Kitchen Is Where the Hearth Is Location: Edina, MN, USA With her only daughter off to college, this busy executive decided it was time to remodel her kitchen to suit her love for baking, cooking and hosting holidays for her large family. The homeowner’s wish list included white cabinetry, an island, plenty of storage, a gas insert for the fireplace and a special place for her collection of teacups. The fireplace and the large bank of windows in the existing footprint were a challenge to designing a cohesive plan. But by moving the doorway to the mudroom closer to the sink wall, a dedicated cooking zone was created for the convection oven, steam oven and a gas rangetop. This wall became the anchor for the island, topped with Carrara marble, an ideal surface for rolling out pie dough and making cookies. Blue, the homeowner’s favorite color was chosen for the island color with a black glaze to give it warmth. It sets off the marble and coordinates with the soapstone on the perimeter, a low maintenance option. The whimsical island stools from Hickory Chair invite friends to stay a while. The wood-burning fireplace was replaced with gas to make it more useable and the brick was covered with a marble slab to create a clean, transitional feel. The paneled accent wall detail uses the same inside step profile of the cabinetry doors and is painted in Benjamin Moore Coventry Gray to match the walls but with a slightly higher sheen. It separates the kitchen dining space from the kitchen work area giving it a feeling of friendly formality. The hutch adds more kitchen storage and shows off the homeowner’s collection of colorful teacups with a contrasting painted interior in Benjamin Moore Yarmouth Blue. The Urban Electric black lantern over the kitchen table also has a painted interior of Yarmouth Blue. This dining space with fun bits of drama ties in with the swooping white hood and Carrara marble wall tiles on the opposite side of the kitchen space. The result is an organized cook’s kitchen that transitions gracefully to entertaining. Liz Schupanitz Designs Photographed by: Andrea Rugg