After 21 years in decorating and design, we understand that if projects were easy, we would not be hired to help. Despite this known fact, why are we surprised when the complexity of client requirements creates design challenges that continue to push our creativity and crews? 

The Home:
Finding a home in Centreville near the grandchildren was a critical factor when buying the home. Our clients were thrilled when they found a home where the children could ride bikes between their houses. However, the spacious home did not have a layout conducive to entertaining family and fully enjoying all the things this couple envisioned.

The project is a 13’5” x 17’ kitchen with an opening to the mudroom/garage, back stairs, family room, hallway, and triple patio doors to the outside deck. 

Existing Challenges:
The existing kitchen layout and design created many challenges including:

• A lack of natural light because of the screen porch and inadequate lighting.
• Kitchen drawers that were too shallow to organize flatware or cooking utensils.
• A sink that did not have a clear way to separate dirty from clean dishes.
• Placement of items in cabinets and the pantry were not ideal for cooking.
• Teaching school and piano lessons, playing games, doing crafts, and cooking and baking required long, clean surfaces, which they did not have.
• The dining room table, which could easily seat 10 or more, had become a semi-permanent surface to organize overflow kitchen supplies and small appliances.

The Goal
Our client’s number one goal was to have a kitchen island that would allow seating for their 8 grandchildren. In addition, they wanted the new design to accommodate a 42” sink base with a 37” triple sink unit, double ovens, plentiful and highly organized pantry cabinets, an under-cabinet beverage refrigerator, and a 36” cooktop.

Solutions:
We lengthened the kitchen wall by 3’ to allow for longer counters and more cabinets. We also added an Andersen Multiglide 96”h door system with a stack on the outside of the home inside the screened porch. This required strengthening the foundation on the porch side to carry the weight of the new doors and the addition of new footers, floor joists and clever demolition of the existing porch floors since we did not have extra funds to rebuild a new porch. 

We relocated floor vents, updated all the lighting and ran new electrical for the induction cooktop, 2 new ovens, under cabinet and above cabinet lighting. Naturally, a few of the original switches for the overhead lighting and 3-way switches were not working so there were a couple days of tracing wires and troubleshooting.

With a 12’ island, we sourced a low maintenance quartz that provided the ideal white background color with natural gray and gold veining. This was one of the longest islands we have ever done and we were thankful it was available in a bookmatch. It compliments a white shaker cabinet and natural marble backsplash.

In this efficient kitchen, nearly every cabinet has a roll-out, pull-out, or organizer inside.

We partially removed a non-load bearing wall between the kitchen and family room, widened the opening between the kitchen and mudroom, and removed the existing pantry to accommodate a wall of built-in cabinetry. 

The client increased the scope twice after the project began, and did not want to stop short and sacrifice the other elements that would provide long-term enjoyment. We replaced much of the wood floor on the main level to blend with the newest wood flooring in the dining room. And, we updated the screened porch with closing the lower ⅓ of the porch, rescreened, installed a proper door and painted the ceiling and exterior.

The Results:
Creating the design for this family-friendly kitchen was challenging and fun for our team and we believe the end results are stunning. We expect our clients to enjoy many weekends and holidays with their grandchildren in this new space.

“When we hired Signature Design Interiors, we had one requirement for Janet and Sandra--we needed a kitchen island that would seat our eight grandchildren. With a limited amount of kitchen space, it took some time to get the design right, but they persisted until they came up with the perfect design. Unlike other contractors with whom we have worked, their staff worked on our house every day until the project was completed. Sandra contacted me almost daily throughout the project. We now have a beautiful kitchen that fits our entire family.