Behind The Scenes
A Colonial Home Kitchen Mudroom Pantry Powder Room Remodel.
Aesthetic elements that inspired my client included:
After examining the rooms’ existing configurations I proposed that we:
1) an old wood beam that she and her husband had purchased on a “whim” because of its beauty,Clearly we had a starting point for the aesthetic elements. But what to do with the layout? Directly behind the kitchen was the laundry room, which awkwardly shared the kitchen sink run as you turned the corner to come into the kitchen. If you look at the photo of the original kitchen (note the sink is not in view, that is because it is on the other side of the room!), you can see that if you were cooking and needed to visit the sink (or vice versa), you would have to cross the room to the other side. The other element that bothered my client was a single column dividing the Great Room from the kitchen. She wanted to eliminate it. She also wanted to convert the laundry room into a pantry and mudroom.
2) copper elements — she showed me her collection of copper mugs–she wanted these on display,
3) multicolored ledgerstone — which was the surround of her fireplace in the Great Room, and
4) Blackish steel beams–an industrial element that would provide the structural support required.
After examining the rooms’ existing configurations I proposed that we:
1) Relocate the sink to the island. 2) Because my client wanted many appliance conveniences in the kitchen, to include a 48″ refrigerator/freezer, we had to shift our thinking. We did not have room for a 48″ built in along with the tall micro/single oven cabinet. I proposed the idea, which appears to be trending nowadays, the following: a GE 36″ ALL refrigerator in the kitchen and an 18″ Thermador ALL freezer – the latter to be located in the pantry.My recommendations and any structural or other changes were confirmed and fine tuned by our structural engineer, Rob Fling, and Guy Brannock, Brannock Enterprises.
3) Elongate the main gas range top wall by eliminating the wing-wall on the right and reducing the doorway width into the Keeping Room.
Key Aesthetic Elements
1) Incorporating the wood beam into the hood over the GE Monogram 48″ gas range-top.
2) Mirroring # 1 above over the pantry and 18″ Thermador Freezer.
3) Continuing with the fireplace existing multi-colored ledgerstone theme throughout the kitchen, pantry/mud/laundry mudroom and powder room.
4) The structural beam would also serve as an aesthetic dividing the Great Room and Dining Room from the kitchen yet still allowing for an open layout concept.
5) Floating shelves and wood countertop in a similar (Oak) wood specie as the wood beam.
6) LED lighting–strip for wall cabinets and puck for floating shelves.
7) Copper sink, faucet, pendants, and cabinet hardware.
8) Engineered quartz for all countertops (except for wood top area).
In February 2016, I received a phone call from a lovely lady who had recently moved into her home in Clifton, Virginia with her husband and teenage son. She said she called me because she reviewed my work and client reviews online, and could tell that I was not a “cookie cutter” type designer. We met on a February day in her outdated kitchen. She immediately began showing me her collage of inspirational photos. “Wow”, I thought: “This is definitely not our standard all-white typical kitchen project.”
