Over the top design elements need not overpower a room.

An elaborate tiled coffered ceiling is an over-the-top design element in this kitchen addition, but by keeping the rest of the room light it doesn’t over power the space.  Glass door cabinets are placed over windows and remind me of our recent Salie House China Room.  The windows extend beneath the upper cabinets bringing natural light to the stainless steel counters.  A beverage and serving area is tucked into the corner, adjacent to the breakfast area.

The range area reflects the home’s 1920’s Spanish Colonial architecture with its custom plaster hood and inset relief.  The quilted stainless niche offers storage and cooking space with interior shelves and counters.  A wood-topped island holds a second full-sized sink while copper pots hang from a simple rack above.

Don’t miss Covered Porches to see another gorgeous tiled ceiling.  Source: Velvet and Linen

Three-inch thick reclaimed walnut tops the 18-foot custom island.

When the owners of this 1927 Spanish Revival home embarked on a two year extensive remodeling journey, no detail was overlooked.  The Salie House is one of over thirty Spanish Revivals located in the historical Hollywood section of Homewood, Alabama.  The previous kitchen was a true servant’s kitchen, which means it was within hiking distance to the main living areas.  This kitchen addition blends seamlessly with the original home.  Three-inch thick reclaimed walnut tops the eighteen foot custom island.  A slightly lower walnut end-grain butcher block is located at one end for easy prepping.

The custom copper and wire-glass skylight features an interior trough, so if there is ever a leak, water will be diverted outside.  The soapstone sink will be placed under the double window.

The homeowner opted for a European model Lacanche Sully 2200 in a black finish with unlaquered brass handles.  The raw brass is repeated throughout the home.  One reason the owner went this route was so he could specify the exact location of each burner and exact BTUs.  The range features six burners, a wok burner, deep fryer and grill.  Commercial grade griddle plates fit over the burners.   An electric oven, gas oven, warming and storage cupboards are down below.  The order process took approximately seven months to delivery.  The stunning custom iron hood canopy is a work of art, but doesn’t overshadow the kitchen.  It has brass rivets and a worn pewter finish.

The interior backsplash consists of custom terra cotta tiles laid in a herringbone pattern.  A continuous soapstone shelf runs the length of the range, keeping cooking utensils handy.

Hidden in the walnut cabinetry, here and next to the refrigerator, are two dishwashers, a bar, bar fridge with icemaker, freezer drawers, microwave and two televisions.  The Miele integrated coffee system is in the corner cabinet at counter level.  Adjacent counters and sink are soapstone.  Interior wood windows throughout the house are painted brown.

A Traulsen pass-thru fridge is accessible from the kitchen and this pantry area. A farmhouse sink with deck mounted faucet rests on a simple wooden leg console.  Floors, here and in the kitchen, are custom field terra cotta tiles that were stained several times and sealed.  The walls and ceiling of the pantry are wrapped in washed horizontal wooden planks.

The homeowner has an extensive collection of copper cookware, all polished and some recently re-tinned.  He spent weeks measuring, taking inventory and planning storage to maximize the island’s potential.  Future projects include a fourteen-foot iron pot rack above the island.  As beautiful as the drawer of copper pots, the roof (below) was created by fitting together 24″ x 36″ copper pieces and soldering twice, to secure the seams.

To see what lies beneath this gorgeous roof, read about the Salie House China Room, and don’t miss the home’s Timeless Modern Master Bath.  After leaving a comment, read about another  Lacanche Sully kitchen featured on Atticmag.

Sources: Homeowner and Dungan Nequette

A water and paint mixture washed over the Eastern white pine brings the sand colors inside.

Simplistic and rustic are usually not the first words that come to mind when I’m asked to describe a beach house.  But that is exactly what the owners of this timber-frame home received from architect Eric Watson.  It is located in Seaside, Florida,  a “new urbanist” town that began development in the 1980s and is famous for its architecture, walk-ability and urban spaces.

The Florida Panhandle is known for its sugar white beaches, and the water and paint mixture washed over the eastern white pine brings the sand colors inside.  Open cabinets and a vintage plate rack display everyday dishes.  The sideboard with drawers, another vintage piece, replaces lower cabinets along one wall.  Cabinet hardware is omitted in favor of cutouts.  The rough wood texture of the tongue-and-groove planks, cabinets and beams of this Charleston side-yard home are anything other than the typical beach house; a timeless design.

(Sources: Eric Watson, Architect, P.A. Period Homes, Sept 2006)

Simple, luxurious and perfectly planned down to the last tiny detail, this contemporary kitchen with its glorious book-matched sustainable Eucalyptus veneer cabinets manages to be both exciting and serene.

While it’s true that the stainless steel lining of the stove cove requires considerable maintenance, the workability shines through. There is acres of prep area on the mammoth island topped with Blizzard Caesarstone, bolstered by a huge 35-1/2-inch iconic double-bowl Julien 16-gauge stainless steel sink [close up below] paired with a matching stainless KWC Suprimo pull-out faucet.

