Design: Edward Kaplan | Construction: The Buckingham Group
Our clients came to The Buckingham Group with specific needs in mind. They both loved to cook. They both loved to entertain. Their kitchen was no longer working for them. With this in mind, The Buckingham Group removed the cookie cutter 1980s kitchen & utility room installations. With creative architectural updates, we took this 1950 ranch style home into the 21st century, providing increased functionalityand better traffic flow.
The existing footprint of the galley kitchen, although large, was outdated and definitely not user friendly. The space included 80’s box store cabinets, 4” x 4” ceramic tile countertops and backsplashes and a 12” x 12” ceramic tile floor. Over the years, the grout between the countertop tiles had become more difficult to clean and as a result became discolored or missing in multiple areas. While the spacious windows let in natural light, lighting was provided by a single ceiling-mounted fluorescent fixture. As a result, the kitchen user would frequently have his or her back to this lone central ceiling fixture creating shadows in the workspace. Although there were many cabinets for storage, they were randomly spaced around the perimeter of the kitchen making them inefficient and not necessarily functional.
Our design team measured, photographed and documented the makeup of the existing kitchen. This information was combined with a list of needs from our clients that were critical for The Buckingham Group to consider in the redesign of their kitchen. We removed all of the kitchen cabinets, the tile floor and the free-standing breakfront that limited traffic flow. Our design moved the peninsula to the south of its former location to add prep space along the east wall while simultaneously capturing floor space that previously had no functional use. With the new floor plan there is ample room for multiple people to walk and work in the kitchen. It allows the entire east side of the kitchen to be devoted to food preparation while the opposite side now provides a wall of item specific cabinets designed for convenience as well as storage.
We embraced the natural light from the existing windows and then added plantation shutters for needed privacy. A new layered LED lighting system was designed incorporating three distinct means of lighting - accent, task and ambient. Created through the installation of a combination of recessed can lights, interior and undercabinet task lighting and a breakfast table chandelier the design allows the Owner to easily set the mood for cozy dinners or for brightening it for eye-comfort meal preparation.
A quartzite stone countertop was installed. It retains the cold and is ideal for rolling out pastry, a needed feature to satisfy the husband’s passion for baking. Above the breakfast table, a custom chandelier added a touch of glamour. To accommodate the client’s extensive collection of spices and oils, custom cabinets were installed at the cooktop and adjacent to the oven stack.
A glass doored wall cabinet was designed into the kitchen thereby creating a focal point for the Owner’s collection of unusual glass pieces.
Without modifying their basic footprint, the kitchen and utility room have undergone bright and airy updates tailored to the homeowners’ needs. The current transitional design displays a blend of warm and cool whites with rich hardwood floors that provide a sense of continuity between the adjoining family and dining rooms. The new kitchen provides our clients sought after balance of function and aesthetics.
- Norm & Dana
"Our only wish is that we should have had Ed do this years earlier so we would have had even more time to enjoy the wonderful finished product."
