A.K. RIKKS Location: Grand Rapids, MI Scope: Design, Landscape Installation, Hardscape Installation, Irrigation Installation Features: Cobblestone walks, courtyard with dry water feature, teak panels, sculpture garden, outdoor park & event space.

There’s nothing as wonderful as walking into a mid-century gem with clients who love the character of their new home. Our goal for this project was to incorporate the mid-century bones of this home into a new design that would better meet the contemporary needs of our clients. We started by taking down the walls that had separated this kitchen from the rest of the home and creating a welcoming space that blended seamlessly with the new open concept. The new kitchen design was a win for our clients with increased storage, more work surfaces, and a peninsula with plenty of seating. We utilized wood finishes through out this space with light wood flooring, medium-tones on the cabinetry, and darker wood accents throughout giving us a beautiful balance and a calm backdrop. This home had beautiful horizontal lines that we wanted to accentuate, so we selected a dark wood finish for the central beam and tied it in with the dark finish on the wood fireplace mantel and the stair handrail to emphasize the horizontal features. But we never miss an opportunity for a fun mid-century pop, and this home provided plenty of inspiration! The boomerang hardware on the cabinets and escher backsplash tiles give us great geometric elements to break up the clean lines of the rest of the space. One of our favorite features of this home was the original plaster ceilings with the custom hand troweled texture. We knew from the beginning that this was an element we wanted to maintain and accentuate, so when we opened up the kitchen and added recessed lighting we reached out to a local plaster artisan to carry the texture throughout the space, and we couldn’t be happier with the results. This design brings together the mid-century aesthetics of clean lines and fun patterns with the modern-day functionality our clients were looking for in their new kitchen.

"Groovy" is an all glass and steel wall sculpture that is made out of 73 pieces of individually hand cut art glass. The steel is prepared and welded with each joint forming the foundation for the precise placement of the glass above it, creating a dynamic yet harmonious composition.

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Detail of custom wallcovering. Underlay by Donald Alter. Paper lace by Rebecca Darlington. Photo by Meredith Heuer
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Detail work
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Creating a custom, rustic luxe exterior finish. All photos and video's of this project were taken by Steve Schmidt using an iPhone 4S.

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