Call it maxed-out minimalism: the kitchen of the new millennium. It’s organized, uncluttered and ultrachic. Not a string of chilies in sight. In fact, almost everything is out of sight, hidden behind closed doors.
New and remodeled kitchens today are responding to changing lifestyles and shrinking spaces with efficiency-minded layouts, state-of-the-art appliances, stone surfaces for easy cleanups, innovative storage to free up counter space –and, above all crisp, cleanlines.
Like the Eurostyle kitchen, these are sleek, too. But not just sleek. They are like visual poetry, a new art form built around efficiency and function.
“It is easy to make these things beautiful,” says architect Bob Kleinschmidt of Powell/Kleinschmidt, “but making it function as a machine for living, that’s our responsibility today.”
The look may not be for everyone, but it’s out there in the Near North home of Dr. Bedford Waters, who wanted a kitchen that not only was “like a piece of jewelry” but one that worked for him as well.
It’s also in the Lincoln Park apartment of Leslie Bodenstein and Jason Pickleman, co-owners of JNL Graphic Design, and the DePaul-area home of banker Ken Whitener. Whitener’s kitchen, in fact, with its rich cherry wood cabinets that provide a surprising counterpoint to the stainless steel appliances, doesn’t quite look like any kitchen we’ve known in the past.
While each of these kitchens was personalized to meet specific needs and look vastly different from each other, all share chic simplicity and sculptural beauty and are designed for people who enjoy cooking and entertaining.
“It really wasn’t about finishes but function,” Bodenstein says of her stunning white and cobalt blue “2001 Space Odyssey kitchen,” as dubbed by Pickleman. “My husband and I plan to spend the rest of our lives here, so we had to build the kitchen for the future.”
Everything in the 150-square-foot kitchen, which was designed by Tom Boeman of Powell/Kleinschmidt, is energy-efficient, says Bodenstein, an accomplished cook who makes good use of the kitchen’s two side-by-side ovens. For example, the Gaggeneau halogen cooktop has sensors to control and provide heat appropriate for the size of the pot or pan.
And to conserve another seemingly dwindling resource-time-only surfaces that are easy to maintain were used. Counter tops and cabinets are of white laminate and the sink is stainless steel in a white polymer finish.
Efficiency also was a major consideration in the redesign of Waters’ 9-by-13-foot, stainless steel kitchen. (“The black hole of Calcutta was Shangri-La compared to the old kitchen. It just didn’t function,” says interior designer John MacMillan.)
That was one of the reasons blue pearl granite was chosen for the floors, counter tops, backsplashes and walls. Not only is it beautiful, “you can almost hose it down. You can chop and do anything on it,” says Waters, a urologist and professor at Loyola University Medical Center Maywood.
Both Waters’ and Bodenstein and Pickleman’s kitchens have plenty of innovative storage to keep counter tops clear for these avid cooks.
“A kitchen should be like an operating room. Everything in its place,” Waters says. “I cook like I operate. Like the scrub stand, all the (cooking) instruments have to be in order. I have everything (cooking ingredients) in little containers, so when I start, boom boom boom. Just like operating.”
And like his operating room, Waters’ kitchen is wired for sound.
“I get in here on Saturday afternoon, put opera music on and cook like crazy.”
That’s entertainment
“Cooking is very relaxing for me and, even after operating four to five hours, I can come home to cook a sit-down dinner, sometimes (for) 10 to 12 people. I love to entertain, and although it is a small space, it is workable,” Waters says.
To achieve this, the kitchen was laid out in a classic pyramid: the door at the base, the double sink at the top, the refrigerator on the left and the stove on the right, MacMillan says.
Bodenstein/Pickleman were able to expand their entertaining space by using their blue counter as an extension of the kitchen, where guests can sit and chat while Bodenstein cooks. There is a pass-through to the adjacent dining room between overhead cabinets and a free-standing one, allowing for easy serving from the kitchen.
“It was my idea to do all white, as a clean, minimal space to live in, with the blue island or eating counter for some color,” Bodenstein says. Its primary blue is a reprise of the spectacular view of Lake Michigan.
Whitener, executive vice president of the Pinnacle Bank Group in Oak Brook, however, has the luxury of bigger spaces for cooking and entertaining. He does it often in his turn-of-the-century house, which was completely remodeled last year by Chicago interior designer Richar.
