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SUNDAY, AUGUST 18, 2013 THE NEW MEXICAN
REAL ESTATE
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A colorful, practical backsplash.
Who says you need to have a cooking space fit for entertaining?
COURTESY RICHARD WHITE
AUTHENTICALLY DESIGNED
The heart of the house, the kitchen By Heather Van Luchene and Steffany Hollingsworth For The New Mexican
K Open-concept kitchens are all the rage. But are they good for entertaining? COURTESY OF NANCY HUGO/FLICKR
By J. Bryan Lowder Slate
M
any pleasures await those who, like me, while away their downtime watching HGTV, the real estate and home improvement porn network. There is the thrill of finding hardwood under dingy carpet, for example, and the pathos of an asbestos discovery mid-gut job, not to mention the smugness one feels when witnessing entitled Americans stupidly demand central air conditioning in various European capitals on House Hunters International. But perhaps most engrossing — for an apartment dweller, at least — is seeing how people with the money and space to thoroughly renovate their houses choose to use their resources. Many of their decisions delight me. An en suite in the attic? Creative! A mud room in place of a foyer? Functional! However, there is one distressingly popular design choice that has spread throughout HGTV’s stable of shows like black mold through a flooded basement, and I can no longer abet its growth by keeping silent. I’m talking about the baneful scourge that is the “open-concept kitchen.” If you are not familiar with the insidious notion of crudely exposing your kitchen to the dining area and beyond (usually with only a squat “island” guarding the living spaces from the cabinets and appliances that tower behind it), you are lucky indeed. I’m all too familiar with the lies the open concept evangelists have force-fed us from their gleaming, granite countertops: It’s ideal for entertaining! You can chat with the girls and chop onions at the same time! You can monitor your children or watch your favorite programs while whipping up some homemade ravioli! The openconcept propaganda machine knows no shame. First, let’s talk about entertaining, an activity that HGTV homebuyers and renovators value highly, as a rule. I have been throwing dinner parties for four to 10 people for years from my sturdy little galley-style setup, and I have never craved more openness. In fact, having one’s kitchen quite separate from the dining and lounging areas (as mine is) brings with it a host of benefits. For one thing, no matter how careful your mise en place, cooking requires some amount of mess-making. Why force your guests to gaze upon your sullied pots and pans while they eat, when you could leave them in a separate space to
Rebelling
against the open-concept
kitchen deal with later? Moreover, part of the joy of cooking for guests is surprising them with the wonders you’ve prepared — if you can see me adding freshly browned mushrooms to my coq au vin, there will be no revelation at the table. And finally, I have never known a skilled home cook who could engage in sparkling conversation while also properly attending to his work. If your guests are incapable of entertaining themselves for a few minutes in the living room while you plate the first course, draft your partner or your most gregarious friend to open a bottle and get things rolling — it’s the least they can do in exchange for the free meal. I fear, though, that this advice will be lost on partisans of the open-concept kitchen because, to be frank, I suspect that most of them are not actually doing much cooking or entertaining. If they were, they would know that sometimes in the course of preparing a meal, events occur that would be better kept … out of sight, such as when one burns the dickens out of one’s hand and promptly drops one’s darling lattice pie on the floor, shattering the Pyrex dish and triggering a mild panic attack. Such mishaps do not an elegant vista make. And really, it’s vistas — rather than actual cooking — that drive the misguided psychological yearning of the open-concept proponent. We live in a culture that has been trained by the Food Network to view cooking — literally, to observe it like spectators — as a neat, graceful process during which the cook can calmly chat and blow kisses
to Jeffrey while not missing a beat. This, I don’t have to point out to a real cook, is not reality, suggesting that open-concept kitchens are just another symptom of the fact that while many Americans are interested in cooking, few actually ever do it. Call me old-fashioned, but the aim of a good dinner host should not be to show off his knife skills to a captive audience from a gaudy stage. Rather, with precision of focus and purity of heart, he should strive to honor his guests through the sheer quality of his cooking, thinking of himself and his comfort only after the work is finished. This, in the end, is the fundamental truth that open-concept kitchens try to cover with fancy backsplashes: As a home cook, you will spend more time as a drudge than as a captivating raconteur or a master of ceremonies — and good drudges, as we know from Downton Abbey, keep their work out of sight. As for those who would argue that openconcept kitchens let busy parents keep an eye on their children, I’ll defer to this mother, who became disillusioned with her airy renovation once the little ones no longer required constant supervision. Though I am childless, it makes perfect sense to me that as increasingly self-sufficient cherubs discover children’s programming and other noisy joys, parents will crave a certain amount of division in their lives, leading to a newfound appreciation for walls. My sincere wish for all parents — and nonparents — is the airy freedom that can only come from closing a door.
