This glorious classic black-and-white kitchen has a show-stopping focal point: a  black Bertazzoni Heritage gas range

Amy K. was living in Shanghai, China without access to shelter magazines while she planned the renovation of St. Paul, Minnesota kitchen in an 1889 house.  Using internet design sources (including Atticmag we’re happy to report!) as well as our beloved Gardenweb kitchen forum, this mother of two teenage boys pulled off a stunning transformation in her 15 x11-foot space.

The result: a glorious classic black-and-white kitchen with a show-stopping focal point: her black Bertazzoni Heritage-line all-gas 36-inch range installed with practical open pass-through spaces on each side. Of all the stove set ups I’ve seen, this is unique: it frames a gorgeous (and affordable) range, lets in additional light, and creates a pair functional pass-through openings that serve the needs of an active family.

“I didn’t want to close off the connection between the eating area [above] and kitchen – this is where my kids hang out before dinner and start their homework,” Amy explains. “We use those spaces daily and love them. I plate the food and hand it through, and the kids stack dirty dishes there to relay them to the sink.”

Working with an architect and a contractor by email, Amy did an elegant renovation chock full of smart decisions. She reused the existing dishwasher in the dark oak kitchen [below] but completely reconfigured the “not very large” space.  “We would not have had a spot for the range if we had left it with an “L” plus island [below]. It would have meant putting either the sink or range in the island. I was really firm in my resolve to have a big, clear island surface.”  The gleaming counters coordinate with the range and are pointed up by her choice of Zodiaq Mystic Black quartz which, she explains, is “charcoal gray with very subtle sparkly flecks.”

The existing Kitchen Aid (here in the old kitchen)  made a successful transition to the new.  “It works well and I couldn’t justify a new, paneled, one,” Amy told us.

Living in China also allowed her to have two important elements custom made for her kitchen and shipped back to the States with her belongings. “In China,” she explains, “ ‘custom’ doesn’t equal expensive the way it does here.” She had leaded glass windows made to her specifications, as well as the 3-inch Calacatta marble hexagonal backsplash tiles. “The neighbor’s house is very close and this way I get the light and privacy, too,” she says.  The popular Kohler Vinnata faucet is paired with a Ticor 508, O-radius (square corner) stainless steel sink.

Locally made wood-tone cabinets were used for the island and a built-in storage hutch. “Nothing is level in this house,” Amy says. The cabinet makers “had to fuss and fudge endlessly to fit everything in and then trim it out.” They “were geniuses!” Cabinets were painted in Benjamin Moore’s Bone White to coordinate with woodwork throughout the house. The tall cabinet to the left of the range that opens into  the pass-through window is an appliance garage. The others around and above are used to store oils, spices and infrequently used serving dishes and vases. The stainless range guard and utensil rail are from Bertazzoni. “The rail matches the range handles which is something that no one else would probably ever notice — but I do!” Amy notes.  The kitchen also opens into a family room.

The old, L-shape kitchen had a cooktop and wall ovens. Amy K exchanged those for a 36-inch range.

A  Thermador French-door refrigerator with interior hinges is concealed by cabinet panels and fits flush. “This is one of the few things I bit the bullet and spent money on,” Amy explains.  Pendant lights are from Hinkley.

Light coming through the leaded window is reflected on the fridge wall. The handsome stools pulled up to the island counter,  from Pier 1,  “were an icky brown so I painted them black,” Amy says. In addition to the range style, the heritage and beauty of this kitchen clearly results from the owner’s superb eye for detail.

Variation on the black-and-white kitchen: Carrara marble subway tile

Designers are always looking for ways to personalize kitchens, particularly the two standby classics: all white and black-and-white kitchens. Back in January I wrote that all-white had become formulaic. That post White Kitchens — Trend Over raised some hackles. Too bad. It’s true.

Recently I found a variation for black-and-white kitchens (which by definition have white cabinets and black counters).  Two designers working at opposite ends of the U.S. have taken them a baby step forward by swapping Carrara marble subway tile for white.

