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The Kitchen Designer

Thanks for stopping by! I'm Susan Serra, certified kitchen designer, and my mission is to take kitchen design style, function and analysis to a higher level. Here's why the kitchen has the most honored place in the home - all five senses reside in the kitchen.  Best...Susan  Contact: susan@susanserraassociates.com
   

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Entries from March 18, 2007 - March 24, 2007

Saturday
Mar242007

Kitchen Envy

Thinking of remodeling your kitchen? Stuck on style, colors, theme? Take a look at high style kitchens as the ultimate in inspiration. And, if you think it will make it easier to choose a style, forget it, they're really and truly, far too gorgeous....I'd add another 6 months to sorting out the style question.

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Saturday
Mar242007

retro kitchens - kitchen nostalgia or shredder material? #4

Welcome to this Saturday's special vintage kitchen, aka, "Bauhaus meets Disco"! I don't know why, (hmmm) but this one just popped out at me, as I perused my collection of vintage kitchens from the 60s and 70s. I think this kitchen was ahead of its time (for the early 60s), or perhaps was at the cusp of the disco era? You KNOW we need a disco ball light n the center of the ceiling! Get out your platform shoes and start dancing!

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Not a badly planned kitchen, really, although I'd love to understand what's going on with that second island up front, where and how that is positioned in the room. Otherwise, the wall cabinets to the right of the refrigerator should have been equal size sets of doors. I'm not sure I could concentrate on reading a recipe in this kitchen, and I'm also not sure I'd go stir crazy after 20 minutes! Other than that, enjoy!

 

Thursday
Mar222007

kitchens heard around the blogs

Yesterday and today I am attending a conference and so I will take this opportunity to check out good stuff around the blogs.

How about a miracle product (no guarantees from me, but try it first in a small, hidden, spot) to clean those stainless steel appliances? Get the info from Happy Slob (don't ya just love the blogosphere?)

And, just LOOK at THIS gorgeous kitchen I found at this terific blog, Hatch. Part of the Atlanta Junior League Tour of Kitchens.

This kitchen actually reminds me of one I recently did, a white kitchen with planking across the hood, the appliance built-in, and behind the peninsula.

The tour is this weekend. See you for tomorrow's installment of "Kitchen Nostalgia or Shredder Material #4"! I have a bonus for you tomorrow!

jl-kitchen-tour.jpg

 

Wednesday
Mar212007

blogging terramia

Take a look at the post from this cool blog, Terramia, on some fresh, spring, kitchens. I'll leave it to Terramia to provide the sources and credits. This image is from the book: Home Cheap Home. She has a bunch more fun kitchen images. Posted today's date. For later dates, the category on the blog is: "kitchens" Happy Spring!

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Wednesday
Mar212007

it's gnarly! Rustic Cherry

I have a wood species to tell you about, and I bet you haven't heard of it, or have seen it before! When I first saw it, I just loved it. I loved the rustic nature of it, and most of all, I loved the fantastic knots - the deep, gnarled, dark, craggy, open, sometimes with holes all-the-way-through - knots. It's really a great look. AND, it has the elegance and great grain pattern of cherry, with the rustic nature, of, say, pine, but BETTER. In the two images just below, you can see the overall look. The knots are not all over the place, but are spaced a good amount apart. With the knots, there is often exaggerated graining as well.

If you want, you can go several steps further, with various types of distressing, square pegs, glazing, cobblestone distressing, splits, worm holes, nail holes and more, really, as much as you want from a lite rustic look to a very heavy rustic look. It's something to consider, whether for one piece or a whole kitchen. What do you think?? Me, I'm really crazy about it, which is why this is the first wood species I'm discussing. The custom cabinet manufacturer I prefer to use for this wood is Quality Custom Cabinetry. Enjoy!

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Tuesday
Mar202007

2007 NKBA Design Competition Finalists "Medium Kitchens"

Here are the medium kitchens category, the winner to be decided at KBIS in May. A very strong group. I like them all for different reasons. There is something in each one that appeals to me. But, if I were forced to decide, I'd say the second one down. I really like a warm, contemporary, look. There is also beauty in symmetry, as is shown in the third kitchen down. The first one looks great too, with the different backsplashes and the furniture piece. Nice detail there. And, the last one really seems to be about color, and a cool, sleek, look. I do wonder why they chose black ovens. If not stainless, I think I would have voted for white. So, here they are! Next up, the large kitchen category.

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Tuesday
Mar202007

A stunning kitchen


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 I just wanted to share this wonderful image with you that I saw on the "of amity & allure" blog. Isn't it gorgeous? Wouldn't you just love to have that table in your kitchen? I could also see decorative, lidded baskets of different types in the center portion of the table, on the floor, for storage purposes, or left just as is. Of course, I'm sure the design presumes there are glass fronted pantries off to the side (as it's certainly not on the wall!). Here's the website for the furnishings: Lene Bjerre Design

Monday
Mar192007

March toward KBIS - LG Electronics

IMG_2948a.jpg"March to KBIS" means it's time again where an influx of press releases are sent to members of the press to either announce or give a tease about their new products, which will be debuted at KBIS in May, a huge show, with approximately 50,000 attendees. KBIS is the Kitchen Bath Industry Show, held this year in Las Vegas. Don't expect me to tell you anything about my trip other than news items...you know what they say about Vegas...

So, here is what I got today from LG:

  • "New high-end kitchen series
  • First-of-its-kind Dual Convection Electric Range and LG's first Gas Range offering
  • Unique refrigerator innovations such as a French-door model with extra-tall vertical ice and water dispenser and the world's first high-definition TV Refrigerator
  • Expanded laundry portfolio including new additions to the award-winning SteamWasher line and new designers colors"

Once at the show, the press kits will show images of these new items, and of course, I will see all the new products myself, wearing my awesome gold sneakers. Up till then, you can only ponder what's to come.

Stay tuned for more "March to KBIS' info HOT off the fiber optic cable! 

Sunday
Mar182007

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.

cindy_newa.jpgHere 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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