Mission 4193: Make a Great Room Really Great

We've got a new project!

The space, not the child. The child is a whole other kind of project. :) She had strep this week and had to go to job sites with Mama.

It's a great room!  I mean, it will be. Once we nail down flooring, kitchen cabinets, countertops, backsplash and paint colors.

So long, carpet and tile. So long, wall.

The homeowner (we'll call her 4193) wants the kitchen to be semi-open: leaving it as a U so that the Cook is the Captain of her Ship--as opposed to a galley-and-island configuration, open on both ends.  But she's opening it up and putting a bar along the dark wall (above) and the adjacent one, where the sink and refrigerator currently are.  Lots of room for grandkids eating snacks after school.

The fridge will swap sides so two walls open up to the great room.

I have yet to meet 4193 face to face, as this is a second home for them. (Yes! The world wide web, Skype, texting and all sorts of other technology make it possible for me to work with you across the world!) But I'm having a great time with her, and I so appreciate her communication and clear sense of what she wants functionally and stylistically. It's so fun to work with people who have remodeled before and have fun themselves paging through imagery and nailing down their tastes. 

When I came on the scene last week, 4193 was going this direction with her material choices:

Photo courtesy Giulietti/Schouten Architects, photographer: Josh Partee.

Isn't it sleek and elegant?  It works in part because of the little black echoes thoughout the space—not masses of dark mimicking the dark cabinets, but subtle bits of black found in the trim and the chair legs and the chandelier canopy.

4193 had chosen knotty maple engineered flooring, java cabinets, gold/bronze quartz countertops, and a slate/glass linear mosaic backsplash.  She will be bringing deep brown leather furniture to the space and a rich wood table and entertainment center. And they're not painting the trim, which, as you can see, is white.

Never mind these people (men discussing installation things, child getting too much screen time): just check out the space. Okay, actually, note that I am thrilled to be working with JL Benton Contracting again and Carpets Plus Colortile on this project.

Anyway, I wasn't sure I could achieve the beauty Giulietti/Schouten Architects did in 4193's space, given the architecture, style and existing pieces.  

But 4193 also sent me this image--a different direction, but another space she loved. 

Ammor Architecture did such a beautiful job on this loft in Gramercy, didn't they? I totally want to live there. Photo courtesy Ammor Architecture LLP and Alison Gootee (photographer).

This is too modern a look for 4193, I think, but its elements are better for this space than the first image.

At this point, I'd like to keep 4193's java cabinets but only in part of the kitchen, softening them and tying them to the white trim throughout the house with some white cabinet finishes, perhaps under the bar.  And we'll try for walnut engineered wood on the floors, which is what Ammor Architecture told me was in this space (with all kinds of helpful information and detail). Maybe marble or travertine stacked 1x3s for a backsplash?  

Let the shopping begin!

Stay tuned. This should be a fun one. 

Susan Yeley