Kitchen Balances Today with Tomorrow

LAKE GENEVA, WI — These homeowners knew they needed to update their kitchen, yet, as a recently retired couple with college-age kids, the soon-to-be empty nesters weren’t entirely certain how much longer they would be living in their Waterford, WI home.

“This is the home they built and raised their family in, but they anticipated placing it on the market in the next few years,” says Krista Benton, CKBD with Geneva Cabinet Company in Lake Geneva, WI. “They felt the kitchen was the one area that would keep the house from selling.”

While they were mindful of resale value and making sure any renovations would appeal to all home buyers, they did have their own aesthetic and functional goals, which included modernizing the space with a timeless and classic look that matched the traditional elements of the rest of the home. As well, to reduce the overall renovation budget, they decided to keep the existing travertine floor, which would have been costly to replace since it ran throughout the entire main floor.

With these parameters in place, the couple opted for a mix of painted and stained cabinetry from Neumann Custom Woodworking where the perimeter is a warm Stoneware color and the island, interior cabinetry accents and ceiling beams are natural white oak.

“She knew she wanted to bring wood elements into her kitchen, and oak works well,” the designer relates. “It doesn’t necessarily match the floor exactly, but they complement each other. And, it’s what looks best with the natural light, which is dramatically different throughout the day. It’s either bright sun or filtered shade, and my client watched meticulously throughout the day to see what looked best in each condition.”

The oak island, which is topped with honed Imperial Danby marble, grounds the space and is home to a Miele dishwasher and Fisher & Paykel dishwasher drawers. It also offers abundant storage and its custom construction meant Benton could design specialized solutions such as an integrated step stool in the toe kick and a paper towel holder above the double pullout trash bins. Shallow cabinets on the seating side of the island are perfect for storing less-frequently used items, and a custom cabinet beneath the 4′ workstation sink from The Galley corrals extra sink accessories when they aren’t being used.

“We tried to create as much storage as possible,” Benton relates. “This isn’t necessarily a small kitchen, but we did run out of inches quickly.”

Oak is also used prevalently as accents around the perimeter. Notably, it serves as a backdrop for the niches that are recessed into the walls on each side of the Lacanche range that is accented with a slab marble backsplash and a Brizo pot filler. Oak tongue and groove beadboard, installed vertically, contrasts against white shelves in the beverage center, which includes a coffee machine with a dedicated water line, an espresso machine and a Zip Water HydroTap for boiling, cold and sparkling beverages. This wall also includes a paneled Sub-Zero refrigerator and freezer and a Scotsman ice maker, paneled to look like a trio of drawers.

On the wall opposite of the range, oak has a focal-point moment where shelves and drawers are visible through tall, custom glass doors that offer a visual of dishes and glassware precisely stacked by the homeowner.

“This is actually how she lives!” says Benton, acknowledging that not everyone can live with full exposure to everyday items. “She has beautiful things and she keeps them neatly organized.”

The glass doors are framed with black metal that matches the window trim and the exterior doors in the rest of the home. Expanding the opening between the kitchen and great room gave Benton the perfect canvas for adding a black-trimmed transom window that allows more natural light to flow into the kitchen from the great room.

“The pops of black make sense with the rest of the home,” she indicates.

Another focal-point moment in the kitchen is the baking center, sited between the two glass cabinets.

“She makes sourdough regularly, so this area is very important to her,” the designer relates.

A pair of pocket doors retract into the cabinetry, revealing multiple shelves and countertop-level rollouts that allow her to keep her baking appliances plugged in and ready at a moment’s notice. The cabinet’s relatively shallow depth provides efficient storage while also leaving some countertop work space. Base cabinetry drawers keep additional supplies and ingredients handy.

Configuring this entire wall, which is shared with the great room on the backside, proved to be one of the biggest challenges with the renovation. The kitchen side needed to provide adequate storage for the baking center, while the great room side needed to be deep enough to include a paneled column Sub-Zero wine refrigerator and paneled refrigerator drawers in the built-in entertainment center/bar.

“We didn’t move or change the depth of this wall, so it was a bit of a Tetris situation where we were playing with miniscule increments of inches,” she says. “For each side of the wall we had competing depth requirements with a lot of things fighting for the same space. It ultimately affected everything on both sides of the wall – even the range wall, walkways and island location in the kitchen as well as how we centered everything on the great room side. We had many different renditions, but we ultimately got everything to work together.

“This kitchen definitely isn’t a ‘sleeper’,” she continues. “And even with some restrictions, we were able to include a lot of interesting finishes and design elements that make the kitchen special.”

Tucked-Away, Colorful Pantry Packs a Decorative Punch

As part of the renovation, Krista Benton also redesigned the butler’s pantry and increased its footprint by grabbing a few feet of closet space from an adjacent bedroom. Though small, the room packs a punch with its Sherwin-Williams Pewter Green cabinetry and honed Imperial Danby marble countertop that matches the kitchen.

“The wall color is the same color as my client’s media room,” she indicates. “She loves it and thought it would be a fun pop of color for this cute, tucked-away pantry.”

Full-depth cabinetry on one side accommodates a Wolf speed oven with storage above and below. Shortening the depth of the cabinetry on the remaining two walls gives her client enough room to open the oven and maneuver freely within the space. Shelves on the back wall display neatly organized dry goods.

The remaining side wall, at just 8″ deep, is perfect for storing small jars and cans that are accessible via bypass doors that conceal contents while eliminating more extensive clearances required by traditional hinge-style doors.

Because the ceilings are tall, a last-minute change included the addition of a library ladder that can attach to solid brass railings that match the cabinetry hardware used in the pantry and throughout the kitchen. Including brass rails in the kitchen and on the entertainment center/bar give her the ability to use the ladder in multiple places.

“For various reasons, the ladder was one feature that moved in and out of the design over the course of planning,” she relates. “But it was always a part of the inspiration photos she shared with me initially, and in the end, she realized she would regret it if we didn’t include it.”