Designed for Living: Remodeling a kitchen

The Designer: Sharon L. Sherman, ASID, Thyme & Place Design, Wyckoff (thymeandplacedesign.com)

PHOTO BY PETER RYMWID ARCHITECTURAL PHOTOGRAPHY

Designer Sharon L. Sherman reconfigured this kitchen to give it more natural light and storage and a better 'traffic pattern.'

The Challenge: This kitchen has three doorways, one on each wall, which had to remain. One opens to the dining room. Another serves as the entrance to a back hallway with a double staircase leading down to the garage and up to the master bedroom. On the third wall, there is a wide archway that opens onto the family room. We needed to work around these obstacles to create a kitchen that has some natural light, lots of storage space, and a traffic pattern that accommodates all the doorways. All this, plus the client wanted an island.

The Solution: The center island, designed as the hub of the kitchen, is key to meeting all the client's needs. The dishwasher and sink, along with a few storage drawers, are located on one side of the island. The adjacent side contains cabinets and more drawers. While the island's marble top has two straight and one curved edge, the base underneath is a cleverly engineered triangle with niches along one side. This "step in" design makes it possible to accommodate up to four stools. The result is plenty of walk-around space so that everything, including doorways, is accessible.

With the sink and dishwasher located in the island, the remaining three walls can be devoted to appliances and more storage: a double oven with storage above and below on one wall; a side-by-side, built-in refrigerator next to the archway into the family room; and the cooktop, microwave, custom backsplash and multiple cabinets along the remaining wall.

The fourth wall was removed, so the kitchen now opens onto a breakfast room with French doors that flood the space with daylight.

The New Jersey Chapter of the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) sponsors a referral service for consumers interested in obtaining the services of qualified professional interior designers. For more information, visit the Find a Designer section of http://www.njasid.org.

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Designed for Living: Remodeling a kitchen