In Portland, Oregon designer Jessica Helgerson renovated a 100-year-old house [above and below] for a young family who wanted to modernize. Tiling walls –not just the back splash — with Carrara subways adds a slick texture as well as characteristic mottled grays to the walls. Although the Barber Wilson’s gooseneck faucet says “traditional” the mid-century-style pendants, open pattern of the curtains and modernist black chairs help update and individualize the look.

The similarity of Helgerson’s kitchen and designer Ty Larkins’ marbelized beauty in Baton Rouge is striking.  The common element is the tile used in a similar way — from the top of the counter to the ceiling.  I call this a “Eurosplash” as it is often seen in English and American kitchens of the early 20th Century.

Even with the marble detour, Larkins’ kitchen tilts to the default pro-style with the Viking range, back guard and hood in addition to the now trendy pre-rinse faucet at the sink. Art Deco diner stools and the style of cargo lighting popularized by Urban Archaeology (via Martha Stewart) make Larkins’ kitchen a bit more conservative than Helgerson’s but no less lovely.

(Photos via Jessica Helgerson and Ty Larkins)

]]> http://www.atticmag.com/2010/04/marble-subway-tile-kitchens/feed/ 5 http://www.atticmag.com/2009/08/black-and-white-smallbone-kitchen/ http://www.atticmag.com/2009/08/black-and-white-smallbone-kitchen/#comments Mon, 31 Aug 2009 05:05:20 +0000 Jane F http://www.atticmag.com/?p=8395

Modernizing a kitchen in a Victorian house in England is no small accomplishment, even for a designer as celebrated as Robert Couturier. When a longtime client moved from New York to London, Couturier chose the classic black-and-white color scheme using white Smallbone cabinetry with black counters. He also worked in pale-blue walls (popular in Britain) then cranked it all up by injecting some 21st century glitz by way of silver-tone accessories.

Chief among these is the pair of Miss K pendants by Philippe Starck made of a silver- hued thermoplastic Lucite (by Flos, largest size about $800 each at lumens.com). Then there is the pair of equally posh, nickel task lamps with a graduated series of four brackets that afford maximum adjustability (‘Expanding Wall Light,’ about $2100 from charlesedwards.com).

The house contains elaborate plasterwork, evidenced in the niche framing the La Cornue stainless steel range, hood and potfiller. A pair of nickel gooseneck bridge faucets grace the sinks and vintage industrial iron stools provide seating around the island.

It is rare to see ingenious window coverings in even the most finely designed kitchens. Couturier’s roman shades (in striped Scalamandre cotton) are mounted at ceiling height. Steal these immediately! Why? Because they have polish, but are still practical (and don’t look frumpy the way most kitchen curtains do).

Possibly more interesting are the discreet solar roller shades mounted across the double hung windows to afford privacy – a devilishly clever bottom-down, top-up solution for a high-end kitchen with an enviable budget but one that delivers utmost quality with real style.

(Source: House & Garden 9/09)

It would be hard to argue against black and white checkerboard as anything other than a classic design motif in a kitchen — whether it’s used on the floor or played out in a tile backsplash. Yet the way it is applied certainly can change the overall impact.

Here is a clear “then and now” example:  a small, eccentric, mid-20th century garçonnière (bachelor apartment) kitchen in a London flat belonging to an antiques dealer that was photographed in 1991 – versus a heavily-equipped 21-century pro-style, custom kitchen in a Paris penthouse designed by Alberto Pinto, which we featured last year.

Compare and contrast the following aspects:

………………………Mid-20th C ………Early 21st C

Cabinets…………..Unfitted………………Built in
Counters…………. Matching tile………..Black stone
Appliances………..Small, white…………Big, stainless
Range Fuel……….Gas…………………..Gas
Stainless  Sink……Drainboard…………Under-mounted
Wall Décor…………Personal…………….None
Lighting…………….Ceiling fixture………Recessed + cargo pendants
Tile…………………..Glazed  4″x 4″………Glazed 6″ x 6″

So which kitchen used this black and white tile motif better?

(Top photo via WOI)

Large, super high-end and gourmet-worthy, this black and white charmer by top Montreal designer Scott Yetman is one of the most interesting and well-designed kitchens we’ve seen in some time. It also has a popular color scheme worked out so thoroughly there are lessons even a practiced kitchen designer can take away.

Walls packed with equipment and features have little uninterrupted space however the kitchen looks coherently organized. Black counters create strong horizontal lines that help balance the space. Cabinets and lighting enhance – rather than fight – architectural features such as the clerestory windows [below] and coffered ceiling. By keeping cabinets, walls and other woodwork all the same color, the complexities become undetectable unless you happen to be looking for them. A stainless, double-bowl apron front main sink is bumped out slightly and fitted with a gooseneck bridge faucet and side sprayer.

While the centerpiece of the kitchen appears to be the imposing island, with butcher block and a built-in knife rack at the business end, the heart of this kitchen is a few feet away: the wood burning oven in the corner. With the beehive shape and tall chimney seamlessly built in, plus a commercial stainless work table alongside for setting down hot pizza and bread pans or earthenware dishes, this oven says “serious cook at home.”

The white Viking range and matching wall oven and warming drawer (with a microwave above) offer the full appliance enchilada. The range guard is equipped with flip-down shelves, suggesting heat lamps under the hood. This also is the first time we’ve seen a pot-filler faucet mounted adjacent to the range – normally they set above the burners – but since the faucet swivels sideways, the idea works (and makes space for those shelves).

Upper cabinets have the requisite glass doors flanking the sink, always a way to lighten things up around the windows. Side lites on the cabinets are a careful detail. Other nice touches include a steel towel railing and a pair of drawers on the end of the island; also basket storage at the center.

Lighting is ample as well. There are recessed lights in the ceiling, task lighting under upper cabinets and a chandelier with perfect scale and style for the space.

L.A. designer Kristen Buckingham (wife of Fleetwood Mac’s Lindsey) built what we define as a Hollywood Family Kitchen – dramatic, glamorous, and fully loaded with a batterie of blue-chip (Wolf and Sub Zero) appliances, custom cabinetry and a comme-il-faut for the neighborhood high-prestige mix of features.

We can tick off the must-haves: pot filler-faucet, glass-door SubZero, antique table, English-style island, then set the timer for 2008, the year lavender became a neutral. We also might observe that two schoolhouse pendants, a brass cargo pendant (way in back), plus a six-arm Murano milk-glass shaded chandy together in one room is a couple of sconces short of a Melrose Ave. lighting showroom.

Still, the kitchen is as luscious as a pumpernickel-everything bagel with a thematic and distinctive dark-bread color on the perimeter cabinets: Benjamin Moore’s Night Shade (2116-10).

Then Buckingham rocks the room with a brown-black and lavender carpet-pattern floor from Mission Tile West. Pulling patterned tile off the back splash and onto the floor, where it functions like a rug, is a character-building master stroke and an example of how rethinking one simple element lifts a kitchen design into the original and memorable category. (Via Elle Décor, 3/09)

Sleek, spacious and consistent in its concept and color scheme, this contemporary black and white kitchen has elegant details that merit study. Despite considerable drama produced by the contrast of black and white surfaces, careful planning has produced a surprisingly serene overall effect.

Anyone who knows my particular bias against upper cabinets — which I feel too often intrude on working space at eye level — will immediately note their absence here. Walls above the base cabinets are clad in black-stained planking that wraps around two sides of the room. A sink window is reduced to a narrow horizontal slit (no doubt to screen out a less than felicitous view over the main sink) while an adjacent glass door lets in light. The black partition at the end of the eating counter picks up the black-slab form while layering on function with a wall-size chalkboard surface on the working side.

Keeping all the base cabinets white, with slab fronts — and pulls instead of handles – maintains clean lines and emphasizes the play of surfaces and textures. Bosch double ovens, a low-profile electric smoothie cook top and stainless modernist vent hood blend seamlessly with the dishwasher and built in refrigerator-freezer. Round sinks (which many architects like to use) are a sole point of argument since they may not provide maximum space for larger pans and platters. They are well positioned however, and the prep sink close to the refrigerator could also work for a bar.

