Even though Jeannean Carver has lived in her house since 1998, she never had a chance to figure out how to redo her kitchen. A busy pediatrician, she spent years putting off a real renovation, instead making only a few small changes. “I work a lot,” she says. “I didn’t have time to look for people to design it.”
Finally, the right people fell into her lap—the parents of her 11-year-old daughter’s friend had just started a company, Worthington Architectural Millwork, that ultimately took on the project.
Not only was the kitchen due for a makeover, there were some layout changes to be made.
“We focused on giving her more storage and making the house more livable,” says Alycia Worthington, company owner. The kitchen felt dark overall, thanks to wood cabinetry and a dearth of windows—just a single small one over the kitchen sink. It had low-quality finishes (laminate countertops; an island purchased at Sam’s Club) and didn’t flow well with the nearby living room.
To ramp up the room’s functionality, Worthington created a larger cased opening between the kitchen and living room, and moved the dining table all the way to one end of the kitchen, adding a built-in bench for seating. This created more space for the kitchen island, a pantry cabinet and a new peninsula with barstool seating—all within the existing square footage. “These guys were great about thinking about how you move,” says Carver.
The luxury quotient in this kitchen got a big upgrade; new cherry cabinetry in a Shaker style, with tiny dark walnut accents on each cabinet door, is high in quality and elegant in style.
But the real star of the show is the island countertop: an arresting slab of ambrosia maple, with a silky feel that invites the touch and color variations that capture the eye.
The choice of soapstone countertops came in part from the desire to use local materials. But there was more to it. “I used to work in a lab,” says Carver. “They used this for all the countertops.” That’s traditionally because of soapstone’s antimicrobial properties—handy in a kitchen and, in this case, nostalgic, too.
White marble backsplash tile, in a rough texture that Worthington thought would help to warm up the room’s palette, completes the look. The island cabinetry, made of maple with a white finish, is designed to be ultra practical. Just behind where a cook would stand at the stove, for example, are pull-out baskets for storing onions and potatoes. One shelf hides the microwave and another is custom-sized to store small appliances.
Worthington insisted on hiding the garbage in its own pull-out drawer, and provided Carver with something she’d never had—dedicated storage for dog food.
Carver chose low-key flooring: wide-plank engineered wood that, she says, “doesn’t take away from the beauty of the cabinets.”
Because the room had suffered from a lack of light, Worthington added as much illumination as she could. Recessed ceiling lights get a boost from pendants over the table and the peninsula—the latter in a modernized Mason jar style.
But the biggest light source are the three big windows that now fill the wall above the double farmhouse sink. Carver’s backyard, edged by woods, is now a visual element in the kitchen.
It’s a major transformation. “I can’t even tell you how much lighter this place is,” says Carver.