Kitchen
4. California CoolDesigner: Kathy Ann AbellLocation: Rancho Santa Fe, California Size: 440 square feet (41 square meters); 20 by 22 feetHomeowners’ request. A casual-California-meets-Hamptons-style kitchen fit for entertaining, with enough seating for a large group of friends and family to eat at the same table.Dream features. Two zinc-topped tables with seating for 14 people. Dark beams against glossy white painted ceiling slats. Light wood cabinets. Gold accents and fixtures. Island seating for six people.
Designer secret. “Placing two tables end to end rather than installing a massive table gives the homeowners flexibility to more easily move the tables to the outdoor patio or downsize if they ever wish to,” says Kristi Brierton, a design assistant who worked on this project. Tables: RH; chairs: Palecek; bar stools: Dovetail Furniture; chandelier and pendants: Visual Comfort; vases on tables: Global Views; wood accessories on island: Europe2You; white dinnerware and glassware: VietriSee more of this projectYour turn: What does your dream kitchen look like? Please share in the Comments.More11 Must-Haves in a Designer’s Dream KitchenA Designer Shares Her Kitchen-Remodel Wish ListOther Resources on HouzzFind a kitchen designerGet kitchen design ideasBrowse kitchen materials and products
Designer secret. “The style of the kitchen was not at all ideal when the home was purchased,” Valdez says. “However, the cabinets were very good quality, and the appliances were also only a few years old. So, to save money, we filled in the knots on the base cabinets and the tall refrigerator cabinet and painted them in black and white lacquer paint finishes to make them look new. We remade all-new upper cabinets, a new range hood and a new kitchen island to match the existing door style of the original cabinets and painted them the same colors. Now, it’s almost impossible to determine which cabinets were new and which were existing. This was a huge cost savings without sacrificing the design aesthetic at all.”“Uh-oh” moment. “When we demoed the 2,000-pound rock-range hearth that surrounded the existing 48-inch-wide range, we realized the existing base cabinets that we were going to reuse were 39 inches tall,” Valdez says. “The standard height for base cabinets and appliances is only 36 inches tall. Our 36-inch-tall range suddenly looked dwarfed by the tall base cabinets next to it. So we put our heads together with our talented cabinetmaker and decided to build a 3-inch-tall ...
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