‘Dream’ Kitchen Design Conveys Elegant, Rustic
Feel
By Barbara Capella Loehr
SEATTLE, WA The annual Street of Dreams, held here in the land of
Starbucks, offers local builders a platform to showcase some of
their best, ultra-high-end work. It also gives area kitchen and
bath designers a chance to shine.
This past year’s Street of Dreams was no exception, encompassing
five custom, luxury homes all on one street in an upscale community
just outside of Seattle. The homes were open for public viewing
from mid-July to mid-August, and showcased the latest trends in
kitchen and bath design, as well as in building, interior design,
architecture, home furnishings, landscaping and decorating
ideas.
And, as usual, at the show’s conclusion, votes were tallied, and
the top designs announced. This year, the Street of Dreams home
that won 17 out of the 22 classes judged including Best Kitchen
Design and Best of the Best featured a fabulous kitchen featuring
innovative cabinetry applications. The design began with inset
cabinetry from Canyon Creek Cabinet Co., with recessed doors and
drawer fronts that sit flush with the cabinet face frame.
Terry James Young, direct sales representative, designer and
consultant for Monroe, WA-based Canyon Creek products, collaborated
with Todd Parmenter, owner of and builder with Parmenter Homes, on
this kitchen design.
“The Street of Dreams is a very large show with
state-of-the-art, multi-million dollar homes. People come from all
over to see the show. I have participated in many of these, and so
have [the] builders [I work with],” says Young.
He notes that he and Parmenter ended up working on a building
plan they have done together before on a smaller scale, and in a
different platform.
“We had been building a smaller version of this home in
Stonegate Plat, and [Todd] took it and expanded it to use in this
Street of Dreams. It went over so well before, we took it to
another level, adding to it, for example, in the kitchen space,”
notes Young.
FIRE IN THE KITCHEN
Young and Parmenter
worked on this kitchen design together, using a give-and-take
approach, as they have done in years past.
“Todd has also had a hands-on approach in the homes we’ve done
together,” notes Young. “We’ve come up with some pretty nice
kitchens.”
When Parmenter throws out an idea, Young runs with it, no matter
what it is. According to Young, he sees it as a design challenge.
For example, there is a fireplace in the corner of the kitchen held
inside wood cabinetry, which was one of the main challenges of the
design, explains Young.
“It was interesting putting it into a wood cabinet. I scratched
my head at the idea, at first, but said, ‘Okay, I’ll do some
research and see if we can make it work,'” he recalls. “Quite a few
eyebrows were raised when I came back to Canyon Creek and said we
were putting a fireplace inside a corner cabinet. But we did do
research with fireplace companies so it would not be a fire hazard,
and then we had to figure out how to get access to it with the
controls, gas, etc.”
But that level of dedication to solving design challenges set
the tone for the entire design process, from the kitchen to the
rest of the home, notes Young. And, in the case of the fireplace,
the solution created a stunning focal point for the warm, elegant
kitchen
At the heart of this award-winning kitchen design is “the latest
in kitchen technology,”
says Young.
On the cabinetry which features the company’s Falmouth door
style in Rustic Alder, finished in a Honey stain with a Chocolate
glaze an ogee molding was applied to the 4″ crown molding at the
top of the cabinetry. Then, a cornice molding was used at the
bottom of the cabinetry.
The chiseled, granite-topped center island, complete with
furniture ends, serves as another focal point. “The countertops
really worked well with the overall look of the kitchen,” comments
Young.
Parmenter and Young wanted the cabinetry, as well as the entire
kitchen, to convey a ‘homey,’
furniture feel.
“I believe the inset doors, along with the moldings, helped
achieve that,” notes Young, who adds that the cabinetry serves as
the design’s starting point and inspiration for the design.
Refrigerator panels, pantry pull-outs, glass mullion doors,
furniture legs and a farmhouse sink completed the elegant, yet
rustic feel of this kitchen, Young notes.
FUNCTION FORWARD
In terms of
state-of-the-art function, Young and Parmenter packed this kitchen
with all of the tools
a 21st-century, luxury kitchen should have.
“[For instance], we went with two [Jenn-Air] dishwashers in this
kitchen for ease of entertaining,” says Young. “We also went with a
[Jenn-Air] commercial range, and installed a [Jenn-Air] warming
drawer across from it in the island, which was one of the work
zones we created.”
To the left of the range sits a 48″ Jenn-Air built-in
refrigerator. A double oven, also from Jenn-Air, completes the
kitchen’s high-end functionality.
“You can get to things quickly and easily in this kitchen And,
because of the close proximity of the appliances, we didn’t feel
the need to install a sink in the island,” he adds. Therefore, the
singular sink in the kitchen is the aforementioned farmhouse
model.
Overall, this functional kitchen is large enough to have
several, nicely equipped work zones, but it still feels cozy and
inviting, according to Young.
“One of the things people noticed in this kitchen is that the
design made you want to come in and take your shoes off,” he
states.
Design continuity
It was also important to
keep the kitchen in the same design vein as the rest of the home in
order to maintain a feeling of continuity.
To that end, the butler’s pantry was designed to complement the
kitchen design. The butler’s pantry featured Canyon Creek
Crème Broulée cabinetry. “The cabinetry was done in
what we call a Crème Broulée finish, which is a cream
paint with a chocolate glaze,” explains Young.
Then, in the master bath, the same Crème Broulée
finish was applied to the cabinetry and Queen Anne legs were added
to “achieve that same furniture look in the kitchen and throughout
the home,” says Young.
The Rustic Alder cabinetry with the Crème Broulée
finish in different rooms of this home “turned out to be a great
com-bination in the homes [Todd and I] have been doing,” Young
concludes.