Curved cabinets conceal a built-in water cooler; additional storage lockers lead to the family entrance and mudroom.
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2011
The ability to tackle a million details at once is one of the hallmarks of a good kitchen designer. And in a kitchen where the design is driven by a high level of decorative detail, the challenge is even greater. Such was the case in a Great Falls, Virginia, home where kitchen designer Lois Kennedy and interior designer Maria Galiani collaborated on a kitchen brimming with Old World style. Their client had toured a kitchen Kennedy designed years ago in a National Symphony Orchestra show house, and loved its Gothic elements—especially the chestnut range hood hand-carved with a griffin motif. She wanted to achieve a similar look in her home.
The designers got to work, first figuring out how to transform the lackluster kitchen into a larger, more functional space. Kennedy’s colleague Victoria Feldman drew up plans to bump out the odd, triangular room into the backyard to gain space. She also created a new breakfast room housed in a turret framed by windows.
As their design took shape, Galiani and Kennedy devised ways to marry today’s state-of-the-art amenities with the handcrafted, traditional look their client desired. Behind the custom finishes, the carefully planned layout revolves around the demands of a busy family with two active teenagers. A large L-shaped island features raised tables built into either end for casual dining on stools. The side of the island closest to the refrigerator and range houses an oversized copper prep sink with built-in cutting and drainage boards and a dishwasher—one of two in the kitchen—to make cooking and clean-up a breeze. Cabinets conceal 21st-century conveniences, from a full-size water cooler to a microwave, coffee maker and trash and recycling bins.
“We spent hours and hours mulling over the tiniest details,” says Galiani. Throughout the kitchen, travertine floors, iron, copper and distressed wood materials evoke a Baroque Mediterranean style, as do architectural details such as barley twists, moldings and medallions. The kitchen incorporates nine different doors styles, hardware from 11 different manufacturers and trim from eight sources.
Kennedy attributes the success of the project to “having a cabinetmaker who doesn’t say ‘no.’” Pennsylvania-based Premier Custom Built incorporated all of the trim and hardware the designers sent them, then began a seven-step finishing process to create the distressed, crackle finish on the light caramel maple cabinets and the deeper hue on the darker butternut accent pieces.
“There’s a mystical quality to the colors,” Kennedy says. “They’re very warm.”The kitchen is just what the homeowner wanted, thanks to the fruitful collaboration between Kennedy and Galiani. “Maria has been a real source of inspiration to develop this style, an Old World mixture of French, Italian and the Middle Ages,” Kennedy observes. “It’s been synergistic working with her.”
INTERIOR DESIGN: MARIA GALIANI, Galiani Design Group, McLean, Virginia. KITCHEN DESIGN: LOIS KENNEDY, CKD, principal, and VICTORIA FELDMAN, associate designer, Portfolio Kitchens, Vienna, Virginia.
For more kitchens featured in this issue click here.
**Out of the array of interior design magazines, Home and Design magazine stands out as a primary idea source for luxury home design and building/remodeling features. Wonderful visuals of custom homes and eco-friendly resources are combined with expert advice to provide a fundamental reference point for bringing amazing home interior design and remodeling projects to life.