This cooks + looks industrial style mixes modern and vintage French accents.
As someone who wrote about food for many years, it’s difficult to resist a kitchen created for serious cooking which also gets high marks for aesthetics. It’s an unbeatable combination I don’t see often enough.
Two essentials of the cooks + looks equation are great space and a generous budget. This Bay Area beauty, designed by San Rafael’s Joann Hartley, has both. Our pal and cofounder Jane T first sent me the photos of this kitchen since Janie likes to keep up on designers in and around her home town of San Francisco.
Here is a kitchen with what I call a “teachable features.” Those include adjacent banquette seating (at the very far end), a Cornue Fé French dual-fuel range, the stainless steel apron-front main sink sink, an eating bar, a stylish industrial style island with lighting and storage, cabinet panels on the refrigerator, a chalkboard door, butler’s pantry, mixed color cabinets, flat-screen TV, task lighting and wine refrigeration. Now you see why I mentioned budget.
Cornue Fé is a hot range for high-end kitchens. Less costly than the custom-made La Cornue it has gas power, electric side-opening ovens and traditional styling that French rangers crave. This one is handsomely bumped out and installed beneath a built in hood. The contribution of the fern motif on the hood is a mystery to me — that’s a teachable feature but not in a good way. More interesting is the unfitted eating bar set adjacent to the stove which can double as setting down space for the cook.
The support base of the eating bar is a stylish industrial-style French vintage piece with stools that coordinate. It also refers to the look of the island. Beyond, a small butler’s pantry includes open and closed storage plus a bar sink. A flat door that isn’t very attractive, but is smack in the middle of the sight line (many houses have one like this) was handily converted into a chalkboard.
Mixing cabinet finishes on the long kitchen wall breaks up the monolithic look some kitchens acquire and here it’s intelligently done. There is no shortage of equipment either – a speed oven and microwave supplement the double ovens of the Fé. The kitchen’s leitmotif, however, comes from the riveted, industrial style steel work table in the center with its double-tier chandy-shelf. Counters and backsplash are kept wisely low key and look very much like white blizzard of Caesarstone fame. Indulge me, please, while I drool.
(Source: Joann Hartley)
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That stove is a dream and I love the idea of the chalkboard on the door!
While I found this kitchen initially aesthetically pleasing, on more study I question some of the design choices. For instance, why have a design where the range juts out several inches beond the cabinets to the left of it. How do they open the lower cabinets to the left? I guess they only open 90 degrees? It would have been easy to place the range on the opposite wall and cleverly recess it so that it appeared at the same depth as the surrounding cabinetry. Plus that would have broken up the huge wall of cabinetry. Secondly, good luck to guests looking for the bar. It’s recessed around a corner and can easily become a congested area. And those legs on the peninsula…sure hope the cook doesn’t trip over them when removing something from the oven. Speaking of which, is the peninsula supposed to be the desired “landing spot” for dishes taken off the stove? Hmmm. Maybe pretty to look at, but I question whether this is a good, workable layout. I usually love your postings and agree with your observations, but this is one I just don’t “get.”
Kitchen chalkboards seem to be a big thing right now. They were in that ultra-chic Elle Decor concept house, too.
@nclakehouse – you know, I had some of the same thoughts but here is where I landed. I think, overall, the kitchen space is a bowling alley. And it looks to me that there’s some type of structural bump out behind the range–likely an old chimney.
The range looks to sit out at least 8 to 10 inches proud of the cabinets. So there’s room for the cabinet doors to open — 90 degrees as you say. I actually had the thought that the right oven door would bump into the island pedestal but decided there must be enough clearance. I don’t see the tripping — it appears to be tucked far enough underneath to me. But I get what you’re saying, for sure.
Another thought I had was why did that worktable stick out like that? I decided it was a visual stop — again to visually widen the room and then create a little pocket in back for the butler’s pantry.
I actually think the long wall is broken up very well — for a long wall. The 2 color cabinets help a lot and I like that.
Also, anyone note how narrow that center “island” looks? Bet it’s just 24″. That gave me a clue to the width. I think that’s the key to the layout.
A lot to love about this kitchen (drooling over mixed cabinet finishes on the long wall), but would definitely want more counter/workspace around the stove! Still cool to see.