Last year I designed and supplied the cabinetry for the kitchen (and other rooms) in a new lake-front home in Michigan. A clean contemporary home, with crisp lines and bold contrast, yet just enough warmth to keep it cozy during those cold, grey Michigan winters that I grew up with.
There are some incredible photos here taken by renee j. photography, filled in with some of my own not-quite-so-incredible photos to show more viewpoints.
I think many kitchen designers will agree with me that microwave drawers are a lifesaver when it comes to kitchen design aesthetics.
I’m giggling to myself about this title because I used to work at a tiny little kitchen design studio for about a year during college – I had forgotten about it until I decided to do a post about brass hardware in kitchens, as this place was called Kitchens & Brass. So, in homage to that short time in that little studio, I’ve titled this post “Kitchens & Brass.”
Anyway, it’s taken me a while to warm up to the resurgence of brass, but now that I’ve seen it in modern settings, I’m loving it. Brass is back, but in a VERY different way… with subtler tones and sleek modern lines. I stumbled across the above photo while flipping through my dwell magazine the other day, I can’t get enough of it. Brass with white and natural wood… the brass warms up this kitchen in a way that polished chrome or stainless steel couldn’t do. And it adds a little touch of formality, but in a non-stuffy way.
A few more examples of brass in modern(ish) kitchens:
I am so thrilled to finally be able to share this project with all of you! Usually, you’re lucky if you get one of these 3 things in a remodeling project: good client, good design taste, or good potential in the house. In this case, I got all 3, and I’m so grateful to interior designer Cody Beal for bringing me into this remodel project.
I have to give Cody a lot of credit and a lot of respect. He’s a great designer, and part of his success comes from knowing how important having a good team of people is. He doesn’t claim to be able to do everything himself, rather, he’s assembled a team of people he knows he can count on, who are experts in their own specialty areas, and he gives these people flexibility to add their own touches to the project. When I first met with Cody, he showed me his vision, and then explained to me that he wanted me to make suggestions and changes based on my expertise. I was given the freedom to design what I thought was best, and because of this collaboration, the client couldn’t be happier, and the kitchen looks AMAZING! And.. it’s functional too!
At first glance, you see a simple, beautiful kitchen. What you don’t see is the hours and hours of work that went into this design. Simple and modern styles take a lot of critical planning in order to make sure everything fits together perfectly, especially in tight spaces. When doing modern design, you don’t get the liberty of fluffy moldings and appliques that might hide any inconsistencies. Add in the fact that straight ceilings and walls are virtually non-existent when it comes to remodeling, and you’ve got an enormous challenge. I love the challenge and find projects like this one so much more rewarding because of this.
So you’ll never know all the tiny details such as how we modified the island sink cabinet in order to recess the wine rack into the end of the island, or how we spent an entire design meeting discussing how high the wall cabinets should be in order to maximize storage based on the clients’ heights, or how the base cabinets are custom designed in order to accommodate the aluminum trim at the top and a thicker-than-standard countertop, or how we had to tweak things in order to guarantee the dishwasher would integrate into this non-standard cabinet design, or how we customized the wall cabinets in order eliminate cabinet hardware and leave space for LED lighting and plugmold outlet strips. I could go on and on…
Obviously, I love this kitchen. And again, I’m so grateful to have been a part of the team, which included Cody Beal, Lew Shurtliff (general contractor), and others. The cabinetry is by Hallmark Custom Cabinets, through Arendal Kitchen Design. The guys at Hallmark were a great help with the technical little design details involved in EVERY cabinet. And Adam Erickson did an incredible job with the installation.
And to add even more to the wow-factor, here is a before photo:
A few more details:
