Elegant High-Contrast Kitchen – Richmond, IL

The Setup

The existing kitchen wasn’t cutting it anymore. The homeowners designed and built this home about 20 years ago, but since then, their taste and needs changed. The outdated finishes felt, well, outdated. There weren’t enough work areas. Some counterspace stations were just awkward due to the layout. Adjoining spaces around the kitchen were also in need of an update, but it was decided that the kitchen would undergo a transformation first.

The Remodel

Design Objectives

• Rework the overall layout (kitchen, laundry and butler’s pantry) to have a better flow and utilize the space better
• Incorporate materials with wow and pizzazz to reflect the homeowner’s style
• Design large work areas for cooking with two or more people at a time
• Provide seating at an island in addition to table seating
• Update surrounding spaces since the kitchen is open to the rest of the home

Design Challenges:

• Include a vast array of cooking appliances while having enough of cabinet storage
• Adjacent rooms need to feel updated and flow with new Kitchen
• Having multiple focal points with different materials but not have the space feel like a hodge podge
• Provide different task, accent and overall lighting to brighten up space

The Renewed Spaces

Design Solutions:

• The homeowner loves to cook and wanted to maximize her abilities. We incorporated a 48” rangetop with a griddle, a single oven, steam oven, microwave drawer and 15” induction cooktop next to a 48” Galley Ideal Workstation with two faucets. In order to have room for all of these appliances, the floor plan needed to accommodate more cabinetry. Both dining room entrances were closed off and the laundry room entrance were moved to the opposite end of the wall to allow two long walls for additional cabinets.
• The existing round columns throughout the first floor were outdated. To keep the architectural element of the columns, we wrapped the new columns to have a square shape with a flat panel on all four sides. Then, we painted them black (to tie in with the kitchen tops and curved hood surround) and added simple crown molding. For the flow of the space, closing up the odd corner that connected the laundry and dining room and relocating both room entrances allowed the space to actually feel larger and more continuous. Adding the same square columns to the main dining room entrance, by the front door, also tied in the front of the house with the kitchen.
• The homeowner loves unique and bold materials. The main focal point of the kitchen is definitely the custom metal hood that incorporates two finishes and is set on a Lumix quartzite full-high back and side splashes. To make this area even more pronounced, a hearth-like drywall arch encloses the space. Once your eye moves off the hood, you start to notice the mirrored refrigerator panels, high gloss island cabinets, mirrored metal backsplash tile, delicate pendant island lights and the stunning island countertop material! There is a good mix of materials that make every space shine. The blacks, golds and pewter finishes help tie everything together.
• Lighting in a large kitchen is important. This space, besides getting a lot of natural light, needed lots of additional lighting due to the dark finishes. For overall lighting we have plenty of can lights in addition to lighting at the tops of the wall cabinets (that shine on the ceiling), undercabinet task lighting to make the tops sparkle and provide abundant lighting while prepping, pendant accent lighting over the island and a fandolier to add a little sparkle over the pub table. Voila!

Before / After photos: