Doing the editor's kitchen
This is a project that was brought to me by the regional southern New England/New York metro area Better Homes & Gardens editor, Cynthia Bogart, who has submitted my work to Meredith Corp. for years.
I'm particularly honored that Cindy asked me to do her kitchen in Rhode Island because she personally handles all design submissions for a large territory.
Here is the general plan, not the final plan but it shows the thought process. At the end of the island, at one point, we were going to put a separate piece, facing the table, which didn't happen, unfortunately. With several doorways, and large appliances, you can see the challenge.
The project was very interesting. Cindy and her husband purchased a modular addition and joined it to their house, across the street from the bay in Portsmouth, Rhode Island. At first, when we started planning the kitchen, I was blown away at all that Cindy wanted to include, in terms of appliances. The separate refrigerator and separate freezer, alone, took over one whole side of the space, and her kitchen was not all that large to handle all these appliances. But, creative thinking soon began, and, bottom line, it all worked out well in the end. Here are some images, and tomorrow, other images from other parts of the house.
One area that did not read well in the shots is the area of which I am most proud. Cindy had a very short wall but wanted a large range. Had all the cabinetry on the adjacent wall been the standard depth, the range would have been proportionately too large for that short wall with little room to move around and cook.
So, what I did was to break up the adjacent walls into two separate areas by virtue of the black, tall, pantry, and since the pantry was much more shallow than the cabinetry to the left of it, it gave Cindy much needed room both aesthetically and functionally, to the left of the range on the adjacent wall. Unfortunately, you can't really see that, it almost looks like the range is jammed into the cabinetry at the left, but it really isn't.
Questions, comments, let me know...more tomorrow.
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Sunday, March 18, 2007 at 05:26PM
Reader Comments (6)
One of the nicest kitchens I've seen lately. I love the black pantry piece. We've been encouraging our clients (especially those with older houses and smaller kitchens) to consider furniture pieces or custom built-in/furniture-looking pieces for their rather than having all typical cabinets. They can be very versatile, I think. Wow. Definitely an addition to my scrap book!
Beautiful kitchen! Love the colors and the black and white cabinetry!
congratulations on a fantastic kitchen design!
i'm so glad to find your amazing kitchen blog :)
i'll especially love your retro kitchen pick a aparts!
i'll be lurking
Love love love the open shelves. This is a kitchen that people can use and live in. A little bit of black, a little bit of yellow -- always work. Plus I just love yellow in the kitchen. What's nice is that this doesn't look like every other white kitchen people seem to want these days in New England.
I am not sure why, but some people are afraid of wood in a kitchen floor. I think it's one of the best choices out there....
Beautiful...Job well done!
AbbeyK
www.OnInteriorDesign.com
www.AbbeyK.com
I love the colors and the layout. This Kitchen just Rocks.
John
North Star Electric RI
What a lovely kitchen! I love the light, the lack of upper cabinets, the mixture of black and white cabinetry, and the white painted beadboard and trim on the walls. I don't usually like yellow walls, but here they work beautifully. The wire mesh on the doors of the black cabinet are genius. (Was this a custom made cabinet?) Also, the wood on the floors and counters gives a nice useful feeling, not too showy and not too sterile, just inviting and straightforwardly lovely. What wood is best to use for counters like this? And how are they treated to stay so nice-looking? What kind of material is the backsplash behind the stove? It looks like marble tiles? Interesting.