Lake House Kitchen Remodel

Following up on last week’s profile of designer Nancy Blandford, we’re including Nancy’s story of her most recent kitchen remodel.

My clients had just purchased this wonderful lake house. The kitchen, dining, and living spaces are open and face the lake.

The new owners requested an update to get rid of the orange woodwork, the faux painted sky ceiling, and all the murals and painted tiles.

They also questioned the “why” of the angles on the existing kitchen. The home had been remodeled in the early ’80s. I was pretty sure it was just a designer being clever since nothing else in the home was angled.

Since the kitchen is the backdrop of the living and dining room, the room needed to fit in without dominating. I was able to straighten out the angles. We kept the existing pantry and hid the refrigerator/freezer behind cabinet doors by using two 30” Monogram appliances side-by-side framed by ovolo posts. The 48” Monogram range and hood were centered on the wall space that remained. On either side of the range are wide, deep drawers.

The island is home to a Monogram microwave drawer (hidden on the back side of the island), pull-out trash and recycling bins, a Native Trails curved farmhouse sink, a cabinet front dishwasher, and large, deep drawers for dishes. The backside of the island is raised with furniture-piece cabinets on both ends and four wide, comfy stools tucked into the center.

The island cabinets were painted a custom blue with black brushing. The remaining cabinetry was painted white with a pewter highlight.

We took the existing hutch space and made it into a dry bar with leaded glass doors above and a Monogram Bar Refrigerator.

We used a honed onyx white quartz countertop with an ogee edge.

The ceiling was painted a deep navy and glazed with silver. In the center of the raised ceiling, we hung a chandelier that when lit, makes the ceiling glow.

And for the finishing touch — what I like to call the jewelry — we used polished nickel oversized handles and a polished nickel bridge faucet.