In 2009 we were
commissioned to remodel the kitchen,
great room and powder/guest bathroom
in a 17 year old, semi-attached
townhouse in a gated community in
Boca Raton, Florida.
The old kitchen had a
door to the garage, sliders to the
pool courtyard and a spiral
staircase leading to an upstairs
bedroom and bath. It was
divided in half by at eat-at counter
that created an apartment-style
galley kitchen - small and awkward
to use. A breakfast area used
half of the space. The kitchen
had very little storage and was all
traffic.
James chose a wonderfully warm
anigre wood for the new cabinets -
which also edged the stair treads to
confine the carpet that wrapped
them. The clients did
not like the movement of patterns
found in marble or granite, so we
used a manmade beige quartz
Caesarstone to make two inch thick
countertops and to create walls to
enclose the cabinets.
The original
builder's kitchen was white Formica
and so cramped you couldn't stand at
the sink and have the door open to
the dishwasher. Very
dysfunctional. The white tile
floors added to the cold, sterile
feeling in this loud and brittle
space.
The family liked to
read the newspaper, watch the news
and work on their laptops in the
kitchen, so we adapted and expanded
the island to accommodate them.
By taking the upper cabinets all the
way to the ceiling, and adding the
storage and display cabinets between
the door and the staircase, we
doubled their organized storage.
The original kitchen
was introverted, and the seating
faced away from the lovely pool
courtyard.
Sandblasted marble
brick tiles, installed horizontally
under the cabinets and vertically
over the sink and stove, added
another layer of warm, natural
texture. Lots of different
dimmable lighting, controlled by
switches in the bump-out on the
right where one enters the kitchen
from the great room, allow for both
tasks and moods.
This is the old
breakfast room as seen from the
great room.
The same view with
the new kitchen that uses the entire
room.
The flat screen TV
sits above the microwave convection
oven, with room to store books,
magazines and newspapers. Shelves under the counter let things
be put out of the way for snacks or
meals.
The new kitchen
features a stove and oven with lots
of countertop at left and right.
The new flooring throughout is two
foot square polished Crema Marfil
marble set on the diagonal, with a
matching marble surround for the
oven bump-out.
A detail of all the
storage and the harmonious flow of
the new kitchen.
The left picture
shows the graceful movement of the
chandelier against the spiral
staircase, and the picture on the
right shows the relationships
between the refrigerator, cooktop
and oven, sink with dishwasher to
its right and the
microwave/convection oven beneath
the TV.
This detail shows the
extra-deep stainless steel sink and
the wonderful grain of the anigre
cabinets.
The great room that
flows into the kitchen has a wall
(out of view on the left) of sliders
overlooking a lovely enclosed pool
courtyard. Plantation shutters
cover the sliders. Although a
nice sized room, it was introverted
and cut up into dining and sitting.
We added architecture
with pilasters and punched a hole
through the long wall with a framed
floor to ceiling mirror that brought
the courtyard and light into the
room. We placed left and right
sectional sofas in the corners,
facing in on the dining area and
across to the water. Warm
textured wallpaper pulls the room
together with the new Crema Marfil
marble floor.
The guest bathroom is
also the home's powder room.
We dressed it up with a dramatically
dark brown textured wallpaper, and
used contrasting rows of Light and
Dark Emperador marble behind the
toilet and wrapping around the three
walls of the shower.
The gently curved
main sink is recessed into a marble
boxed, mirror backed alcove.
The storage closet across the room
was removed and replaced with
drawers and another mirrored
alcove. Lots of lighting
options allow the room to be a soft
guest room, or a bright make-up
counter. The cabinets were
made with a mahogany stained anigre
with bold bronze pulls.
Before Photographs by
Earle Jay Goodman
After Photographs by Eustace (Mikey)
Green
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