The cook can swivel around to face the Wolf dual-fuel pro-range with pot filler on the back guard, and a steam oven and microwave nearby on the range wall. Frosted glass-front steel-frame cabinets on each side of the range break through the wood look and add a touch of Eurostyle glamour. Just steps away is a pro-style refrigerator/freezer pair set beautifully flush with the face of the cabinet wall.

As part of the renovation of this Texas home by alterstudio architects, wide-plank mahogany floors were installed and, to add natural light, a mural-size 12-foot by 5-foot picture window [above].

Abundant lighting is supplied by recessed ceiling fixtures in addition to the handsome trio of pendants.

Architects favor certain furniture. In the top photo there is a glimpse of Mies van der Rohe black tufted leather Barcelona stools in an adjacent room, along with properly minimalist eating-counter stools. Often, kitchens as well worked as this one look rather impersonal. Here, the architects worked in shelves to accommodate the owner’s collection of miniature modernist chairs [top photo, right corner] that  leaves us guessing — aside from cooking — as to the owner’s interests.  (Photos via alterstudio, Julien)

When Margie B set out to renovate the ‘70s kitchen in her New England home she hoped to keep the original footprint of the room but wanted a peninsula instead of an island. “We were a bit apprehensive about this as the trend is to do the reverse,” she says. “But this setup works really well for us as it creates better [work] zones and a better flow.

In the end, she got both. The sculptural, semi-circular peninsula provides casual seating facing into the kitchen that home owners prize these days — without closing up too much space between the cooking and living/entertaining areas.

In a dramatic departure from the silver and white Disco Era kitchen that came with the house [keep going, it's the bottom photo] Margie wanted something more traditional. Glazed cherry perimeter cabinets, colonial gold granite, and a quarter-sawn white oak floor delivered the overall look that inspired her. A whiff of country was added by the white-painted maple work-island with its polished absolute black top. The Chiaro glass mosaic backsplash, from Vetrolux Mosaico, weaves in a more modern accent and picks up gold tones in the granite.

An island shrunk to the size of a highly functional, handsome work station left room to traverse the kitchen freely while still preserving a “setting down” space in the middle. Margie uses the lined basket to store onions, ginger, garlic and potatoes. Her knives, in the top drawer (below) make this a prep area par excellence.

Two strong points in this kitchen include the selection of appliances and special cabinet features. Miele double ovens (below) are the workhorses here.  The big Amana refrigerator was the “one thing I kept from the original kitchen,” she admits.

During the Winter, Margie swaps her Miele steam oven (below the counter, to the left of the fridge) for the grill, using it for fish (especially Chilean sea bass), chicken, veggies and rice. “I can cook a complete meal in there — chicken with artichoke hearts, olives, sun dried tomatoes with rice and broccoli — in about 20 minutes, with very little clean up. It’s also great for reheating pasta, Chinese food, and corn on the cob. You just have to know that you’re not going to get a seared, or browned finish,” she says.

Choosing a top of the line Julien stainless steel sink along with the ultra-fashionable MGS Italian Progetti pull-out faucet, Margie layered luxury with convenience. The kitchen also boasts a Miele Diamante dishwasher.

Custom cabinets have the added benefit of made-to-measure features. The super susan (below) is tucked into the corner as a spacemaker between the dishwasher and the cabinet adjacent to the Wolf 5-burner gas cooktop.

And who wouldn’t love a walk-in pantry as roomy as this one, complete with pull outs? It was efficiently placed behind closed doors to the left of ovens, allowing ample  food storage for a family kitchen.

No kitchen tour would be complete without showing you where Margie started. The transformation, in this case, is nothing short of amazing.

By the end of next month, the new kitchen in our apartment should be finished. This rendering by our friend Anne E., an exceptionally talented virtual artist and founder of Virtual Room Previews, helped me visualize and refine my concept – complete with exact appliance and faucet choices and close approximations of the new, more modern colors  I wanted to use. I just think it’s amazing – and I was able to base my construction drawings on the virtual.

We are midway through the renovation now. A month ago, we put 90 boxes and most of our furniture in storage and moved out. It had been my husband’s place before we met and nothing had been done since he moved in as a single guy 23 years ago.

Naturally, the kitchen needed the most work. There were early-eighties-ugly energy-gobbler appliances — a white GE dishwasher and fridge. I longed to keep the black Modern Maid gas range but instead was able to place it with a new owner who is already using it as happily as I did. Since there was so much to do overall and the apartment needed painting, I decided — as a budget compromise — to paint and re-use the kitchen cabinets and keep the present floor. Here’s how the kitchen looked.

Worst though – at least for me – were the Pepto pink walls my husband and his late decorator painted, mauve tile counters with cracked grout, and the pink and green vintage tile backsplash. I wrote about the tile and the backsplash before we started. The tile should have been saved but our contractor, Yves, forgot and they were thrown out.

