Photo Credit: Thinkstill

Photo Credit: Thinkstill

Photo Credit: Thinkstill

Requests/Challenges

1.   Maximize storage while retaining the exact footprint of the original kitchen.

Solution: Double stacked wall cabinets that extend to the 10’ ceiling and a rolling ladder for easy accessibility.  This significantly increased the amount of storage without increasing the footprint of the kitchen.

2.   Maximize the amount of natural light entering the kitchen (especially in the morning).

Solution: A triple window replaced the original single window on the exterior side elevation and a northwest facing skylight (hidden from view) added to the center of the kitchen allows the maximum amount of light to enter the space

3.   Create visual and audio connectivity between the kitchen, dining, and living rooms while still having the ability to isolate the kitchen in the event of formal dinners.

Solution: Added a 4’ opening with pocket doors above the sink and between the kitchen and dining room allowing light, sight, and sound to travel to and from the kitchen.  These doors can also be closed to create a more formal setting.

Photo Credit: Neffworks

Custom Cabinetry
They needed a functional layout finished with the right materials to achieve their goal.
Holiday Kitchens Cabinetry
-  Traditional Framed and Full Overlay
-  Petersburg Square door with 850 edge profile
-  Snowdrift paint and Suede Brushed glaze
-  Custom trim, decorative feet and hutch brackets

Photo Credit: Neffworks

Additional Products
-  Reclaimed pine hardwoods, finished to match the original wood flooring throughout the home
-  Natural John Boos maple butcher block countertops, brushed nickel hardware by Top Knobs, and Viking stainless appliances help to create the utilitarian feeling that a 1916 kitchen may have had
-  Viking appliances including a 42” built-in refrigerator and a 36” gas range with griddle provides “professional style”   cooking capabilities
-  Rohl faucet in satin nickel and Kohler Smart Divide sink in white


Kaity Slaughter is a lead designer and project manager for DCI Home Resource and has been with the company for eight years.  She received her undergraduate degree in architectural design and her MBA.

Natural Blond Bamboo with a Moso Door Style

•    Recycling center

Robert Kennedy, Jr. Greenhouse

•    Displaying special items

Photo Credit: MJA Designs - Virgina

•   Additional seating

Photo Credit: Kitchen Kraft – Ohio

•   Microwaves and warming drawers

Photo Credit: Kitchen Kraft - Ohio

Whether you are adding a new island or redesigning a current one, it is important to think about how your current kitchen design flows and what needs you are hoping your new island can fulfill.

Watching a design come to life—and seeing the smiles on my clients’ faces—is one of my greatest rewards! A seasoned veteran of the kitchen and bath industry, Lori began her career in 1986 and earned her accreditation with the National Kitchen and Bath Association in 1996. Lori enjoys creating beautiful dream kitchens that are also truly functional. Striving daily to exceed her clients’ expectations with outstanding design and service has earned her many repeat customers and referrals.

My client’s kitchen was only 10 years old, but the cabinet doors were falling off the hinges.  The kitchen was dark, even on sunny days, as there was a wall separating the four-season sunroom and the great room.  The homeowner wanted to open the area up to one open living space.  By doing so, the dining room table would be moved out to the four- season room and the kitchen would be expanded with a large island at bar height to hide the kitchen.  She also wanted to add large appliances and more counter space, as she enjoys cooking and baking.  With two children in middle school and sports, and her own volunteering, she also needed a place to house the calendar (her family bible), her cell phone and purse, out of site, but not out of mind.

The family consists of the father, mother and two children. Since the father is a doctor, and does not have a 9 to 5 day, they wanted a warming drawer to keep his dinner warm until he made it home.   They are also very active, running, biking, boating, they wanted an ice maker so they didn’t have to get bagged ice every time they went out in the boat, instant hot and cold water and beverage area out of the work triangle.  I achieved their needs with:

• A small sink between the refrigerator and ovens and created a hutch look above.  The sink has an instant hot and cold water tap as well as a standard faucet.
• An ice maker to the right of the sink with a door on it to conceal the look.
• A Sub Zero drawer refrigerator in the island with paneled drawer fronts to conceal the appliance.

The homeowner’s are 6’2” and 5’2”, so another challenge was to get storage and accessibility for both.  I achieved this by:

• Lowering the wall cabinets to 16 1/4” above the counter which still allowed for the 14” high mixer to be stored in the appliance garage, but made the upper cabinets more accessible to the bottom two shelves in the wall cabinets.
• Moving the microwave from above the stove into the island using Wolf’s drawer microwave, making it more accessible.
• Adding a tall pull-out pantry to keep the storage of the homeowner’s spices close at hand.