The kitchen area, which includes a breakfast area, is 22 by 16 feet.
“I wanted something very architectural that when you looked at it, you wouldn’t necessarily say, this is a kitchen, but you can go in and cook in there,” Whitener says.
All the working surfaces are black granite. The square slabs on the floor combine green and black granite in a checker pattern. “I like things that are functional but don’t look like what they are supposed to be.”
Details, details, details
Underlying the brilliant results in these kitchens, which are as hand-tailored to their owners as an expensive suit, is brilliant attention to detail.
There is halogen strip lighting under the upper cabinetry that can be adjusted from low to high, and hot-air blowers under the lower cabinetry warm the granite floor.
“We are talking about comfort. (It’s) as important as the finish you put on the cabinetry,” MacMillan says.
All the stainless steel on the trims and doors are brushed to match the finish on the stainless steel refrigerator.
“That takes the coldness away. It strips the sterility from the stainless,” says MacMillan, who had the upper cabinetry finished two shades lighter than the lower cabinetry, so they appear uniform under lighting.
He centered the sink on the doorway, so that guests in the dining room would not just see half or three-quarters of a sink when the door opened. He chose industrial-depth sinks so when Waters entertains, he can pile plates in it, and the kitchen still looks neat.
Squares in the kitchen are aligned with those in the dining room wallpaper.
“These are the important details that you pay attention to,” MacMillan says. “This kitchen is very simple but there are myriad details in that simplicity. It is the details in the Faberge box that make the special thing it is.”
Top-of-the-line prices
But if you’re going to do a kitchen like Waters-which features a Thermador professional six-burner cooktop and gas grill, Gaggeneau oven, Sub-Zero refrigerator and two large-capacity garbage disposal units-you have to truly be prepared for the cost, MacMillan says.
In Waters’ case it was $1,000 per square foot.
The Bodenstein/Pickleman kitchen, on the other hand, cost $60 a square foot.
“We saved by working with very basic but functional materials and not spending money on finishes. We’re young and we didn’t have much money so we had to do a lot with the little we had,” Bodenstein says.
In Whitener’s kitchen, top-of-the-line materials-stainless steel appliances, Sub-Zero refrigerator, Gaggeneau oven, custom-made cherry wood cabinets, granite backsplashes-sent the cost up to $145 per square foot.
Whitener says his kitchen “is probably two or three generations ahead (of other kitchens), with the latest technology, and you pay for that.”
“To get the kitchen of your dreams,” says MacMillan. “There are no shortcuts. You can’t cut corners if you’re going to begin customizing a kitchen, otherwise you’re not going to be satisfied. It is the same difference between ready-to-wear and haute couture.
“This is not ready-to-wear.”
21ST CENTURY KITCHENS
What are the key ingredients for the kitchens of the new millennium? Look for:
– Cabinetry, countertops, flooring and design that come together in a sculpturai or sleek architectural look.
– Details that make the cook’s job easier.
– Natural, hard, impervious work. surfaces for easy clean-up.
– State-of-the-art appliances.
– Tailored storage systems that free up counter tops.
THE RETURN ON REMODELING
For those who have concerns about the practical return on kitchen remodeling-normally the biggest expenditure, beyond the mortgage itself, on a house-the news is good. In its last annual trends survey for the industry, The National Kitchen & Bath Association in Hackettstown, N.J., says a major kitchen remodeling will return 94 percent of its cost if the house is sold within a year.
In some areas it may do even better than that. According to the same survey of real estate agents, the predicted payback in Chicago, Atlanta, Dallas and Spokane tops $1.49 for each $1 spent.
The National Kitchen and Bath survey lists the average cost for a kitchen remodeling in the Midwest as $21,604, with resale value a hefty $30,833. This is in contrast to the national average cost of $20,078, with resale value of $18,733.
More kitchen remodeling statistics: 33 percent of kitchen jobs cost $7,000 to $16,000; 25 percent cost from $16,000 to $28,000; 15 percent cost more than $28,000; 27 percent are less than $7,000.
The largest expenditure tends to be for cabinets. Using an average selling price of $17,360 for a kitchen project, the survey found that cabinets took 43 percent of the cost; labor, 21 percent; appliances, 8 percent; counter tops, 12 percent; fixtures and fittings, 5 percent; flooring, 4 percent; lighting, 3 percent; and 4 percent went toward miscellaneous expenses.
