RED KITCHENS

 

I ADORE red kitchens!  They have so much life and an expectation of something really COOL just about to happen.  (BTW, it's possible to have a red kitchen and still have it be cool.  Red does not always have to be warm.  However, a red kitchen is never COLD.  How's that for contradictory color theory?  Designers are allowed to do that!)  

My first personal remodel was updating a 1960s modern house to be current for the 80s.  We tore out the old kitchen and put in a modern white German kitchen (by Alno).  The walls were - you guessed it! - RED.  I cut my teeth on that project:  I had to layout the design in centimeters!  And my husband and I did all the installation ourselves. But that's a blot post for another day....Moving on with Doug's kitchen:

I had seen this red kitchen from Ikea on line and loved it, and I had read in shelter magazines about architects that were using Ikea for their own NYC apartment remodels.  If architects were using it, the quality would probably be OK.  And the price was right:  for an apartment, we didn't want to spend all our budget on Italian cabinets...there had to be some money left for art, since that is Doug's passion.

Doug and I visited the Ikea showroom in Palo Alto to check out the quality, and decided to go with it.  We started this project in 2007, long before I got my new Interior Design software, so I used Ikea's software to lay out the floor plan, import the cabinets and do the elevations.

The design developed as we went along, as design so often does!  The original design was for the microwave to be hidden behind doors, but Doug wanted to consider ease of access, so I laid out this elevation (above), showing the new black frig and dishwasher, with the existing microwave installed in an open cabinet. Neither of us liked this, so we went back to the original, with the microwave behind the doors.

This sketch is hand drawn onto the Ikea wall elevation of the back wall of the kitchen.  It shows the view from the Dining Room, with the new hood vent, the Dining Room drawers from Ikea, granite mosaic backsplash, and soapstone counters.  Doug loves soapstone - he had it in his Santa Barbara house and is hooked on soapstone!

This elevation is a study I did for Doug about hanging his new Wusthof knives on a magnetic knife rail on the granite mosaic backsplash.  I imported the Ikea elevation into my new software and imported the picture of the Wusthof knives from the internet, and correctly scaled it to see if it would fit properly.  We're going with it!   Stay tuned for tomorrow's post: Week 1- Demolition and Wall Construction....

SAN FRANCISCO KITCHEN REMODEL - BEFORE Pictures

REMEMBER THIS VIEW?
We are finally nearing completion of this very fun apartment remodel in San Francisco.  To get a little background on the project and to see the first 2 posts on the bathroom remodel, go to the label column on the lower right and click on "Bachelor". 

When I first arrived in San Francisco to help my client with this project (2007!  ...There have been some delays, but those of you who know Doug know that it's not his fault!), this was what I saw:

A VERY small closed-off kitchen.  With the 10-story view to my back, this boxy cave to the front definitely didn't live up to its potential.

Inside the cave, the suspended microwave with exposed electrical connections for the microwave and frig made this apartment look like it was located in a different part of the city than Pacific Heights!  Also, all the finish materials were completely utilitarian - like a kitchen galley in an office building.

So we began to develop a design concept that would open up this space and add some luxurious finishes.  You can see in the photo above that we experimented with red for the kitchen color:  there is a red napkin taped to the frig, with a piece of aluminum foil, to give us an idea of the balance of red and stainless.  There is a paint color fan deck on the table opened to red colors.  (Click on any of the photos to enlarge.) 

Guess what!!!  We decided on RED.  Check out the next post to see how the design progressed, and to see the pictures from WEEK 1 of demolition. 

WHERE HAVE I BEEN?

This Cary Interior Designer has not been in Cary much over the past couple of months. What have I been doing? Check out this beautiful view of Alta Plaza Park in San Francisco! My son moved into an unfurnished apartment and I was lucky enough to be the designated designer! The amazing thing about this apartment is that it is right in the middle of all the beautiful hills and typical San Francisco cityscape, but when you look out the window, this beautiful park is what you see. If you step out on the balcony, you can see all the SF scenes; but from inside you see the peace of the park.

So I have been designing a bachelor pad for a twenty-something. (I also visited my other bachelor client in San Francisco. We are working on his apartment too, but it's a radically different aesthetic. Stay tuned for more on that project later, and visit his completed Bathroom Remodel post in this blog: July 2010).

So where do you begin when you are designing an apartment from scratch? We began with my son's art: a Mondrian that we ordered after our visit to MOMA in NYC 2 years ago.

