KBB - February/March 2015 - 75

To be certain that the kitchen renovation stayed within budget,
Kennedy combined cost-effective elements, such as simple
subway tiles, with more expensive and luxurious materials such as
the light blue Moroccan tile mosaic behind the range. She also
selected hard-working quartz countertops in a gray suede ﬁnish.

"Since we didn't have room for a kitchen island, the new U shape works
perfectly," said Kennedy."The family of four spends lots of time in the kitchen
together, and the kids are at an age where they're helping. So we needed
to be sure the new conﬁguration accommodated the entire family."

Color and Style Solutions

Though the project initially began as just a kitchen renovation, it developed into an entire home reconﬁguration with about 850 square feet
of additional space and a second story. The highlight of the completely
redeﬁned main ﬂoor is this colorful and highly functional kitchen. Despite
working with a fairly modest budget, Kennedy transformed the once-snug
galley kitchen into the center of a busy family home.
"Basically, we revamped the entire main ﬂoor into a great room," she
explained.
An open ﬂoor plan makes the kitchen highly accessible to an adjacent mudroom, dining room, desk/work area and powder room - all
ﬂowing and blending as if one space, yet each fulﬁlling their expected
roles in the home.

When deciding on an overall style for the kitchen, the clients had two
requirements.They wanted a bright color palette (the wife has a particular
afﬁnity for bold colors), and they wanted the overall look to be reminiscent
of their traditional East Coast roots, but with a modern ﬂair.
"We created a transitional design that slightly favors the traditional, yet
incorporates sophisticated clean lines," said Kennedy. She notes that this
particular style currently reigns in the Seattle area. "Northwest contemporary has come a long way over the past 15 years. Now, there's a real sense
of grounding with natural materials and a connection with the outdoors.
There's an earthiness that makes design feel fresh, yet it's not stark and
overly modern."
As for blending the vivid colors the client requested throughout the
home, that's where Kennedy's Architectural Color Consultant Certiﬁcation
came in handy.
"An Architectural Color Consultant works with a very speciﬁc set of tints
and pigments," she explained. "We know how to balance the inside and
outside of the home, the personalities of those living in the home and
how they react psychologically to color, how color blends with the owners' skin tones and how all of the colors in the home - from masonry and
ﬂooring to cabinets and casework - form a delicate balance."
Ever so gently, she guided the family toward a cohesive palette that
enhanced the overall ﬂow of the home, including the robin's egg shade
of blue that dominates the walls of the ﬁrst ﬂoor. The color provides just
enough contrast for the white cabinetry and surrounding built-ins.

www.kbbonline.com / February/March 2015

+
K BB

http://www.kbbonline.com

KBB - February/March 2015

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of KBB - February/March 2015