true north: a kitchen comes together

Having recently completed the design of a kitchen with a delightful client - and project manager - it's lovely to see the results coming together.

My involvement began mid-summer when I saw the original layout. Rather than turning two rooms (a kitchen and living room) into a great room sliced thinly by a small wall, I believed it was better to place an anchor mid-room (hence my design for the pantry . . . pictured, above, during it's stay at Freeman Finishing) and give this newly created (open) space a true heart.

The pantry, now installed, is backed by an alcove that can function as a bookshelf (original intent) or become snug harbor for a delightful sofa (walking into the house several days ago, said alcove begged to be a place to perch).

That small alcove could very well accommodate both methods of relaxation.

Other design suggestions included simplification of the kitchen island (wood rather than limestone, shape closer to rectilinear and further from polyhedron) and the creation of a streamlined flue above the oven (the design added striations that echo the trim of the cabinets and subtracted any of the ungainly angles so common to flues . . . you can see it, set upside down, in the photo above).

There's a good bit more - I'm particularly satisfied by a buffet created beneath a bank of six windows that always seemed rather orphaned and are now happy as clams - and Pam's team has done an excellent job of carrying out the instructions. I'm hoping, soon, to be able to post some of the original drawings.

There's a verve that comes when an idea is fresh in your mind and flows right from the pencil to the paper (but our scanner doesn't love the tracing paper on which I drew).

In design, lots of little decisions are made along the way. It all adds up to a much greater whole, if done well. I believe that any vision - the real story, the one you live with and, always the hope would be, love - sees proof in the details.