Here is a pared down view of the process:  (Click on individual images to enlarge)

FIRST VISION BOARD: After discussing with my son what type of sofa he wanted, and what type of entertainment center, I did the first "vision board". That enables us to get a feel for the possibilities. I imported pictures from Pottery Barn for the sofa and coffee table, and I found a cool table at Pier One that complemented the Mondrian, since we had determined that the dining area would be the best location for it. We had discussed the art for the wall over the sofa, and decided on using my son's photographs from Europe, NYC and New Zealand. And the entertainment center I imported from my software program.

FLOOR PLAN: The next step was to properly scale all these items into the floor plan. I did many, many different floorplans, studies and vision boards of possible furniture for all these parts of the space. I emailed links to my son and together we reasoned out what would work best, what appealed to him most, and what fit the budget. I am only showing a few of the images here...

NEXT VISION BOARD: This board shows some changes: We shopped around and found a really cool table that is similar to the Pier One piece in the first concept board, but this table was less stark, both in color and form (slightly rounded, whereas Pier One was totally angular). We found a chair at the same store that was comfortable and affordable. We purchased an entertainment center from Ikea that looked just as I had imagined from my software. We had arrived at blue as the right color for the rug after looking at several possibilities, so I colored in a blue shape. And I found a coffee table that I thought my son would like from CB2. So I imported all these changes and we kept on working from this revised basis.

NEXT ROUND OF VISIONS: For this group of vision boards, I sent my son several actual rug choices. We looked at rugs from Crate and Barrel, West Elm, CB2, as well as several choices from my designer arsenal. In the end, we chose one of my rugs from the San Francisco Design Center - a Capel rug in Denim Blue. I imported it into the vision board, and we are waiting for it to arrive.

ELEVATION: This elevation shows the Pottery Barn sofa with chaise that we have on order. My new software is so cool that I can scale everything exactly, down to the fraction of the inch. So I did a design layout for my son's photos, showing the exact sizes of his frames, and how far apart they all are to be hung. I hung them all before I left SF. We are just waiting for the sofa now! To the right of the sofa, we opted for a small simple table from Walmart to hold the Ikea lamp. We were running out of money! To the right of the table/lamp are the beginning of the kitchen cabinets and the microwave.

This project lent itself very well to virtual design - long distance communication by email and phone.  (I didn't have to go to San Francisco - I just wanted to!!)

The examples of vision boards and floor plan are a good illustration of working on a design as a package.  I can either work by the hour, or on a package basis.  Sometimes all you need is an idea of where to begin - where to place your furniture, what sizes to buy.  For others, like my son, you need to know what the possibilities are, where to find them, and how to integrate them. For more information on how we might work on your project, give me a call, and we can talk about it.

I'm back doing interior design in Cary now, and the things we've ordered have started to arrive, so stay tuned for final pictures later on!

BACHELOR'S BATHROOM REMODEL

SAN FRANCISCO HIGH RISE PROJECT COMPLETED....



Remember my April 25 post, with the pictures of the High Rise view from the 1oth floor? We have completed that bathroom remodel, and we are ecstatic about it! Quite a change from the "before" picture below.....


To see the drawings for this design, refer to the earlier email. Here is the finished product:

This is a tiny bathroom: the footprint is only 5 x 9, and this includes the tub, water closet and vanity. The actual floor space is less than half that figure. The challenge, of course, was to make it appear bigger. I did this by expanding the mirror over the sink to be the full width of the wall, and by using a reflective wall paneling on the opposite wall. Also, replacing the old medecine cabinet with a high quality cabinet the same height as the wall mirror creates a continuous corner of reflectivity, adding to the illusion of space.

This apartment building is about 30 years old, and due to the way the plumbing was configured, it wasn't feasible to change out the water closet. So we chose white grout for the tile, to help minimize the old fixture.

The wall hung vanity also adds to the spacious feel.

The owner of this space is an art collector, with a terrific sense of humor. He chose (with my approval!) this hand painted shower curtain, to continue the "art experience". The artist has a website, and you can order these artsy shower curtains on line, at www.showercurtainart.com

The carved granite sink is a focal point, and is complemented with the hand cut, recycled green glass mosaic tiles.

Halogen lighting adds great clean light to this crisp room....

VIEW INTO THE DINING AREA

We had the BEST contractor on this project: Be sure to check him out if you need work done in San Francisco: Brendan Waters. www.brendanwatersconstruction.com

This project is an excellent example of virtual design. I visited this space 2 years ago and took pictures. That's it. The entire project has been completed long distance, using phone and email. It has been a real pleasure to work on - the client is ABSOLUTELY one of my favorites!

Now we are working on the plans for remodeling the kitchen.

STAY TUNED!