Because they wanted as much cabinet space possible, Holiday Kitchens’ Robin Wilson Home (RWH) custom cabinetry frameless line was selected for this project.

• Perimeter selections were Georgian door style; 3” stiles and rails in cameo with mocha glaze to have the space appear brighter and look larger.
• The islands and hutch cabinetry selections are Embassy door-style with splits and wormholes in a custom color on maple with glaze to anchor them in the room and tie in with the wood flooring.

Ultimate Goal Achieved

We opened the wall up and with using a large beam and pillars, kept the traditional look that the homeowner was looking for.  The original floor in the kitchen was refinished and the hickory floor was extended into the great room area for continuity making the space feel like it was one.  I took out the lowered seating around the island and made it one big work surface, putting cabinets back to back and finished with wainscot end panels.  But rather than just having a standard 1 ½” overhang on the center island tops, we repeated the radius on the ends as on the raised bar top for additional interest.    By using the cameo painted cabinets with glaze on the perimeter and darker accent cabinets for the island, it tied in the darker colors in the hickory floor, it made the space seem larger.

In order to stay organized “Mom” needed a place for a calendar to record all the activities. I designed a raised counter where the top drawer houses her calendar while allowing it to be in a comfortable standing position.  This area also houses her purse and cell phone when arriving home – a spot out of the way of food prep, but easily accessible.  The family also needed a place for the computer, so we placed a small desk in the corner of the four –season room and we used entertainment hardware to conceal it when not in use.  There are also cubbies for the envelopes, stapler, etc, behind the right side door.

Finally – A place for everything and everything in its place.

Additional products featured in this kitchen project:

Flooring: Natural hickory
Countertops/Vanity Tops: Golden beach granite
Sinks:  Elkay ELGULB3322
Faucets: Delta 980T-RB
Instant hot/ cold faucet:  Insink Erator Indulge™ Contemporary (F-HC1100
Dishwasher: Bosch stainless steel
Cooktop:  Wolf SRT364C-LP
Refrigerator: Sub Zero BI-48S/S/TH
Beverage refrigerator:  700BR refg in island (with matching wood panels)
Oven: Wolf DO30U/S
Wolf MWD24 microwave drawer
Wolf warming drawer WWD30, (with matching wood panels)
Uline ice maker BI2115B (with matching wood panels)

For more custom kitchen ideas and Holiday Kitchens full line of custom kitchen cabinetry, visit www.HolidayKitchens.com

The percentage of senior citizens has almost doubled since 1950, and approximately 49 million Americans have some type of disability.


Choose lower cabinets with shelves on rollers. If you have to bend, you can at least prevent having to reach into deep cabinets or get on your hands and knees to find the items you need. Roll out shelves are easy to install and look great.

Think about your future mobility. Ten or twenty years from now, you might need a wheelchair or walker to help you get around. Is your kitchen layout optimized for this, while still having enough room to cook? If you’re going to use islands or furniture, make sure that there is enough space to move.

STORAGE

Use every inch you’ve got to ensure your countertops remain uncluttered and your floors too!

ELECTRONICS

Electronics are commonplace in most kitchens today – the problem is they can consumer valuable counterspace.    Hang televisions and music players whenever possible.

BUILT-IN APPLIANCES

Integrating your oven, fridge freezer, dishwasher into your cabinetry creates a streamlined look – appliances can take up valuable space and look untidy.

LIGHTING, COLOR & FINISH

Pale colors on walls and glossy finishes on cabinetry open up a room, creating the illusion of space. Glass backsplashes and high polished countertops can also be used to bounce light around a kitchen.

Photo Credit: MJA Design in VA

Photo Credit: Inspired Interior of Chicago

In preparing for writing this blog, I decided to do some research on the popularity of the white kitchen.  Turns out this was easier said than done, as there are a lot of articles floating around talking about “trends.”  While some of them indicate the white kitchen is on the way out – most agree that a well done, quality white kitchen is timeless beauty and could never be categorized as a “trend”.  We at Holiday Kitchens agree!  We have worked with lots of very talented kitchen designers that have created traditional, modern, traditional and modern kitchens – yet all timeless architectural masterpieces!
White is a pure color that could be described as “safe”, as it is not subject to changing trends and can be made to suit practically all tastes and styles.  Another key characteristic of white is its capacity to adapt to any other color. These matches can greatly affect the character of the surrounding environment.

Photo Credit: Kitchen Gallery in TN

In psychology, white represents light, simplicity and purity and in the kitchen it conveys the idea of cleanliness, creating a perception of a larger space.  We think you will agree!

