kitchen conversations

Designer, Krista Agapito, also highly customized the first floor of Mary and Hank Moore’s large Cypress Point home in several other ways.  She created a tri-level island that combines seating, food prepping, and visual division for the kitchen, while keeping everything at a comfortable level for the Moore’s, who are both tall.

 ”The knee wall has 12-inch cherry baseboard with tile above it,” says Agapito, who is based at S&W Kitchens Winter Park, Florida showroom. “It has a built-in Wolf steamer next to the prep sink, which is made of hammered nickel.  The design of the island hides the sink from view.”

The tile, which also was used for backsplashes, is a blend of crushed glass, two hand-made porcelain tiles, and a metal tile.

Next, the designer installed glazed cherry kitchen cabinetry by Holiday Kitchens, and then carried the wood and the look into the other rooms. In the living room she placed a custom cherry built-in bar that has an onyx glaze, the same blended tile backsplash, a wine rack and a cooler.

She positioned a built-in, cherry hutch-style desk between the two rooms that can be used for paying bills, making phone calls and for storage. Then the same cabinetry and tile were installed in the laundry room, which now boasts an air sink for washing delicates.

The striated bamboo flooring “is the wild card,” notes Agapito. “It was installed throughout the kitchen, laundry room, living room, and a nearby “imagination” and computer room.  Besides being ‘green’ and a renewable wood, this bamboo is very sturdy and denser than regular bamboo plank, which makes it very resistant to water spillage.  It also has a satin sheen, rather than a glossy finish to it.”

The 256-square-foot kitchen originally had stark white cabinets, dark green tile and light travertine flooring.  The remodeling project began with removal of a wall, an arched entryway and a deep drywall pantry space.  This allowed natural light to enter the kitchen while expanding the space of the imagination and computer room that was on the other side of the wall.

 The house was built in 1992 in Cypress Point, an exclusive enclave of executive homes in southwest Orlando.  All of the construction, labor and installations for the remodeling project were provided by S&W Kitchens, which is headquartered in Longwood, Florida.