Astoria Kitchen & Dining Room

A highly visible and recently “redone” stairway in cherry is lovely, but it no longer blends with the adjacent kitchen cabinets and French style dining room set. The finish on the kitchen cabinets is peeling, yellowed and beyond repair and the appliances need to be updated. The client has loved her kitchen, but it is time for a change and she is not sure what to do or how to begin. She dreams of cooking in a kitchen at the vacation condo in Hawaii with “self-closing” drawers and wonderful cooking appliances.

As we began the planning phase, a number of challenges and problems surfaced: the existing layout created a congested area prone to tripping over the open dishwasher door while standing at the range, the raised bar was not quite deep enough, appliance read-outs were difficult to read in the sunshine, the client had a large collection of china which was used regularly but stored awkwardly high, the phone center was a cluttered mess, and the open floor plan mitigated the need to blend apparently disparate pieces of furniture and large original paintings. Through careful, patient planning we created a layout eliminating all tripping hazards, and providing easy reach storage of the china, an “easy hide” message center, ample and comfortable space to read the newspaper at the raised bar, and we coordinated all the different furniture pieces, art work and cabinetry together. The result is a kitchen that is beautiful, works well, and blends with the existing house … and oh, by the way, the client no longer must travel to Hawaii to experience their “dream kitchen!”

Astoria Astoria Kitchen & Dining Room After