Scope creep — that’s how Willow Dea laughingly refers to the project that started with redoing a dark, galley kitchen in their Mountain View townhouse. Soon the entire first floor was involved, from the new bamboo floors to the arched opening between kitchen and living room.
Dea and her husband, David Butlein, knew right from move-in day in 2004 that they wanted to make some changes. “My mother-in-law suggested it. She said we’d really enjoy having a nice kitchen, and she was right,” Dea says.
Dea and Butlein wanted to create a “warm and soulful hearth that reflected our need for sanctuary. We’re homey people,” she says, adding that they wanted “rustic and woodsy, yet modern and clean.”
They found their ideals in a book that described wabi-sabi, a Japanese term for modern rustic. “This honored simplicity and care for this place you own,” she says.
According to Susan Davis, a certified green-building professional at Spectrum Fine Homes, “Things wabi-sabi can appear coarse or unrefined. They are usually made from materials not far removed from their original condition within, or upon the earth, and are rich in raw texture and tactile sensation. … Things wabi-sabi are unpretentious, unstudied and inevitable looking.”
From the start Dea and Butlein knew they wanted to incorporate green-building principles. Inspired by Green Fusion Design Center in Marin County, they located 2,000-year-old beams that were fashioned into kitchen shelves and a new living-room fireplace mantel. Working with Davis, they incorporated a soapstone counter top — which requires no maintenance — and reclaimed travertine and river-rock tiles in the backsplash. Floors throughout the first floor are bamboo, a renewable resource.
Contrasting with the new, Shaker-styled, red birch cabinets is an antique hutch they found at a flea market in Berkeley. They separated the top and bottom, repainted it and added new pulls. “There’s nothing highly ornate, except the hutch,” Dea says.
The tall breakfast bar was lowered, opening the kitchen to the eating area. A friend, who is a graphic designer, suggested opening the wall between the kitchen and living room. They liked that idea, once they figured out how to hide the hood over the induction oven that was located in the arch.
Dea is fond of the electric induction cooktop, which functions much as a gas stove does with instant heat. Below, she stores her everyday dishes in a drawer; a second drawer was custom-built to fit their pots.
The new kitchen is filled with energy-saving appliances, from the electric induction cooktop to the Jenn-Air microwave and oven and Amana refrigerator.
Among Dea’s favorite features are the widened hallway and the new pull-out pantry cabinets, which make stored items much more accessible than before. The cabinets “were old, plain, ugly and dark in the back,” she says. Even the recycling is well hidden behind doors.
On the living room side of the arch sits a large buffet, making entertaining more engaging for the people working in the kitchen. Bamboo floors throughout the first floor replace old gray carpeting in the living room and maple parquet in the kitchen.
The kitchen walls are faced with Venetian plaster, a “non-toxic, easy, beautiful” solution, Dea says, adding “I didn’t hang art over it. It’s beautiful.”
With radiant heating in the floor and a southern exposure, Dea says the townhouse is very energy efficient.
Dea says there isn’t a thing she’d do differently: “Every time I walk in, I feel sexy in here. It’s soft, earthy and beautiful. It’s a great kitchen.”
The professionals at the National Association of the Remodeling Industry clearly agree. In the NARI META 2007 Competition, this project earned the Gold Award in the Kitchen over $100K category.
Resources:
Design/build: Spectrum Fine Homes, Inc., Susan Davis, 188 S. Whisman Road, Bldg. A, Mountain View, (650) 960-2449, www.spectrumfinehomes.com
Beams: Mike Windhom’s Old Wood, (276) 744-2505, oldwoods@hughes.net, http://mikewindhomsoldwood.com
Green resources: Green Fusion Design Center, San Anselmo, (415) 454-0174, www.greenfusiondesigncenter.com
Goal of project/design challenge: Replace a galley kitchen with one that incorporates wabi-sabi principles
Unexpected problems/hidden costs: Exposed beam was plywood, needed to be faced
Year house built: 1981
Size of home: 3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, 1,783 square feet
Time to complete: Six months
Budget: $125,000
