7 hot kitchen ideas from renovation contest winners
Kitchens are among the most common — and expensive — home renovations. They’re also incredibly stressful — so many decisions! What kind of counter tops, cabinets, flooring, appliances? Where should everything go?
Winners of the 13-year-old Renovation Inspiration Contest have struggled with these questions and come up with some pretty smart answers. While online entries for this year’s contest stream in — the entry deadline is Friday — we found seven great ideas in the kitchens of the 2018 contest winners and runners-up.
Enter your renovation now at http://biz.postgazette.com/renovationcontest/ and you might win tickets to 2019 city house tours, Construction Junction gift certificates and see your work on the cover of the Post-Gazette Sunday Home & Garden and Real Estate section. But first let’s look at what it takes to be a winner:
Lighted counter
Joe Kotelnicki and Michael O’Brien chose lots of high-tech and “green” items when they redid the kitchen of their 1960 house in Churchill designed by architect Tasso Katselas. They have an induction cooktop, convection oven, bamboo cabinets, LED lighting and a faucet that flows when it’s touched. But our favorite touch was a lighted glass counter top on the island. It looks really cool and provides just enough light for a midnight snack.
Dual fuel, counters
Iliya Jordanoff’s friends in Squirrel Hill are pretty particular about their kitchen. The couple insisted on a dual-fuel Bertazzoni range because they wanted a gas cooktop and an electric oven,
which bakes at a steadier temperature than a gas range.
They also told the designer they wanted two types of counters — Danby marble and soapstone. Pastry makers love marble because dough doesn’t stick to it, and Danby is more stainresistant than other types. Soapstone, a volcanic rock, is durable, non-porous and doesn’t stain so it requires no sealer, just a coat of mineral oil to make it shine.
Chef’s table
Homeowners have been stealing ideas from restaurants for years. Bruneaux restaurant in Sewickley isn’t the first to have a chef’s table, but few chef’s tables feel so homey, like you’re a guest in the kitchen of a friend who happens to be a great cook.
“It’s more than just eating dinner,” says executive chef Patrick Kaderka. “It turns it into a show.”
Architects Aimee and Nathan St. Germain worked closely with Mr. Kaderka, owner Robin Fernandez and consultant Food Facilities Concepts to come up with a functional kitchen that allowed cooks to interact with diners. Chefs face each other over a central cooking area vented by two massive exhaust hoods, so nothing comes between them and their hungry fans.
Antique sink
There’s no real kitchen in J&J Spratt Funeral Home’s new family service center, which was built inside a mid-1800s carriage house next to the landmark funeral home in New Brighton, Beaver County. Mike, Jay and Joe Spratt and partner Ken McCrackey wanted a comfortable space to meet with families to discuss funeral arrangements, but they also needed to have cool drinks close by.
The solution was a huge cast-iron sink that Mike Spratt found in an old house on Pittsburgh’s South Side Slopes. It’s a great feature in a sensitively renovated old building, one of many on the borough’s grand 3rd Avenue.
Hickory dickory shock
Hickory’s rock-hard wood makes it perfect for ax handles and baseball bats, but its contrasting grain limits its use in cabinetry and furniture. A few brave souls use it in their kitchens, but not the way Karen Grainy and Steve Quinn did in their 1953 rancher in Union, Washington County.
Clear coats of polyurethane show off custom-made hickory cabinets, which contrast nicely with darkstained, hand-scraped hickory floors. The couple also planed and stained doors and trim from the same hardwood, and Mr. Quinn used tongue-and-groove cedar planks to create the kitchen’s vaulted ceiling.
“I like the different colors and knots,” he says.
Indoor grilling
The kitchen Nate Terrana made in the lower level of a 1929 fire station is pretty ordinary. But the rustic man cave on the second floor of Lower Burrell Fire Co. No. 3 is a conflagration of imagination. It’s the place where his friends gather to play poker or watch a Penguins game.
When the party’s heating up, he fires up a commercial gas grill surrounded by stone, granite and a slate roof with copper gutters. A copper hood carries away the fumes.
“I only like to cook when a crowd’s over,” he says. “We make steak, pork chops, sausage.”
Artistic kitchens
Sally Graubarth and her son, Karl Huber, liked the idea of sharing an 1890s storefront in the North Side’s Allegheny West neighborhood. But they love having separate living spaces; she’s in a rear carriage house.
Architect John D. Francona and contractor Frank Quinn collaborated on the modern interiors, but the artwork, bright colors and interesting accents were chosen by mother and son, Mr. Huber is an art professor who displays his paintings in the front window.
“Karl has a good eye,” Ms. Graubarth says.
The two kitchens have the same high-gloss IKEA cabinets, quartz counter tops, subway tile, and white and stainless-steel appliances. Mom’s is much smaller, with an 18-inch-wide dishwasher.
“I call it my Mini-Me kitchen,” she says. “It’s like a dollhouse.”