Early in the spring we were approached by a husband and wife who wanted to update their kitchen and deck. The kitchen was circa 1980’s and while the layout was acceptable the look didn’t match some of the other details in the house. The deck was oddly shaped and didn’t properly allow them to enjoy the view of the rest of property. Also on the list of things to do was to replace a triple casement window with a bay window additional space for the homeowners indoor plants. We also replaced the large picture window in front of the sink.
Once I had taken all the measurements of the existing kitchen I started my design for the new cabinets. Because the homeowners liked the flow of the current kitchen I kept the layout of my new design similar to the existing conditions. To accommodate for a double oven I added a tall unit in place of a narrow pantry cabinet. The tall pantry was relocated to the corner of the kitchen. Because we were removing all the cabinets the existing 8×8 tiles would be replaced with 12×12 tiles. The existing kitchen had 3/4 overlay doors and drawers. Overlay cabinets are a good choice when using stock cabinets because the doors hide the frame of the cabinet box and the joints between two boxes is not as noticeable. When a client approaches us to design and build them a custom kitchen we like to go with a inset doors and continuous face-frames. The face-frame hides the joints between the various units. Inset doors and drawers when not in use are flush with the face-frame. On this particular project the client went with painted cabinets and a natural prefinished plywood on the interior of the boxes (this reduced paint time for us).
The existing deck presented a different challenge. It’s triangular design and deep bench seats meant that there was a lot of unusable real estate. The new deck is larger and incorporated a cable rail system to allow for unobstructed views both inside and out. Instead of pressure treated lumber for the deck boards we went with IPE, a Brazilian hardwood that is rot resistant and requires little maintenance. The end result is a beautiful deck that will be enjoyed by the homeowners for years to come.
