Kitchen
Like the division of areas using ceiling headers AFTER: The interior was completely gutted, and the floor plan was completely changed. The more open layout stems from Brie’s hatred of hallways. “I feel like they waste square footage,” she says. From every place she stood in the house, Brie wanted to be able to see shiplap, transom windows and old light fixtures. The view from the entryway looking into the piano room and dining room accomplishes that. The piano is a Steinway from 1896 that once belonged to Brie’s grandmother. “It’s very special to me, and I wanted to have that be the first thing you saw when you walked into the house,” she says. Headers in the ceiling and half walls with see-through storage helped her achieve some semblance of separation. “Even though I don’t like hallways, I like the division of space,” she says.
Half wall. Carving out a half- or third-height wall will give you the easy flow of an open-plan space without giving up much storage. Install cabinets on the kitchen side and slide your dining table up near the other. The top of the partial wall can also act as a buffet, perfect for setting out plates and dishes of food when dinner is ready.
Stainless steel countertop Easy-care surfaces. Marble counters are gorgeous, but they stain — and it’s not fun to be constantly reminding (read: nagging) others to wipe up spills immediately. Avoid tile, or if you must have tile, choose forgiving dark grout rather than white. Stainless steel, Corian and engineered quartz are great tough countertop materials; butcher block is great too, if you can embrace the inevitable scratches as part of the charm. Classic linoleum and Marmoleum floors are easy to maintain; wood is fairly easy too, although spills should be wiped up right away. More tips for designing a kitchen that’s easy to clean
Kohler sinks. One of the things researchers noticed is that people are looking for a simple place to hang a dishcloth. “Sometimes it was placed over the divider or faucet, sometimes on the edge of the sink, sometimes crumpled on the counter,” he says. “One of the features of the Strive is a dish towel rack that hangs off the sink divider.”
2. Lowered Divider. Pros: Want to have a double sink and be able to comfortably wash or soak a long-handled pan? A sink with a lowered divider might be for you. Cons: If your cooking style demands deep water, this is not an ideal configuration.
Solid panels conceal the less attractive items on the bottom, like the microwave. “We don’t really like a microwave out in the kitchen, and she doesn’t use hers much, so we put that in here at child height,” von Hartz says. Same for a few other small appliances, as well as cereal and other items the boys need to make their own breakfasts. “It’s important for the kids to be able to be self-sufficient,” she says.
Add pantry to dry kitchen “We really wanted the pantry to serve as a big, beautiful feature of the kitchen, so we used glass doors and tiled the walls from floor to ceiling,” Fitzgerald says. When closed the glass panels in the doors reveal Lilli’s cake plate collection, glass jars full of dry goods and canisters.
The new kitchen is a well-designed mix of high and low; it appears much more expensive than it really was. The contractor, Nuno Teixeira of Caliber Group, painstakingly installed off-the-shelf Ikea cabinets so they looked custom built for the space. The family splurged on a marble countertop for the island but saved money by installing white Caeserstone and a low-cost tile on the rear wall. The indulgent gold pendant was designed by Marshall and fabricated locally by Dean Lee, owner of Lampcage in Toronto. Appliances: Thermador; cabinetry: Akurum, Ikea; island marble: Olympia Tile + Stone; drawer pulls: Richelieu; edge pulls: Berenson; sink: Radius Maxi Sink, Blanco; pendant: designed by Palmerston, fabricated by Lampcage; counter stools: BLVD Interiors
Paving stone floor and black worktops
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