Dream Kitchens: Style + Efficiency The owners of a 17-year-old Rockville home approached kitchen designer Hedy Shashaani to overhaul their large but inefficient kitchen. Down-draft ventilation on the island cooktop was not up to par for the wife, who loves to cook and entertain. She wanted more room to spread out on a larger island for both food preparation and serving, as well as more storage for her kitchenware and small appliances.
Shashaani increased the kitchen’s work area by reducing the size of its “humongous” walk-in pantry. “It was roughly six by eight feet,” she recalls. “Making it smaller allowed us to move a doorway going into the dining room, shift the refrigerator to its current spot and improve the functionality of the kitchen big time.”
The kitchen lacked a focal point, so the designer created one with a new 48-inch Wolf range, above which she installed a powerful but quiet Vent-a-Hood system concealed in millwork by Elmwood. “The hood functions well but also adds interest,” she explains.
In addition to the range’s one and a half ovens, a Miele speed oven provides backup, installed in a wall of cabinets under a built-in Miele espresso machine. By reducing the depth of this cabinet wall, Shashaani created more space for a new nine-by-five-foot island.
“They were after a classic look, but not overly traditional,” says Shashaani. The island is fashioned from dark wood to match the newly stained floors; it’s topped by quartzite with a beveled edge. Chocolaty brown granite tops the surrounding Elmwood cabinets finished in Warm Concrete with an Oyster glaze. Lightly crackled backsplash tile adds shimmery contrast.
KITCHEN DESIGN: HEDY SHASHAANI, Jack Rosen Custom Kitchens, Inc., Rockville, Maryland. CONTRACTOR: RICK MACKLIN, Macklin Contracting, Gaithersburg, Maryland.