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By Miranda Hitti
There was no doubt about it- this Toronto kitchen was due for an overhaul. The refrigerator was broken, the stove was fading fast, there was no dishwasher, and the homeowner and her boyfriend elbowed each other when they cooked together. “It was getting pretty bad”, she said. Stylistically, “It was like walking into the 1970s.”
Having grown up in the house, she knew every inch of the kitchen. Her father had built most of it, including the one-of-kind under-counter refrigerator. “He was very, very good,” the homeowner said. “It was all wood. My dad and his dad have always done woodwork.”
As an adult, she inherited the house from her parents and held off on remodelling the kitchen for several years. She realised change was needed in part because she ran out of room for her dishes and wine glasses and had to keep them in the dining room. “It was time to do this!” she said. Newly retired and spending more time at home, she wanted to have her own kitchen instead of maintaining the one her parents had crafted decades earlier.
Restricted Makeover: The designer created a V-shape that would allow the clients to work together in the kitchen without running into one another. The ventilation hood allows for storage of pots and pans, while its design aids in opening up this limited space.
Setting Goals
The homeowner considered expanding the room by a few feet but decided to work within its original dimensions. She wanted a refrigerator, dishwasher and more storage space, but doubted it would all fit. She imagined the possibilities, sketching plans of her own. “I love doing that kind of stuff,” she said. She interviewed three kitchen designers for the project. The first two didn’t make the cut. “One said ‘You can’t get a refrigerator in here,’” the homeowner said. The second wanted to update the kitchen without changing its problematic floor plan.
Discarding those approaches the homeowner turned to the internet, where she found the Website for Binns kitchen + bath design (www.binns.net).
I said, “This looks amazing! We have to go out and see their showroom.” She and her boyfriend drove 30 minutes outside of Toronto to visit Binns, where they met designer Rick Farrell. “He was such an easygoing guy, no pressure, [un]like some of the other places,” the homeowner said.
When she described her kitchen, Farrell thought she was exaggerating. With more than 30 years in the business, he was pretty sure he had seen worse. But when he paid her a visit and saw the kitchen for himself, he realised he was wrong. “She was telling the truth,” Farrell said “She had had enough.”
Starting Point
“It was very, very dysfunctional,” Farrell recalled. “It’s amazing that the cabinets were still in working condition. They were shallow, 18 inches deep. The refrigerator was used as a storage area. There were four layers of linoleum, vinyl and vinyl tile [on the floor].”The project, which Farrell said was one of the most challenging he has ever worked on, won him third place in the small kitchen category of the 2003 NKBA Competition.
Because the homeowner likes to cook and entertain with her boyfriend, Farrell wanted to create a layout that would let her share the space without tripping over her guests. Parallel counters wouldn’t work, so he suggested a V-shape that would let the couple work back-to-back rather than side-to-side. “Nobody’s crossing each others path.” Farrell said.
The new refrigerator and dishwasher are smaller than full size. The 45-centimeter dishwasher sits in the corner.” The capacity is excellent,” Farrell said.
The refrigerator stands next to the microwave and convection oven; the cook top is angled to the right of the dishwasher, across from the sink. Tall wall cabinets hold all of the homeowner’s dishes and deep drawers add extra storage space. The arrangement works well. “I don’t need a huge dishwasher,” the homeowner said.
She mastered cooking with the convection oven and liked its eye level placement. “I don’t have to bend,” she said. The refrigerator is another plus. “I’ve never had a normal refrigerator,” the homeowner said.” I absolutely love it.” The new layout is “great for cooking”, even though she is right handed and her boyfriend is left handed. “Rick took all that into consideration.”
Farrell extended the countertop by the sink to provide a bar-style eating area. ”When people come over, we munch and have our wine there,” the homeowner said. The sleek vent hood , which often draws admiring comments from the homeowner’s guests, accommodates a few pots and pans for out-of-the-way storage.
Color Choices
The client, who said she wanted a “plain and simple” door style, chose the cabinetry first. .After weighing three or four colors, she settled on a caramel-like stain called “Tahoe.” The handles are a contemporary play on the traditional cup pull. Selecting granite took 8-to-10 hours, Farrell said.
“The cabinetry lends itself to so many nice, different softer tones,” he noted. “We wanted the granite to really make a statement, but a subtle statement, and to blend very, very well.”
A sunny yellow wall color completes the palette. “It’s really neat with the white ceiling,” the homeowner said. The old window gave way to a larger casement window.
“The original window was probably 12 inches narrower and 12 inches less in height, more like a cubbyhole window,” Farrell said, estimating the new window lets about 60 percent more sunlight into the room. “It brightened it right up”, he said. The original exterior door was replaced with a more energy-efficient model with built-in screen. “It’s amazing for the thermal valve,” Farrell said.
Heating things up
The kitchen’s warmth was boosted dramatically by installing insulation in the exterior walls which face north and get maximum exposure to icy Canadian winds. There was no insulation on the outside walls. It was a very, very cold wall,” Farrell said, adding that the homeowner had items in the old cabinets that felt cold to the touch during winter, with the chill passing right through the wall. That’s no longer a problem. “It’s a warm room now,” she said. “It makes quite a difference.”
Layer after layer of old flooring came up, with new hardwood floors under the carpet in the foyer. ”It was one-an-one quarter inches wide, the old style,” Farrell said. He suggested running the kitchen’s hardwoods on the diagonal to “make its own statement.” Calling Farrell a friend, the homeowner said she appreciated his professional approach. “They started when they said they were going to start and finished when they said they were going to finish,” she said. The kitchen was her first major remodelling project, and since her father and late husband were handy she never before needed to hire home maintenance help. “All my life, I never had to call for a service guy,” she said. “They were on time and on schedule, calling me before to say [when] they were going to be there. I had no problems; Rick was always right there.”
The renovation gave the client’s more than new cabinets and appliances; it created a kitchen to suit her needs and style, not those of another generation. “It’s so totally different,” she said. “People say, ‘Wow!’ They can’t believe it’s the same house. It’s fabulous.”
Maximizing Space By locating the refrigerator, the microwave and the convection oven into the same space, the designer utilized the room’s limited space, and the enlarged window allows more natural light to brighten the kitchen. |
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