Project Showcase:
Attewell
Our clients are professionals and love to cook and entertain friends. Their main wish was to create a large enough kitchen in their new house that allowed them to cook, showcase their art pieces and entertain their guests. Their taste is contemporary, with a love for drama and the arts, as one can see by the staging done with their extensive collection of Brazilian pottery acquired during their 30 years living in Brazil. The main design challenge for us was to combine the dining room and kitchen into one fluid space considering the varying ceiling heights and bulkheads in the kitchen area.
The client acted as her own contractor so she was clear on how much construction she would want to do (i.e.: not removing the bulkhead). The client is also an architect so she had very specific requirements and a strong sense of style that we needed to capture perfectly, so materials chosen reflect their bold style and personalities. We chose a painted matte charcoal color we call Noir and a touch of grey wood we call Castello. This combination of finishes pairs perfectly with the addition of a China cabinet section with smoked glass and aluminum doors allowing a peekaboo sight of their antique China. Because of all the dark finishes, we added the light metal frames to the corner to avoid bulky boxy cabinets.
The final touch was the countertop and backsplash in the same Caesarstone finish adding a little bit of texture and pattern to this design.
Objective
Combine dining and kitchen areas, increasing from a previous 26 linear feet galley kitchen to a new entertaining and cooking space totaling 48 linear feet including a 12 feet long island.
Design Challenges
The existing ceiling heights were varying and challenging from one room to the other with a bulkhead in the kitchen. The window at the left end of the new space also interfered with the coffee bar cabinetry depth.
The client was clear on wanting different zones for the various activities: cooking, entertaining, and a coffee bar area near their table, but feeling like one space.
The design needed to flow from the dining room to the kitchen despite the different ceiling and bulkhead heights, so we designed with 2 main colors in mind (black and a wood grain) to keep the space consistent even though there are 3 different activity areas in the kitchen: cooking, entertaining and coffee bar. We gave the upper cabinets a floating feel with upper panels above them matching the heights in both rooms to unify all the cabinetry into one. We reduced the depth of a portion of the coffee bar to allow clearance for the window, creating a space for all their cookbooks.
The upper panels in a wood finish above the cabinets, the metal structure in the corner brings lightness to the dark finishes, and the China cabinet smoked glass doors.
