It’s a common understanding that kitchens represent one of the highest cost-per-square-foot areas in our homes. Costs of countertops, finishes, and appliances vary wildly, but kitchen renovations also involve almost every trade: painters, cabinet makers, countertop fabricators, tile setters, plumbers, electricians, etc. Reining in costs often means sacrificing a coveted material or ditching an extraneous appliance, but it does not have to mean settling for an unsatisfactory result.
A small project I finished the architectural work for a few years ago recently came back to my attention in a delightful display of elegance and color, when Liquidpink owner, Stephanie Lalley, shared the finished project photos with me. (I had been introduced to the clients via their friend and a project manager with Terra Firma Building and Remodeling, and I, in turn, recommended Stephanie, when questions eventually turned to furnishings and finishes beyond the scope of the kitchen.)
Our clients, an energetic, young family had purchased a playfully postmodern home, designed by award-winning architect, Howard Goltz, and his wife, Janet, an interior designer, for their family in the mid-Eighties. Light, bright and open across multiple levels, the home had much to celebrate, but the kitchen—today’s hub of the home—was tight and visually isolated. Two elements were most responsible for these limitations: a full-length, cabinet-depth interior planter along the kitchen sink wall and a dropped exhaust fan surrounded by enclosed cabinets. Having just acquired the home the new owners were mindful of avoiding uninhibited spending and wanted to approach the renovation with restraint.
To that end, we set a few ground rules. 1. All walls, windows, and doors, along with functional cabinets and appliances, would stay in place. 2. New cabinets would be limited to areas of disruption, or where they could be inserted without disruption, to add beneficial storage. 3. Existing cabinet bodies would stay in place, with repaired or refinished fronts for color consistency with new. Then we tackled the primary impediments.
First, the integrated planter was removed, making room for the workhorse cabinetry run—with sink, dishwasher and trash/recycling pull-outs—to move forward and into the forested view. This move also created a new cabinet unit between the refrigerator and corner, aligned with an existing pass-through to the dining room, where cabinets were also touched-up for continuity. Above the sink run, an open shelf was added to house puck lights, create display opportunities, and visually disrupt an existing HVAC return.
Shifting the sink cabinet created the second biggest gain: two additional feet where it was needed most, in the middle of the kitchen. Here the expanded island—unique in its accent color—was redesigned to include a new induction cooktop, table-adjacent cabinets for everyday dishware, and room for stools. Above the island, suspended cabinets were replaced with a slim ventilation hood, opening views throughout the kitchen at eye level.
In the casual family dining area, a long, low continuous desk was replaced with a centered serving counter and floor-to-ceiling pantry cabinets on either side. This was particularly beneficial in the split-level plan to avoid running up or down to other storage areas. And as with any renovation project, existing conditions demanded creativity. A note on the drawings about verifying existing plumbing in a wall to be modified led interior designer Stephanie Lalley to create a playful screen of oak boards that complement the cabinetry and artfully distract from a plumbing offset.
This kitchen refresh was no small feat, and involved a number of talented collaborators and skilled tradespeople, but it was more restrained than many because we set out with a mindset to reuse and refinish before replacing or expanding. The result is beyond satisfactory. It is a delightfully fresh, functional and family-friendly kitchen, that lives up to its architectural heritage.
