Island Home, Island Kitchen

ISLAND HOME, 
ISLAND KITCHEN

PRESIDENT'S
AWARD
"BEST OF THE BEST"
NKBA: PUGET SOUND

Board Member

Designing for How You Imagine Your Home Will Feel

Client Profile ~ Semi-retired couple, building their "retirement" home. ~ Located near the north end of Marrowstone Island, near Port Townsend, WA. ~ Waterfront, wooded site. ~New construction project. Wish List ~ Formality to match the adjoining rooms, since the kitchen was open to them. ~ Separate cooking stations because both husband and wife cooked. Challenges The challenges of this kitchen were heightened due to the remote site on which the home resides. ~ High ceilings and a quite large space. ~ The plans showed a large island blocking the cooks’ access to the two refrigerators. ~ Many appliances: Two refrigerators, DW, TC, micro, coffee machine and cup warmer, steam oven, warming drawer, double ovens, hood! ~ Large quantities of glassware, crystal, chinaware, and serving dishes. ~ Unusual window placement and scale. An expansive picture/casement window set brings in the sweeping views, while on the side walls two small double-hung windows give us vignettes.
Your view as you proceed from the entry into the home is visually rich in mahogany, glass and highly detailed. Note the dish pantry to the right, the hood which is about to be revealed, and the Miele coffee cup warmer on the island.
Solutions and Gains ~ ~ Adding a refrigerator drawer unit in the cook’s zone (right of the main sink) provides for butter, eggs, milk, etc, to be stored close to where the cooks are working and reduced trips to the refrigeration wall. ~ To create visual interest and to soften the largeness of the kitchen, the corners of the cabinets were softened by a stepped-in, beveled molding. ~ Multiple counter levels and using 2 cm-thick granite with a custom molding below helped break up what otherwise would have been a large masses of granite. ~ Display areas were created by using glass-door cabinets and splitting the double oven into two single ovens, thereby reducing its overall height (and appliance clutter). This also allowed us to put the second oven in an adajcent baking center/food storage pantry. ~ Setting up a dish pantry between the kitchen and the dining room with a second DW solved both a storage and clean up problem (when the owners host large gatherings). ~ Adding specialized drawers accommodated cooking oils/wines and spices. ~ Using a magnetic induction cooktop with no visible controls cleaned up the island countertop visually. ~ Extending the south side of the shallow (7-1/2”-deep) glassware display cabinet in order to get better proportions on this paneled side created a void—between the back of the glassware cabinet and the twin 700-series refrigerators—that could be used for ladder storage. ~ Blending the Miele cup warmer into the drawer level on the back of the island was part of reducing visual clutter.
The cooking center, featuring Pratt & Larson tile and a pot filler.
A Sub-Zero 700-series wine refrigerator and Scotsman ice maker (for clear, odor-free ice cubes) are key to this hospitality center. Guests come to this right after walking through the entry. "Welcome to our home!"	The dish pantry has its own dedicated Miele dishwasher.
Looking back into the great room reveals the level of detail in this Roger Katz, AIA, home and the degree to which Landon's design responded to the architect's program for the home.
Looking back into the great room reveals the level of detail in this Roger Katz, AIA, home and the degree to which Landon's design responded to the architect's program for the home.
The second cook's station is a magnetic induction cooktop.
Note the two double-hung windows with vignetted views.

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