{ HOME REDO }
This page: Making dinner in this revamped kitchen is sheer joy, thanks to new appliances that the Emerson homeowner chose herself and the added island and cabinet space Barbieri created. Opposite page, top: The white Carrara marble island and cabinets in the same hue give homeowners the desired clean look, while bluepatterned valances and black granite countertops provide the necessary warmth. Bottom: Even the place settings stay true to the color scheme, while a custom table in espresso contrasts with the abundant white.
It was time to move on—not to a new place, but to a new look. Even if it took gutting several rooms (which it did), an Emerson couple was ready to bid farewell to a 1980s-era Formica kitchen that cramped the cook, and to usher in a clean look with lots of white. And they’d have to do it while tying it into the other half of this open space—the family room, also due for a makeover. “That’s where they spend their time,” designer Susan Barbieri, owner of an eponymous design firm in Hawthorne, says of the family room. “The homeowners wanted it to feel cozy, and it really didn’t. It lacked any architectural detail. It looked kind of empty.” For this makeover to be a success, Barbieri knew the kitchen needed to give the wife, who likes to cook, more room to prepare meals and a logical layout that included a whole new pantry taken from the adjacent laundry room. Because the kitchen was a bit cramped, BERGENMAG.COM
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Barbieri stretched the cabinets to the ceiling. The redesign also doubled the counter space, and the chef can now delight in a Carrara-marble center island with a larger prep area. New appliances proved instrumental in this kitchen’s modern makeover. “Most people who really cook need an exhaust vent or they will have a very smoky kitchen,” Barbieri explains. The solution? Embedding the microwave in the island to make room over the range for the vent. Even the old refrigerator had been an obstacle, blocking the room’s entrance every time its door was opened. But the redesign makes gourmet cooking a joy. The kitchen’s color story is one of contrasts. Barbieri broke up the white island and cabinetry with countertops in a black flamed-finish granite and an espresso-hued custom table in the dining area. Introducing black, gray, sienna brown and even cobalt
JUNE/JULY 2018
5/18/18 12:58 PM