Kitchen & Bath Business - October 2020 - 61

important piece in the room."I try to imagine the
kitchen with anything different, and it feels like
it's coming up short."
A COUNTERTOP CHALLENGE

Vanderhovel also worried he might be in for a
major disaster when the husband - along with
his carpenter friend - wanted to do most of the
installations without outside help.
"I was extrapolating that to a six-figure remodel,
and a little fear set in," said the designer, who attempted to get them to use a contractor multiple
times,but they were dead set on doing it themselves.
"To my surprise,everything went about as smooth as
it could - until it was time to install the countertops."
A few months before that, Vanderhovel went
shopping with the wife to look for a slab. With
the dark palette already decided, he encouraged
her to look at brighter countertops, but she instead
was drawn to cool tones and, of course, dramatic
movement. The winning slab was granite with
a giant quartz deposit in the center, which was
illuminated by a backlit spotlight and looked like
volcanic lava.

BELOW LEFT Since this was to
be the clients' forever home,
the design team created a layout with wider walkways and
doorways and installed other
thoughtful aging-in-place features like a drawer microwave,
a vertical-lift appliance garage
in the pantry and a motionactivated faucet.
BELOW RIGHT Moving the

laundry room opened up a
great area for a mudroom and
additional storage space.

"Then I remember her saying, 'I want it to look
like that in my countertop,'"explained the designer, who had quickly realized that the homeowner
wanted her countertops to also be backlit. "All of
the wheels started turning, and my problem-solver
brain went into overdrive."
Since the husband planned to do all the
electrical and installation work, Vanderhovel
asked him to drive out to the fabrication facility to do the backlighting. However, the
husband's busy schedule kept him from doing
that particular part of the project. After a few
weeks with no progress, Vanderhovel and his
girlfriend spent an entire weekend laying out
sheets of almost 7,200 LED diodes and soldering all the wires together to illuminate the
stone from underneath.
"Looking back, it seems like overkill, but I was so
scared that if we installed those tops and that light
didn't shine through, I'd be in deep trouble," said
Vanderhovel, who wanted to deliver this final touch
of truly bold drama the clients wanted."I swear I didn't
breathe until I turned the lights on for the first time and
that piece of stone started to glow - just like lava." 

SOURCES
DESIGNER: Nicholas
Vanderhovel, Dream
Kitchens; PHOTOGRAPHER:
Beth Singer
Photographer Inc.
CABINETRY: Fieldstone
Cabinetry; COUNTERTOPS:
Mont Granite Inc.;

DOUBLE OVEN, FREEZER
& REFRIGERATOR:
Monogram; FAUCET
AND POT FILLER: Brizo;
HARDWARE: Emtek; HOOD:
Stanisci Design; LIGHTING:
Varaluz; MICROWAVE:
Sharp; RANGE TOP: Viking;
SINK: Blanco

61
58-61_KBB_1020_FeatureOne.indd 61

9/14/20 10:07 PM
Kitchen & Bath Business - October 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Kitchen & Bath Business - October 2020