sothebyshomes.com/santafe 505.988.8088
Aug ust
2013
tes Ranch Esta Beauty in • Homewise busy Homes of de ra Pa
more Home This story was first published in the August issue of Home. Read more Home articles every first Sunday of the month and at www. santafenewmexican. com/life/home
Functional and decorative lighting must provide quality illumination for all tasks and food presentation. Some combination of recessed, surfacemounted, track and undercabinet is optimal. LED and fluorescent recessed fixtures are ideal for their energy savings, but it is important to include bulbs in a warm but neutral range of 2700-3500 degrees Kelvin. Decorative lighting can provide a splash of color and make an individualized statement. Countertop options range from granite and quartz to copper, zinc and stainless steel, all having advantages and disadvantages depending on intended use. An island might beg a more unique pattern or color while the perimeter counters step back with a subtler pattern or color. Backsplash choices can be fun with layering tile sizes, shapes, materials, finishes and patterns; they are an opportunity to create art on the kitchen walls with color and texture. Cabinet hardware adds the “jewelry” and should be selected thoughtfully to reflect the overall design concept, blending or adding bling. The decisions can seem overwhelming, and often more than one choice per element can be applied. A professional interior designer can help mix all of the ingredients with just the right amount of flavoring. Whether making a meal or memories, this space should make it as effortless and enjoyable as possible. Heather Van Luchene, ASID and Steffany Hollingsworth, ASID are partners in HVL Interiors, LLC, an interior design firm offering professional residential and hospitality design services. Both are New Mexico licensed interior designers. They can be reached at 505-983-3601 or info@ hvlinteriors.com.
reduced by $100,000
Call me old-fashioned, but the aim of a good dinner host should not be to show off his knife skills to a captive audience from a gaudy stage.
itchens are the heart of the home. They are the source of all those delicious smells and where favorite memories are made, clichéd as that sounds. They are where people always congregate during a party, even when there is plenty of space elsewhere. As the room we probably spend the most waking time in, not surprisingly, it’s also where we spend the most time agonizing over details during a construction or remodel project. The functional component for kitchens is perhaps more critical than with any other space with so many requirements and uses to accommodate in the design. How do you like to cook? Wok, grill, griddle? How do you like to access, organize and store your tools? Do you frequently entertain and need warming drawers, extra dishwashers or refrigerators, beverage centers or space to accommodate caterers and extra hands? In design-speak, this information-gathering stage is called programming, and is critical to the final outcome of the project. Following these questions, appliances and fixtures need to be selected, as they drive many of the other decisions, given their space and power requirements. Appliance selections can be very personal as sometimes there is a preferred or coveted brand or a preference for certain characteristics. Hoods are integral to the design given their structure, and all of the options for housing them — wood, plaster or metal-clad. Other appliance decisions from the design perspective are proportion relative to room size, and available options for panel fronts, handles, controls and finishes to maintain continuity. For sink and faucet fixtures, we consider use needs, finish durability and style in relation to the overall design concept. In conjunction with appliances and fixtures, cabinetry enters the conversation as the framework that holds all the pieces together. At this stage in the project (if not before) it is good to turn to a knowledgeable kitchen designer who can offer an array of cabinet options and suggest layouts that both accommodate needs and take advantage of every inch. A quality cabinet is important to prioritize as you will most likely have it for a long time. Design considerations such as glass doors and the myriad of finishes (stains, glazes, distressing) must be coordinated with the countertop, tile and flooring selections to create a perfect balance of texture, contrast and color.
ide
al Estate Gu
Santa Fe Re
paseo de la tierra $950,000 Spacious view property on 10 acres in prestigious La Tierra designed in the Prairie School style. #201302281 penelope vasquez 505.690.3751
55 honeysuckle $1,395,000 Enjoy panoramic views from this classic adobe home and guest house in Las Campanas. #201302529 tim & paula galvin 505.795.5990
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Section editor: Bruce Krasnow, 986-3034, brucek@sfnewmexican.com Design and headlines: Brian Barker, bbarker@sfnewmexican.com
576 camino del monte sol $1,400,000 Casa Bakos, the home of Cinco Pintores painter Jozef Bakos, is a Santa Fe treasure. #201303129 ann brunson & ed schroeder 505.690.7885
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