Summer Home Spaces Built for Entertaining

LAKE GEORGE, NY — Given his location on the southern edge of the Adirondack Mountains in Glens Falls, NY, Arthur Zobel often caters to clients with vacation homes located in the scenic, upstate region. While these retreats share similarities to the primary residences he designs, they often have an added emphasis on entertaining and accommodating large groups of people.

Such was the case for this home located on Lake George, where the new-build construction focused on ensuring an enjoyable indoor/outdoor experience for the homeowners and their guests. 

“This is their summer house, so it’s all about entertaining,” explains the founder of Zobel & Co. Kitchens, who worked in collaboration with architect AJA Architecture & Planning and builder Hilltop Construction Company.

For Zobel, that meant designing an indoor kitchen and butler’s pantry that functioned in concert with their outdoor counterpart, which is sited where it conveniently shares a wall (see at bottom). The former exudes a classic Adirondack design theme supported by Plain & Fancy Custom Cabinetry shaker-style cabinetry painted in Benjamin Moore’s Revere Pewter and accented with Top Knobs Riverside hardware in a Honey Bronze finish. 

The cabinetry’s custom construction allows for paneled appliances, including the GE Monogram refrigerator, Miele dishwasher and XO beverage center, and built-in appliances such as the GE wall oven, warming drawer and speed oven. A custom Plain & Fancy wood surround, flanked by a pair of windows, conceals the ventilation hood above the GE range.

Specialized organizational accessories, such as those for spices, knives and trays, keep door and drawer contents easily accessible, while a LeMans pull-out shelving system maximizes the corner cabinet. A narrow custom floor-to-ceiling pantry cabinet takes advantage of otherwise wasted space along the kitchen’s perimeter.

“We had a skinny 12″ space between the wall oven and refrigerator where we included a pull-out cabinet with shelves that is chock full of pantry items from nuts to soups to pastas,” he relates. “All throughout the kitchen we put a lot of detail into the interiors of the cabinetry, so it certainly isn’t lacking for organizational storage.”

As well, the kitchen designer tailored the upper-most tier of cabinets, which feature hinge-up doors, to incorporate the beams that criss-cross the ceiling. 

“That was a very technical design feature where we had to accommodate different heights of the cabinetry so it wouldn’t interfere with the beams,” he explains. 

The centuries-old reclaimed timber was sourced locally and serves as an architectural feature that bridges old and new materials while offering support to other Adirondack-style elements visible from the kitchen, including the stone-clad fireplace in the living room and the deer antler chandelier that hovers above the dining room table. Designed with wheels, the table is purposefully the same height as the island.

“It can roll up and connect to the island to serve as one huge entertaining surface,” Zobel explains.

The expansive island provides a bit of storage as well as extra seating and is home to the dishwasher, trash/recycling and a 4′ Create Good Sinks workstation sink with a pair of faucets that can accommodate multiple cooks. A second sink, a single-bowl undermount Kohler model sited around the kitchen’s perimeter, features a water filtration faucet and a
sparkling water faucet so the husband can enjoy his carbonated drinks. 

Since his clients spend extended periods of time in the home away from their primary residence, Zobel also gave special consideration to the family’s dog by creating a dedicated pet feeding/storage cabinet, complete with a pot filler for conveniently topping off his water.

“They love their puppy, so we designed a dog station with built-in bowls and a drawer for storing treats and other items,” he says, noting that the top drawer includes built-in outlets for charging cell phones, tablets and other electronics.

Caesarstone’s Palm Shade quartz serves as a durable, easy-to-clean surface at the countertop level as well as at the dog bowl level. Aesthetically, its milky white foundation with light greige veining pairs well with the neutral, warm gray cabinetry, so Zobel used it as the countertop surface throughout the kitchen and in the butler’s pantry.

The latter space is located adjacent to the kitchen and is accessible via a pocket door with a reeded glass window that offers a glimpse of its interior. Plain & Fancy base cabinetry, open shelving and panels for the 18″ GE column freezer and a second Miele dishwasher are painted in Benjamin Moore’s Wolf Gray, which complements the blue/gray hue found in the bold, graphic tile floor. A white Nantucket Sinks fireclay apron-front sink adds to the room’s versatility and the white subway tile backsplash matches the one in the kitchen.

Living It Up in Style in the Outdoor Space

Because this family loves to entertain, their home’s outdoor living space was as important as the interior spaces, so Arthur Zobel designed an outdoor kitchen that reflects that significance.

Tucking it beneath a second-floor bedroom gives it some protection from the elements. The ceiling also provides a place to include a fan, heater, lights and speakers. As well, a nearly 8′ ceiling-mounted Trade-Wind ventilation hood removes smoke created by cooking on the 36″ Alfresco grill and smoking in the 30″ smoker from Coyote Outdoors.

“When working on outdoor kitchens that are enclosed, even partially, it’s pretty important to have an exhaust system,” he relates. “We had this one custom designed to fit the space.”

The interior wall, shared with the main kitchen, features a trio of sliding windows so the homeowners can conveniently pass food, drinks, etc. from inside to outside. To create continuity between the two kitchens, Zobel repeated the Caesarstone Palm Shade quartz, which is rated for exterior use, as the countertop. It floats on one end and cascades into a waterfall edge on the other, passing over cabinetry from NatureKast Weatherproof Cabinetry. 

The cabinetry’s Cobalt Linen colorway matches the trim and complements the stone used as an accent on the interior wall and as the exterior façade on the kitchen’s perimeter. The cabinetry provides an abundance of storage, including a double trash/recycling pullout located next to the sink from Nantucket Sinks and a drawer dedicated to storing a Gozney Roccbox pizza oven and its related accessories. Additional appliances include a Coyote warming drawer and two undercounter refrigerators, a Summit Appliance two-drawer model and a Zephyr single-door unit. The refrigerators are located conveniently for guests who are sitting at the bar-height countertop or who are entering the kitchen from the adjacent outdoor dining and lounging areas.