HIGHLAND PARK, IL — When a spec home is filled with just the right touches and details that make it special, a builder can usually rest assured that the home will just about sell itself, as well as any other home it’s representing. And to get a spec home just right, a builder typically needs a spectacular kitchen that “wows” prospective buyers.

Enter James R. Dase, a CMKBD with Abruzzo Kitchens in Schaumburg, IL. DiamondSchreiber Homes, a local builder, brought Dase in to design the kitchen for a spec home that it was constructing.

“I worked with them on a previous spec home project, and I am currently working with several of their custom home clients,” explains Dase. “[I worked] specifically with the builder since this was a 7,000-sq.-ft. spec home [that] was listed at $3 million, so the potential buyer considerations were rather broad.”

Indeed, it was Dase’s job to create a smashing kitchen that would appeal to a broad range of prospective buyers – and do it all within a 350-sq.-ft. space (or a 475-sq.-ft. space, if one includes the dining area) – in a style that meshed with the home’s overall English Tudor design theme. It also had to pull in elements of a typical seaside kitchen from the 1920s. This was a tall order, but Dase was up to the challenge.

In fact, his kitchen design became a big selling point for the builder. “The home sold very quickly [not only] due to the high-quality building practices of the builder, [but also due to] the detail of design incorporated throughout the home, including the kitchen and baths,” reveals Dase. “It was the classicism of the kitchen and baths that attracted the buyer. The attention to detail in the design is what set this house apart from the rest.”

THAT ’20S KITCHEN
Dase began the design process with a list of the builder’s stylistic and functional requirements in hand.

“The builder wanted to create a kitchen that reflected the by-gone era of the 1920s – a time when many of the surrounding homes were built. The “Jazz Age” feel, a “seaside ambiance” and that “Something’s Gotta Give” look were all concept ideas that they wanted to somehow incorporate in the final design. They also wanted to hide any appliances that would not have been available in the ’20s. And, the kitchen needed to provide efficient function not only for everyday tasks, but also be flexible enough to accommodate multiple users when needed during holidays and parties,” explains Dase.

Add to that the fact Dase had an oddly shaped space with which to work. Its shape was the first obstacle he had to overcome if he was to create a kitchen from an F. Scott Fitzgerald novel that was replete with all of the modern conveniences of the 21st century. In fact, the shape caused a few shifts in the blueprints in order to make the space work more efficiently.

“The overall size [of the kitchen] did not change; however, the shape did. The original architectural layout had the range on an angle in the opposite corner from the sink. This crowded the refrigerator and pantry area, and [it] was not proportioned properly for the size of hood needed for the range,” recalls Dase. “Moving the range to the center of the back wall from its original location on the blueprints helped spread out the work zones and reduce user congestion.”

These changes also made it a little easier for Dase to create multiple work zones using a peninsula and an island, which, in turn, help accommodate multiple cooks and increase the kitchen’s everyday efficiency.