NOW WE’RE COOKING
100-year-old home’s renovated kitchen small on size, big on details
One demanding cook, a myriad of smart storage solutions and a calm creative touch was key to a kitchen renovation in a lovely Westmount home that was built around 1915.
Most of the original architecture and style of the house remains intact with heavy oak staircases and doors, untouched for the past 100 years.
Then there’s the kitchen, which in this large house is only 200 square feet. It’s not a lot, especially for a modern family of four with working parents, and one of those parents is a passionate cook, in this case, the man of the house (who preferred his name not be used in this article for privacy reasons).
“I am not a dilettante, not someone who cooks on Saturday and takes three days to clean up. I cook for my family. We have eclectic taste, so sometimes I cook vegetarian or make my own pasta. I like making Indian food,” he said.
The kitchen had been previously renovated to suit the chef’s taste. That was 20 years ago when his taste ran to dark cabinets and stainless steel countertops.
Then, two years ago, a choice had to be made. Either do another renovation in the kitchen, or move to a new home. That is how important it was to get the kitchen the cook wanted.
“We wanted more efficiency. There was limited prep space. It wasn’t comfortable for two people to work here at the same time. We had storage, but I felt things could be more organized. Also, I wasn’t happy with the cooktop.”
And so began the quest for the perfect kitchen. Designer Michael Moore with MXMdesigngroup describes his first meeting with the client.
“He made three stipulations: 1) We retain the 30-year-old granite floor; 2) Find a way to integrate his favourite colour ( blue) into the design; and 3) The kitchen be absolutely lean appearance-wise, yet every piece of his large collection of culinary equipment be stored out of sight.”
Each of those demands proved to be a test of creative design, plus determination to find innovative products to solve problems.
First, the floor — keeping it might seem like a straightforward request, but not changing the floor meant not changing the footprint of the kitchen, which limited options to make the kitchen move efficient. The client was immovable.
“We like the floor. It is a great camouflage.” (The floor is black, brown and cream granite.)
“If you drop something on this floor, no problem, although you may never find it again. Basically, we just didn’t see a reason to change it.”
The designer didn’t feel quite the same way. “It is always a challenge to keep something original and a bit dated when you are trying to update a space. It means you have to find contemporary products that fit.”
Fortunately, keeping the floor also represented a solution to one esthetic question. The granite is “busy.” The two men decided everything else would be monochromatic. That decision plays a large part in the nearly Zen-like feel of the remodelled kitchen. Everything is subdued. The colour palette is limited to neutral tones … except for blue, which was stipulation No. 2.
Blue. Surely, finding appropriate blue counters or cupboards would be simple enough, right? Wrong. It wasn’t only blue they wanted. It was BLUE … a particular shade they knew was out there somewhere, but, where?
“At first, we thought it was like the Ikea corporate blue, but that wasn’t right,” Moore said.
“For a while, we were looking at pricey blue cars with rich tones,” the client said.
The hunt for the perfect blue went on for a few months. Then the client found a bowl. It’s only a large-production salad bowl, but it has a rich, deep pattern in just-the-right colour.
Finding the exact shade is one thing. Turning it into a colour that could be applied to cupboards is a different matter. More than once, Moore thought he had solved the problem only to wind up with lifeless, ordinary blue. But the blue colour of the bowl worked.
“The final blue was derived by digitally scanning the salad bowl, cross-referencing the colour codes to a Pantone colour and then finally to a custom paint mix,” Moore said.
Success with the cupboards allowed them to focus on other finishings. The backsplash is cream-coloured Kerlite, which is a porcelain product with a fibre backing. Here, the backsplash is 10 feet long without a seam, giving an impression of a much longer wall.
The other major esthetic feature is the countertop. It’s granite, but it has a leather-like finish, which somehow makes the stone feel and look warm.
The only thing left unsolved was stipulation No. 3: Storage.
In many modern (monster) homes there are kitchens of vast proportions that hold less stuff than the passionate cook has hidden in this modest kitchen.
Making that happen required breaking some rules of kitchen design. For one, all cupboards are super-sized. The upper shelves are 24 inches deep, twice the standard size. The bottom units are 36 inches deep, a foot more than most kitchens.
Looking at the finished room, you aren’t aware of the larger than average proportions — the long, clean lines give a sense of uniformity, not enormity.
The extra cupboard depth allowed Moore to eliminate countertop clutter. Gone, for example, is the microwave. It is hidden in a cupboard. In fact, the only appliance in view is a small coffee maker.
The deep lower cupboards hide a series of impressive storage surprises. First, the 30-pound Kitchen Aid (think Mix Master on steroids) — rather than having to lift the beast, the machine levitates on a hinge to counter height. Plus, it is hardwired and instantly ready to use.
Then, that hard-to-reach back corner. Moore found hardware that first pulls out and then slides sideways — making all pots and pans easily accessible and uses every centimetre of that challenging space.
Then there’s the story of the giant stock pot. It needed an extra-deep storage space. Moore dug into the space below most lower cabinets, called the toe kick. The cupboard pulls out, bringing the toe kick with it and happily houses the largest cooking pot.
“One of my friends asked: “You designed your kitchen around the stockpot?” I understand the question, and the pot is just a thing, but it needed to be accommodated,” the chef said.
No space is wasted — one pullout shelf is only three inches wide.
And it’s all achieved with no hardware. No handles or knobs. Not even electrical outlets to clutter the view. Moore found a European product (called Adorne), which is a series of electrical bands attached to the wall at the bottom of the cupboard (so they are not visible when standing at the counter).
For all the attention to esthetic and clever design, when asked for his favourite detail, the chef replies “the stove.” (Proof he is not a dilettante.) It’s a BlueStar Platinum Series stove. One of its features is an even, constant flame, as opposed to the ring of fire most gas stoves offer. Six burners and inserts allow for BBQ and grilling.
Like all renovations in an old house, there were problems. Previous renovators had not removed the original wiring from the early 20th century. “It was a birds’ nest and dangerous”, Moore says. Also, getting certain, busy suppliers to focus on one small kitchen project caused delays and increased cost. The client started with what most people would consider a very generous budget and that budget was blown.
The chef acknowledges it cost more than planned on. But, sitting in his super efficient and lovely kitchen, he doesn’t complain.
“Every day I enjoy the kitchen. I enjoy coming in and cooking here, that sensation has not worn off and I don’t take it for granted,” he says.
Note: The Shelter feature will return on June 17