Charlottesville House and Home - October 2008 - (Page 22)

Even with a rustic look, the lighting is vitally important, as evidenced by the lights over the clean-up and food preparation areas. Storage, Storage, Storage When Jenny and Cameron Howell bought their home in 2005, the kitchen had been ridden hard and put away wet. The linoleum floor was worn, the walls once white, the appliances original, and then there was some “pretty terrible” oak veneer cabinetry. “We knew we would re-do it,” Jenny says. “It was just bare bones.” But as bad as it was, the Howells wanted to wait until they moved in to tackle the project. “I needed to learn how to move and work in it and figure out what we wanted in a redesign,” Jenny adds. Still, she had some idea of the look she wanted. She’d found a photo in Better Homes and Gardens with dark tile floors, white cabinets, dark countertops and berry-red walls and another photo featured a simple banquette. Cameron worked on a basic design, took lots of measurements, but when he started working on integrating the banquette, the Howells decided to call a designer. “They brought in this picture from a magazine they really loved that had white cabinets with dark gray counterops and red walls,” designer Angie Lackey of Reico Kitchen and Bath recalls. “We used that as our inspiration.” The Howells’ kitchen was small and presented some design challenges. Incorporating the banquette seating area wouldn’t be easy. “There was nothing there before,” Cameron recalls. “We had a table and chairs there, and the challenge was to make the most of that space. We needed storage, a seating area and counter space.” “We sat down with some pictures and added a few of our own tricks and features,” Lackey says. “We had to go into the wall and restructure it to hold up the granite in the banquette. I included a wine storage space within the banquette which created a great shelf for a television and some personal pictures.” “It was great having Reico,” Jenny Howell says. “Angie took care of the project redesign and made sure all the details were taken care of from start to finish. She found a way to build a drawer into each bench in the banquette and made certain we could fit a wine rack into the back of one side of the banquette.” Lackey helped the Howells center the sink under the window and fit in a full dishwasher the Howells weren’t able to envision themselves. “The kitchen has a contemporary look, and we were going for more storage space,” Lackey says. 22 october 2008 | chArlottesville house & home

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Charlottesville House and Home - October 2008

Charlottesville House and Home - October 2008

https://www.nxtbookmedia.com