homeowner for storing Holiday dishes, platters and decorations.
The wood used on the perimeter cabinets is clear maple finish with a fogging technique. It has a vintage and refined look rather than the urban look of only varnished natural maple. We installed wonderful tile in yellow and gold travertine and honey onyx. It was a perfect choice since the underlying champagne gold color is thematic throughout the house.
​
Over the stove is one of my favorite tile designs I’ve ever done. It’s classic and impossible to get tired off. Tile detailing on the plaster hood worked well because the aged plaster was also installed throughout the whole common area.
​
On one end of the kitchen is the bar area conveniently placed at the door leading to the dining room and sunroom. The backlighting on the stemware adds sparkle and emphasis to this featured area.
​
