kitchen,” the designer says. “The island provides both storage and work surface in a comfortable work pattern and gives the impression of a larger space without increasing the kitchen footprint.” Sherman stained the island and custom wood hood deep taupe/gray and finished the “subtle latte” cabinets, also specially made, with a glaze to accent the door details. The hues hit the right note with the homeowners, who requested little use of white, the color of their former kitchen. “The countertops are a white ground with veins of grey taupe and green, which perfectly complement the cabinets and the backsplash tile,” Sherman notes. An engineered wood floor in the same color family connects the kitchen to the adjacent 14-foot-by-14-foot dining area. There are four custom chairs and an expandable oval custom table by Abner Henry—fine for an intimate dinner for two, yet with plenty of room for when the kids visit. Gayle Lerch considers the finished product her “dream kitchen.” It even netted Sherman a New Jersey American Society of Interior Designers Award in fall 2020. “It’s beautiful and functional,” Lerch says. “I love it!”
NJHome
With their grown children now moved out of the house, an Allendale couple knew the time was right to make their home more conducive to their lifestyle. Moreover, their 1970s center hall colonial was showing its age, and most of the improvements made over the decades were either temporary fixes or DIY projects. For the husband and wife who enjoy cooking, an updated kitchen was first on the menu, and they turned to a friend—who happened to be an interior designer—for help. “They wanted a new and improved kitchen designed for a cook, one that not only was functional but would beautifully integrate into the design style of the home,” says Sharon Sherman of Wyckoff-based Thyme & Place Design. She had befriended the homeowners, Gayle and Mark Lerch, through local tennis clubs and mutual acquaintances. The four-decades-old floor plan was first to hit the chopping block, and with it went failing appliances, inaccessible storage and an old drop ceiling. Sherman reconfigured the kitchen, replacing a peninsula with a large center island for food prep, serving and light dining. “That was the key in the transformation from an outdated room to an outstanding reimagined
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