Photo Credit: Kitchen Gallery in TN

]]> http://blog.holidaykitchens.com/timeless-beauty-white-kitchens/feed/ 0 http://blog.holidaykitchens.com/true-quality-%e2%80%93-true-custom/ http://blog.holidaykitchens.com/true-quality-%e2%80%93-true-custom/#comments Wed, 15 Jun 2011 01:25:11 +0000 Tamy Severude http://blog.holidaykitchens.com/?p=1415 With three locations, in Longwood, Winter Park, and Tampa, S & W Kitchens has been serving the Florida customers since 1977 and are proud members of the National Kitchen & Bath Association.  The company offers a “one-stop” shopping facility featuring all of the latest Kitchen and Bathroom cabinetry, counter-tops, and accessories available, as well as providing turn-key construction services. S & W Kitchens’ showrooms feature the latest in all of their cabinetry product lines and most of our kitchen vignettes feature the latest in appliances.

*By Brooke Edwards, AKBD

Custom…

Our clients, both engineers, fell in love with a cabinet display in our Winter Park showroom and I knew Holiday Kitchens could handle the challenge.  We did a custom color match stain and custom slab cherry doors with radius corners.

After

Before

Other custom pieces include a curved drawer bank under the cooktop, custom trash pullout with foot pedal, custom appliance garage cabinet in the corner, and a convex curved crown molding.

True Quality…

This is the reason I directed them to Holiday cabinets and why they chose Subzero/Wolf appliances.  They fell in love with a beautiful Blue Pearl granite and I designed a sparkling backsplash with the Sonoma crushed glass to compliment the granite.   At the end of the island I incorporated a glass door cabinet, which created support for the large piece of granite.  It also broke up the “sea of cherry,” so the kitchen didn’t feel too heavy.

Another key feature of the kitchen is the dramatic contemporary stainless cabinet hardware.  The client found a photo on the Holiday Kitchens website and loved the look.  It was quite a challenge picking all the sizes to make sure the proportions were kept the same on all the cabinets.  It adds a really unique feature to the kitchen.

One of the main requests was to keep the existing tile flooring (which also meant the shape of the partial wall).  Even though we were working with the same general footprint of the kitchen, the client wanted to enlarge the countertop space on the bar top of the island for an area for seating.  Other requests were the large 48” Subzero Pro fridge, two microwaves and a specialty trash cabinet.

We did some specialty storage including a chef’s chrome pantry, custom located rollout trays, two rollout shelves for the client’s mixers.   The cabinet finish was a custom matched stain.  The cabinet construction style was a full access box.  The doors were solid cherry slabs with radius corners.   We also did a convex curved crown molding.

The client could not of been happier with the end result!  One change we added as the job was underway was to panel the back of the island. Originally the client was thinking a tile or paint but as the job was underway I suggested paneling the back.  Our clients and I were very happy we did, as it really creates a stunning island.   The client said it best, “I still marvel at it sometimes, that it’s ours.”

S&W Kitchens installed the cabinets and granite.  The homeowner installed the very intricate backsplash.  You can see his level of detail, as it turned out extremely well!

*Brooke Edwards has been a professional Kitchen and Bath Designer working in the industry for 7 years after graduating from Ringling College of Art and Design with a degree in Computer Animation and Sculpture.  She is certified with the National Kitchen and Bath Association, on the board of the Central Florida Chapter of the NKBA, and an award winning designer in an NKBA design competition.  Her passion for design is bringing custom, one-of-a-kind spaces to life with unique materials and innovative design solutions.  Kitchens and bathrooms are just like any other sculpture, where composition, scale, and proportion are crucial to a cohesive and well defined space.

We have definitely seen an increase in hiding appliances with decorative panels at Holiday kitchens and it has presented some interesting challenges, not only for us, but for kitchen designers, as well. The designer comes up with the idea and then partners with us to figure out how to manufacturer and create the look for the homeowner.  We have extensive experience at Holiday Kitchens helping designers and homeowners achieve their dream kitchens by hiding the appliances.  We have mastered the process of gathering the very intricate and measurements of the appliances, as they have to be spot-on to make the fridge look flush and built in.

Photo Credit: Nordic Kitchens in LA

Photo Credit: Unique Custom Cabinets of Ohio

Unique applications that we are seeing at Holiday Kitchens are:

• Dishwasher drawer cabinets
• Glass front wine coolers
• Built in refrigerators
• Microwaves built into tall oven cabinets or bases

Also, we are seeing a trend of stainless steel appliances being worked into contemporary kitchens almost as if it is decoration.  As you can see in the photo below of a contemporary kitchen, the stainless steel becomes the accents, coordinating with the hood unit, chairs, etc.

Photo Credit: Nordic Kitchens in LA

The kitchen is the center of our homes, and we want it to be personal and beautiful.  This is just one of many ways – what have you done to personalize yours?