Kitchens All Spiced Up!
Amy Rus updated a 1980s contemporary kitchen with this fascinating traditional treatment. Decora cabinetry with a Chantille finish and Espresso glaze keep the space light and airy. A coffee glaze gives the island a furniture feel as Cambria countertops unify the space. Note details like the turned wood on the island cabinets, ceramic tile backsplash, lovely large ceramic inset over the stove and toasty looking exotic Brazilian Cherry hardwood floor from BR-111.
One gets the feel of a master crafter at work in this kitchen, starting with Dakota Custom Cabinetry in red birch with a teak stain. The custom range hood features laminate inserts that look like stainless steel. The backsplash features 6x6 Tumbled Stone with a 2x12 Tumbled Stone Chairail, both in Walnut. Setting the Amalfi tile in Sorrento in this straightforward grid floor pattern delivers texture without competing with other lineal elements. Design is by Nicole Carter.
Designer Michelle Koop brings in the outdoors in two ways, first with plenty of light, repeated by the lighted cabinets. Next is the interesting use of the various shades of Mother Nature’s browns. That’s one reason the Bellawood Brazilian Cherry floor makes a perfect backdrop for the unusual tropical brown granite countertops plus the cabinets and chair fabric.
Jill Ross employed a modified hopscotch installation pattern with the porcelain floor tile. Doing so, and using a contrasting colored wide grout, brings interest to this unusually shaped kitchen and unifies all the geometrics, from the wine rack to the library-style recipe drawers. Also note the customized countertop and backsplash in Marble Saffron.
This kitchen is the only new construction project in this article. Created by Heather Thacker, the kitchen features on the floor, Edilcoghi, in color Florida Keys Noce, set in what’s called a brick pattern (staggered joints). The same tile in a smaller format is used for the stove backsplash, along with contrasting colored tiles.
Great designs are everywhere, not just in the major metropolitan areas as some might think.
The next six pages prove the point with five designer kitchens from the creative imaginations of some of the best designers in the Midwest –– culled from Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin and Indiana showrooms. While the designs are different, the one thing these designers have in common is a remodeling showroom specialist called Home Valu® Interiors. Started in 1963 by former US Senator Rudy Boschwitz in an old railroad building in Fridley, Minnesota, and specializing in one of the products of the day –– plywood –– Home Valu has blossomed into a designer-oriented showroom. The company and its affiliated designers are known throughout the region for their stunning kitchens and baths, flooring and window treatments, among other capabilities.
Flooring-wise, you can find carpet, ceramic and porcelain tile, hardwood, laminate, resilient and area rugs.
One of the company executives keeping their fingers on the pulse of the consumer is Jeff Zey, advertising and marketing manager for Home Valu. FABULOUS FLOORS first saw these kitchens online in a form of website “brag book” highlighting the works of Home Valu’s affiliated designers, and asked Zey about them.
“What these rooms illustrate,” Zey says, “is that homeowners are using their kitchens for more than just preparing meals. We are finding kitchens to be used more than any other room in the house. I think here, as with most areas of the country, homeowners are designing spaces like these which are functional, yet which also feel comfortable for entertaining and gathering.”
As he explained, what we are seeing in these five kitchens is the trend –– a strong one in the upper Midwest –– of people bringing the styles of nature indoors. That’s reflected in the use of different hardwoods, including exotics like Brazilian Cherry, as buyers keep moving away from standard oak flooring, he explained.
“If you pardon the play on words, they want a little personality...something that’s different from a standard, cookie-cutter kitchen... cabinets, countertops, right down to the floors.”
Middle of the road the Midwest is NOT. Buyers, he said, are being drawn to the handscraped look in wood and even laminate wood fashions. And tile remains popular (even some resilient vinyl, given the new technologies and patterns) because of the many variations in style, texture and pattern –– “not to mention the ease of maintenance,” Zey said. “That’s a key feature for these products.”
What our editors found so interesting about these kitchens is that they cut across a broad swath of lifestyles and income levels. You can find kitchens like these in homes costing $500,000 and up, certainly, but Zey says they also can be found in homes at about half the price.
“People who are established in their homes are looking to create a space to live with, and they tend to put more into their kitchens, knowing the style they add now adds value which can be recouped when it comes time to sell,” Zey added. Note as you read on that only one kitchen, at right, was new construction. All others resulted from a remodeling project. 