A slick white ceiling provides the needed reflective surface required with dark walls and the pebbled vinyl floor is not exceptionally light absorbing yet very practical. Another obvious advantage of the kitchen is its size. While the distances between the refrigerator and stove might require a longer than average shuttle, it’s not difficult to envision this as a kitchen where guests could congregate during a party without ever getting in the way of the culinary action.

The cooktop installed on an island topped with polished black granite allows the cook to face into the dining room while still retaining a convenient relationship to the main sink just behind. Butcher block on the perimeter cabinets — round an undermounted apron-front farm sink — must be carefully sealed but many cooks prefer wood to stone (not that it also is repeated on the window-sill ledge. Double-tier glass-front upper cabinets, finished with crown molding, float below the angled ceiling, helping to make it ook higher. Inside, cabinets are painted pale blue to help the contents pop. The black cast-iron pot rack hanging over the island is by Enclume; white inset-door cabinets were made by Plain & Fancy. (Source: suzyny)

When we talk about updating a classic Victorian-style English kitchen, we need look no further for a prototype than this one by Robinson and Cornish. Let’s begin with the imposing ivory Aga cooker, set into a deep, tiled and lighted niche with a mantel built to disguise the venting system.  White cabinets have inset, paneled doors  and round knobs in a contrasting dark color. Open cookbook and glassware storage above the main sink is flanked by glass-door cabinets with divided lites. The sink boasts a graceful gooseneck bridge faucet with offset legs, level handles and side spray — considered the queen of high-end “sink jewelry.” Polished black stone on the island and perimeter cabinets adds a certain glitz and sets off the rustic pavement floor that is typcial of late 19th- and early 20th-Century basement kitchens. Lest the white relief-tile back splash be considered too plain, there are decorative tile panels inset behind the cooker. Both brackets (beneath the island counter overhang) and corbels (underneath the mantel shelf) show how furniture details are routinely incorporated into fitted English-style kitchen furniture.  (Source: robinsonandcornish.co.uk)

The black range hood is so wide and tall it becomes the dominant design element of this kitchen and sets off the play of black and white appliances. The hood holds sway over a white gas range surrounded by a black inset in the floor. Likewise, a black-front dishwasher is installed into a white island, also set on a black area with cork surrounding it. The large wrought-iron pot rack over the island ties into the black elements while the wood counter on the island functions as a neutral material nearly the same color as the main areas of the floor.  Only the drop-in enamel sink with seems anything less than current although this kitchen design reflects trends early in a decade dominated by undermounted sinks and apron-front farm sinks. A butler’s pantry is partly visible to the left of the doorway. (Source: BHG Kitchen and Bath Ideas, Nov/Dec 2003)

An ebony-ivory drama is created by a Jet Mist granite counters, with an unusually prominent “crumb sweeper” overhang along the entire sink wall. White perimeter cabinets braclet a handsome black Viking range fitted with a stainless steel wall guard right up to the ventilator. The kitchen’s black, English-style, turned-leg worktable with a pot shelf functions as an open island with a contrasting top. Bale pulls on the kitchen cabinets drawers are an unusual and unique furniture detail while mushroom knobs are used on cabinet doors. By Sally Cernik Weston and Cameron Snyder for the Junior League of Boston’s Decorator Showhouse. (Source: BHG Kitchens and Baths)

The combination of natural oak with painted cabinets gives a cool modernity to this traditionally styled English kitchen by the bespoke cabinetmaker Chalon. The oak island and black-painted perimeter cabinets, anchored by polished black granite counters, have a yin/yang quality usually reserved for pairings with more contrast. However, here white upper cabinets take on a lightness that allows them to blend into the walls – a useful lesson about visual weight — while the lower cabinets feel more substantial. (Note the refinement of oak in the back of the plate rack to tie visually to the island). Steel knobs link up to the stainless steel farm sink. (Source: chalon.com)