Here’s the most recent photo of the kitchen progress.

Crazy, no? It’s hard to see but the popcorn texture on the ceiling and soffit over the window in the center have been removed and the ceiling has been replastered. The  blob over the center window is the dark gray mortar under the plaster — there was a huge amount of plaster repair. That’s Yves checking his Blackberry and Steven, his charming number two who supervises all the work, standing near him.  The same day, Yves taped up the paint map I did for Steven – you can see the whole color scheme for the apartment there. The bottom two colors are for the kitchen — walls and upper cabinets in the beige (Farrow & Ball’s Stony Ground) and bottom cabinets and island in the cocoa (Farrow & Ball’s Dauphin).

My appliances were delivered last week. Tony, the super stone expert who works with Yves, and who helped me pick the Castle White Canadian marble at the stoneyard (below) did the countertop templating last Thursday. The day we picked the slab Tony taped off the counters so I was able to choose how the veining would fall in advance of their fabrication.

Tomorrow, we’re going to see what’s new.

I want to thank our talented pal Anne (VirtualRoomPreviews@gmail.com) who helped me so much. Over the next four weeks we should have some dramatic progress and it will be fun to see how Anne’s virtual and the real thing compare in the end.

Red-tone, slab-front, wood cabinets are one element in common to these mid-century style kitchens. They also share a fondness for French modernist furniture from the same generation, particularly designs by Jean Prouve, whose distinctive sheet metal and wood pieces are discernible classics.

An informal, ‘60s leaning kitchen [above] features Prouve’s Gueridon Table oak and steel table with laminate top ($2560 at dwr.com) easily combined with Eames 1948 Eiffel molded plastic side chairs ($249 each at dwr.com) and a bulb-pendant chandy.

The white-brick pattern wall that unifies the wall of upper and lower cabinets by providing a continuous backdrop in open spaces (especially behind the pull out steel table under the counter, left) is a fun homage to Beatles-era white and brickwork popular in kitchens of that time. Note the way it deftly dispenses with an awkward space above the upper cabinets which are bumped down by a beam (far right) – cabinets essentially composed of wood doors that slide across shelves.

A loft kitchen [above] in an apartment by New York designer Joe D’Urso, flips the scheme, showing how red-tone slab front cabinets play off against sensuous, polished black stone counters and backsplash. This island has reproduction Jean Prove stools (by Miguel Saco) and a bit more open shelving on the range wall. Building a Sub Zero built into a cabinet with an open shelf above the fridge injects a modular look.

I don’t know why the white-shag rug in the kitchen makes me chuckle but it must be more fun for bare feet than the grey stone-look floor (that ties into the stainless appliances). The piece de resistance in this kitchen – a vintage Poul Henningsen Artichoke chandelier — tops off the visual deliciousness of it all. (Photos via Domino and Elle Décor 4-05)

Look closely to see how an old grand piano was cut down for use as the base of the marble-topped island in the Greystone Court mansion kitchen in Yonkers, N.Y. While it may look authentic, the kitchen actually was a gut job (the house is rented out for movies and photo shoots). The marble checkerboard floor and tin ceiling added back period details. Then owner found two Italian Renaissance Revival cabinets — a style completely out of favor now — plus an English store display cabinet to serve for dishware. Gilded pier mirrors dress up the empty spaces and voilà! it’s Victorian. The Garland range and big Sub Zero work well as modernizations. (Source: NY Mag 5-08)

Mixing cabinet and island colors is a popular way to bring variety into a kitchen. Dark brown on the island with white stone on top, plus teal perimeter cabinets covered by black counters (inset with a white farm sink) has a nice country feeling (which means it’s warm) while the crisp white woodwork and horizontal planked walls add a touch of formality too. The trio of handsome pendant fixtures has a warehouse sort of chic plus they yield terrific task lighting over the cook top (so smart). Then there’s the floor. It’s easy to understand the design-think: dark diamonds tie into the black counters. Still, the question we have is whether the hefty floor pattern is essential or distracting? With diagonals running crosswise (and floor boards running lengthwise) it’s intended to make the room appear wider. But, would this kitchen look better without it? (Source: Internet)

It’s surprising not to see more French bistro mosaic tile floors – complete with dot patterns and borders – in home kitchens considering the “Wow!” factor this high-contrast brown-and-white beauty delivers. What helps put it over is the lack of competition from other colors or patterns. Wood-tone cabinets coordinate with the chocolate-hue tile and the white helps play the field. The sole surprise are the inky counters which actually seem neutral. (Source: Internet)

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)

In a kitchen with super-abundant detail the most striking feature – an embossed tin ceiling – jumps out. The intensity of the pattern and the cool color are balanced by the wood warmth of the armoire and cabinets. In an unconventional mix, muscular corbels and additional embellishments are added to the hood over the big Viking range. Stir in a pot rack, the inexplicable window valance, modern granite and a period light fixture that keep the eclectic spirit of the ceiling in play. (Photo via Sagestitchwork)