KHI Quarterly V4 Q2 - Spring 2013

The Stein Kitchen

I met Marc and Rachel Stein early last spring.  They had been contemplating setting into motion a kitchen design that they had been refining over the past 12 months with a local architect and designer.  Things had been at a bit of a standstill for the winter, as they had been searching for the right contractor to take on the project. I was lucky enough to have been introduced to the Steins, by a family member of my wife’s and good customer of ours, while we were performing some exterior repairs at their home. Rachel came by when we were finishing up our install and asked if we did kitchen work as well, the rest is history.  

The Stein’s kitchen design started by calling for the partial removal of the existing partition wall separating the formal dining room from the kitchen.  By leaving the lower half of the wall, we had space to install a full run of base cabinets and countertops helping to maintain precious storage and work area.  This  dramatically improved the flow and created total visibility between spaces.
 

The rear basement entry bulkhead was removed and relocated to another side of the home.  This allowed us to complete a small addition to the rear of the kitchen, minimally increasing the square footage but drastically improving the usable space and overall efficiency of the room. In addition, the rear entry and mudroom doors were relocated to accommodate a full U shaped kitchen cabinet layout with a 3’x5’ center island.

 

The home originally had built-in hydronic or hot water wall radiation units for its main source of heat.  Since we were essentially using up all of the available free wall space with cabinetry, we opted to install under cabinet toe-kick heaters to replace the lost heat. These units are very small, inconspicuous and efficient.  They get installed under your cabinetry thus taking up no more space than would have been used anyway. These small heating units have a variable speed fan which can be adjusted to the desired setting.  Whenever heat is called for by the thermostat, the fan will automatically kick on to circulate the heat radiating from the internal heat exchanger.

Rachel and Marc had already established a relationship with Modern Cabinets and Countertops out of Bristol; they had contracted the fabrication of the kitchen cabinetry while we later performed the complete installation. The cabinets were custom designed for this particular space eliminating the need for spacers and fillers in the installation. The countertops are all made of Quartz and manufactured by a company called Cambria, with the exception of the solid maple butcher block top on the island. The particular variety of Cambria that the Steins had chosen was on backorder for several weeks but the final product was worth the wait! The pairing of the blue glass subway tile backsplash against the stark Cambria countertops was near perfection. Countertops and splash, when coupled with the new LED recessed and under cabinet lighting we had installed, really “lit up” so to speak as the LED's white light permeated the translucent veining of the countertops and reflected back internally, literally glowing.

 

The Stein’s kitchen was a special project.  We were able to achieve a very bright, natural, and empowering space to inhabit; a place where you just feel good to be. This is the ultimate goal, a functional, sharp looking, and user friendly room that just feels right. I thank Marc and Rachel for the opportunity to work with them on what turned out to be a pretty exciting job.  I enjoyed the opportunity very much!