Editor’s note: The 2010 Atlanta Symphony Associates Decorators’ Show House & Gardens opens April 17 at 3639 Tuxedo Rd. We’ve once again invited kitchen design extraordinaire and Design Galleria principal Matthew Quinn to to keep a journal of the process, every step of the way. Today is his first installment about how the kitchen is taking shape. Look for a new installment every week until the Show House opens.
We had so much fun and received such great feedback and questions from last year’s blog about the journey to the completion of 2009 Atlanta Symphony Decorators’ Show House; we could not resist doing it again. This year the show house is back on more familiar ground in a historic Colonial-Revival style home in Tuxedo Park versus last year’s show house in the newly opened St. Regis. Last year we chronicled the design process of one of the modern kitchens we presented, while this year we will share our adventures of designing, renovating and installing this traditional kitchen. Clearly, there will be some similarities as we approach the design process the same way no matter what the project; but this year we had some unique challenges.
This particular home means something to me. I had just started as an intern at Design Galleria in 1993 when Cliff Wang and Kathy Gregorcyk were installing a new kitchen into this home. This house was the first job site I visited and the first kitchen installation I experienced. It made gutting the kitchen especially hard but also exhilarating and exciting to see what the new guard at Design Galleria could do in the same space 17 years later.
People really do not live today much differently than they did in 1993. The original kitchen was actually still in great shape and the layout of the kitchen would still be considered appropriate for a modern family. The first thing that dates a kitchen is the appliances. We could have simply exchanged the appliances, replaced the hood and backsplash and a faucet here and there and this could have worked…but what kind of challenge is that? We wanted to do more; let’s remember, this is a show house!
Pictures of the original kitchen
The original kitchen had a 36” wide refrigerator, 36” wide freezer, 48” wide range, a warming drawer, microwave, main sink, prep sink, one dishwasher, desk and a rather small walk-in pantry. The island layout really separated the kitchen from the keeping room which was intentional, so whoever was cooking was not disturbed by all the hustle and bustle. The refrigerator and freezer were placed symmetrically on each side of the range while a desk and shallow pantry backed up to the powder room and pantry concealing a dumbwaiter to the garage. The biggest challenge in this space is the ceiling height of 8’6” with existing 6” tall beams. We are going to have to pull some ceiling elevating tricks out of our hat to make this kitchen feel taller.
Stay tuned next week for the changes we made to the plan.
