Happy Thanksgiving everybody!  As I sit by and let my family labor in the kitchen, I’ll tell you about what’s shaping up in the Starnes kitchen, someone has to tend to the empire building after all.

I think the kitchen is going to be one of those pleasant surprises about the house.  The comment that everyone seems to have when they walk into Starnes is that it’s much bigger than it looks based on the street-level assumptions.  The kitchen is no different.

The kitchen was an add-on to the original structure and has some great windows, so tons of natural light.  The window placement, however, necessitates a bigger footprint than I would normally give a galley kitchen.  It’s too big to be a traditional galley, but too small for an island. 

Conventional wisdom in kitchen design calls for between 42 and 48” of space between countertops for traffic flow.  Because of the window placement, one lucky homeowner is going to have 65 ½” between work surfaces.  So, while cooking for your endless parade of parties, you’ll have an efficient set up and room for plenty of cooks in the kitchen.

If I was going to live in this house, I would take out the window on the right hand kitchen wall and build a deck off of the kitchen and master bedroom.  This would turn this space into even more of an entertaining mecca, or just give you a nice perch on which to contemplatively cradle your morning cup of coffee (my brother makes fun of me for doing this).

I’ve taken out the wall between the dining room and the kitchen at Starnes.  Some bungalow purists tsk tsk at this.  Well, for one, the kitchen was an add-on, so the traditional bungalow ethos kind of got sidetracked anyway.  For two, I kind of err on the side of making the home more livable and enjoyable.  Now, I’m not saying, tear all the walls out and install chrome track lighting, but if you can make palatable changes that aren’t design abominations, I say, why not?

I took out the wall between the kitchen and dining room in my own bungalow:

When this made it onto www.designspongeonline.com, I got a couple negative comments about this.  I personally, though, don’t see much that’s historically significant about a wall.  Plus, no presidents were born here, so I don’t think it’s going to make it onto any historical registers anytime soon. 

As I mentioned before, I’m going to use IKEA Tidaholm oak doors and have them sprayed white.  This is a nice heavy Shaker-style door and takes nicely to paint (see this blog http://carolreeddesign.blogspot.com/2010/06/painting-ikea-kitchen-cabinets.html for evidence of the Tidaholm in some snazzy spaces in Toronto).  I’m going to add crown moulding as well and take it all the way up to the ceiling.  This can help the affordable cabinetry look more custom and bringing your eye all the way up to the ceiling brings a grander scale to the space.

Following are some inspiration photos:

@House Beautiful: Gil Schafer  

@House Beautiful: Ruthie Sommers

@House Beautiful: Jonathan Berger

I like the use of mirror on the cabinets in this last one.  Occasionally, mirror can look a bit Miami Vice, but I think this is tastefully done.

Alright, I’m starting to feel a teensy bit guilty for sitting here while my sister works in the kitchen.  Incidentally, I don’t think this guilt is shared by any of my brothers…what can you say.  The gender divide prevails.

So, happy eating everyone!