Wisniewski / Killingbeck Kitchen

Date:  2002
Location:  Drinkwater Rd., Hinesburg, VT
Description:  Gut Rehab in circa 1820 house
Principal/Photography: Michael Wisniewski       

PROBLEM : SOLUTION

Cooking is my parallel reality to architecture.  Nothing makes me happier than the kitchen as the focal point of the house, surrounded by people drinking wine and talking.

A warm, rich palette was chosen to offset the flat natural light from the north and west windows, which glow at sunset.  Existing wide pine floors and brick establish the base.  Nancy Barnett crafted the red and gold venetian plaster walls that compliment the douglas fir wainscot.  The ceiling is douglas fir and parallel strand lumber beams.  The bamboo plywood base cabinets stand on birdseye maple legs while the wall cabinets frame ribbed glass.  Vermont purple/green slate and maple butcher block counters juxtapose with a translucent beach glass backsplash.  Bamboo on the window sills integrates the cabinets and wall materials.
Everything revolves around the center island with the outlying sink and refrigerator recessed into nooks, often I eat at the island.  One of the functional elements I frequently included were oversized drawers instead of doors on the lower cabinets which makes organizing and accessing utensils very easy. Although the kitchen is cozy there is room for a dining table and seating around the wood stove.   

I’m happy in this kitchen;  it feels modern and sleek and ancient and cluttered at the same time.  For daily meals and special dinner parties, no one ever leaves the room, it all happens in the kitchen, sometimes late into the night it is as if the rest of the house doesn’t exist.  I imagine my next house will just be a kitchen.