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It’s a stunning site, surrounded by woodland and mature trees, which Davies pulled into the design as borrowed views. The new pool sits low in the landscape, and Davies layered perennials, shrubs and more trees into the banks of the slopes, which he manipulated into terraces.
Plants here include ‘Caradonna’ sage (Salvia nemorosa ‘Caradonna’, USDA zones 4 to 9; find your zone), lamb’s ears (Stachys byzantina, zones 4 to 9), white Jupiter’s beard (Centranthus ruber ‘Albus’, zones 5 to 8) and ‘Walker’s Low’ catmint (Nepeta racemosa ‘Walker’s Low’, zones 3 to 8).
“I call this the Carpinus bank,” Davies says, referring to the row of five box-pruned hornbeams that punctuates the stretch. The clipped trees echo the thatched roof. “There’s a sense of the thatch being a clipped material,” he says.
Note: Lamb’s ears and Jupiter’s beard can be aggressive spreaders, depending on where you live and your garden’s conditions. Check with a landscape designer or your local nursery before planting.
This article was originally published by a www.houzz.com . Read the Original article here. .
This 1920s Spanish Colonial home in Kensington, California, has quite a history, including being the residence of J. Robert Oppenheimer during his time at the University of California, Berkeley. However, the home’s funky kitchen didn’t share that history; it was added on to the back of the home in the 1970s. The homeowner, who loves to cook and to host her grandchildren, looked to Houzz to find a designer when she was ready to remodel. She found interior designer Anne Norton, who came up with a design that would lighten the space and tie it in with the rest of the historic architecture.
Photos by Peter Lyons Photography
Kitchen at a Glance
Who lives here: A woman and her dog, Teddy
Location: Kensington, California
Size: 252 square feet (23 square meters)
Designer: Anne Norton of AND Interior Design Studio
Before we step inside, take a look at this photo, which shows the home’s classic 1920s Spanish Colonial architecture. It also introduces us to the homeowner’s dog, Teddy.
The homeowner wanted her kitchen to flow with the rest of the home’s historic architecture. “She’s a big cook, she even likes to make her own yogurt and kombucha,” Norton says. She also loves to gather around the kitchen table with friends and family, especially her grandchildren.
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Here’s a peek at the kitchen in the background, beyond the dining room. The arched opening in the foreground is an architectural element that’s repeated throughout the home. The existing opening to the kitchen had been squared off. Norton redesigned the opening, giving it a graceful arch that mimics the others in the house.
The dining room and the other original rooms had high ceilings. But the kitchen addition had a low, flat ceiling covered in dark wood.
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Before: “The kitchen had a much different look than the rest of the house,” Norton says. “It had been strongly influenced by the School of Environmental Design at UC Berkeley in the ’70s. It was very dark, it had post-and-beam architecture, and it had a flat, low, wood-covered ceiling.” You can glimpse the squared-off opening to the dining room at left.
The cabinets were dark-stained Douglas fir, the wood on the ceiling had a dark stain, and the floors were dark. “The layout was good but there wasn’t enough storage,” Norton says. “We also wanted to upgrade the cabinetry with doors and drawers that were easy to open. The goal was to modernize the kitchen while making it feel like it was part of the original architecture.”
After: While Norton kept the addition’s original footprint and its windows and skylights intact, she looked to the ceiling to help her tie the space to the rest of the home. First she turned to a structural engineer to help remove the post-and-beam structure. Two new large steel beams were installed to hold up the roof. This allowed the designer to raise the ceiling to 9½ feet at the highest point and add a curve to it that was inspired by the arches in the rest of the home. “Raising and curving the ceiling was the most important thing we did,” Norton says. She centered the range and vent hood on the curve. The refrigerator is located at the end of the cabinet run on the right.
With the other elements in the kitchen lightened up, Norton kept the dark floors. “I am a big believer in ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,’” she says. A Middle Eastern rug adds lightness. “I like the way the soft pale oranges in the rug juxtapose with the green cabinets,” Norton says. “It brings a lot of dynamism to the space.”
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Another important element that ties the kitchen to the rest of the home is the hand-plastered finish on the walls. “We kept the materials in the kitchen simple and honest to let the architecture of the curved ceiling bring the drama,” Norton says. This includes the soft sage green on the cabinets, leathered Absolute Black granite counters and marble subway tiles.
The cabinet profiles are flush inset with simple lines and hardware. And they’re also modern, with lots of inserts and features like spice pullouts, a panel-front dishwasher and trash-recycling pullouts. They have full-extension door and drawer slides, meaning they extend out from the cabinet the full length of the slide when opened, not the typical 75%.
Norton chose Benjamin Moore’s Carolina Gull paint for the cabinets, bringing in a soft, nature-inspired color. The hardware is oil-rubbed bronze. “It will patina over time,” Norton says. This will lend a sense of age that matches other details in the home.
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The Douglas fir windows were a part of the 1970s addition, so Norton added Douglas fir shelves to tie in with them. She notes that being thoughtful about small details was important. “We didn’t float the shelves,” she says. “The little supports that hold up the shelves are an old-world technique. I think it’s these small details that make the kitchen feel authentic.”
The cabinets on either side of the vent hood have decorative metal mesh inserts that give them a lighter feel. Also, Norton had the marble backsplash tiles hand-cut into 4-by-8-inch rectangles. This gives them a stronger presence than if standard 3-by-6-inch tiles had been used.
This homeowner is a staunch kitchen table person, and the existing expanse of windows provided the perfect spot for one. The table is a Scandinavian piece from the 1800s. The built-in china cabinets to the left are original to the addition and worked well with the renovated kitchen’s architecture.
Norton wanted to create just the right spot for the homeowner’s Keith Haring subway art. “That wall where the art hangs was a wood grid of 12-by-12-inch cubbies that made no sense, so we took them out,” she says. She replaced them with a plastered wall that lightened the room and gave the owner a spot to hang the beloved artwork.
The large windows overlooking the back garden were a great feature of the 1970s addition. “There is a view of wisteria hanging from a trellis, and her chickens come up and look through the windows. I always leave this house loaded up with a dozen eggs,” Norton says with a laugh.
This article was originally published by a www.houzz.com . Read the Original article here. .
Kitchen at a Glance
Who lives here: A couple with four kids
Location: Shelburne, Vermont
Size: 353 square feet (33 square meters)
Designers: Jillian Bartolo of Peregrine Design Build (lead designer) and Lauren Miles (interior design)
Bartolo removed a structural wall to absorb the former dining room into the new kitchen, increasing the layout by 155 square feet. “We ended up relocating the dining room across the house,” says Bartolo, who worked with Miles on selecting finishes.
A 4½ -by-10-foot island with a flat-sawn white oak countertop creates a warm and welcoming spot for the family to gather. “It was my recommendation to go with a 2-inch-thick top that’s dramatic and creates a focal point,” Bartolo says. “For the scale of the island that big, the thickness is appropriate.”
Custom Shaker-style wood cabinetry is painted a warm green (Shade-Grown by Sherwin-Williams). A 36-inch paneled built-in refrigerator column and 30-inch paneled freezer (back right) and paneled dishwasher to the left of the sink help maintain the warm and inviting look. The wood-and-green palette join engineered wide-plank European white oak flooring, hand-painted marble backsplash tiles and marble perimeter countertops for an inviting English country look and feel.
A pocket door next to the refrigerator leads to the renovated mudroom, which has slate tile flooring. To the right of that doorway, on the white wall, is another pocket door (not shown) that opens to a spacious butler’s pantry.
Backsplash: Willow in Walnut, Artisan Stone Tile, StoneImpressions; paint colors: Ivory White (ceiling and trim) and Tapestry Beige (walls), Benjamin Moore; cabinetry: Pomerantz Woodworking; flooring: Tresor collection, Provenza Floors
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