kitchen
French Doors In a compact city home like this one from SF Design Build, creating a connection to the outdoors can be as simple as installing a set of beautiful French doors leading to a petite deck. The doors bring welcome natural light into the narrow kitchen even when closed, and they provide a tempting invitation to step outside and enjoy the backyard.
A fun way to open up the kitchen to the outside is by incorporating a pass-through window: While the cook is dishing up snacks or drinks, the guests can sit at the bar outdoors and chat. This kitchen takes the idea a step further with the addition of a folding glass door beside the pass-through window. The setup creates a continuous opening to the deck and brings a flood of natural light into the kitchen.
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This traditional kitchen in Georgia features cabinetry covered in distressed paint and decorative carvings that create a classic look. The pair of glass-front cabinet doors on the island are another great touch.
“The central courtyard is accessed through vertically hung doors operated via a rack-and-pinion crank wheel paired with a custom concrete counterweight,” Cole says. The wheel is an antique that came from a farm.
A courtyard in the center of the house allows light to penetrate inside and gives rooms access to green space. Lush green planting in the courtyard helps improve air quality. The owners say that since the stairs and the courtyard are two of the main architectural features of the home, it was especially important to get their landscaping right. Besides providing light and air to every room in the house, the courtyard also collects water that flows from the roof, down a chain passing through the counterweight to the garden sculpture below, and into the underground water tank in the rear.
Undersink drawer. Given the plumbing fixtures that must go beneath the kitchen sink and the fact that there isn’t much room in that space for storage, this area can feel like a dank mini-cave. This drawer has a clever cutout that gently surrounds the plumbing, making available the good, clean space while keeping the plumbing hidden.
Pantry barn doors. Here’s a lovely use of the barn door trend: opening a pantry. Because the doors slide on a rail, the kitchen or pantry doesn’t need clearance area for a swinging door, allowing more space for other uses. The wide pantry doors can also be left open for easy access. These barn doors create a pretty design accent with their gray paint and black hardware.
Food pantry: The walk-in pantry by the baking station holds food, extra dishes and utensils, and small appliances. This is a family of avid readers, and although a full library was built in another part of the house, bookshelves were added on either side of the pantry doorway to hold books related to cooking and travel. The design team added a transom window above the door because it’s a traditional design element and highlights the pendant light inside the pantry.
Newly installed mahogany casement windows overlook the backyard. The stone around the sink and for the backsplash is Macabus quartzite.
Walk-In Pantries Large pantries are back in a big way. Not only are they used for food, china and glassware, but many homeowners are finding them a more convenient place to store small appliances and beverage refrigerators. If you add a small sink and a toaster, a walk-in pantry can also be a good spot for a morning coffee-tea-bagel station.
End-of-Island Storage This kitchen in Ontario was the most popular new kitchen photo added over the summer. Having an island with the bar refrigerator built right into it was a hit. While the fridge here is full of adult beverages, it would also come in handy for juice boxes and other kiddo drinks, allowing the little ones to serve themselves.
Rob Stuart Interiors SaveEmail A padded, upholstered swinging door has become one of the most talked-about features of the space. “People see it and always want it, because it breaks the predictability of demarcating every space with the same wood door,” Stuart says. Instead, silvered vinyl upholstery with a mirror in place of the more expected restaurant-style window feels like an English pantry door, and, indeed, it leads to the pantry.
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