A kitchen is renovated to be as timelessly elegant as the rest of the house.
BY JULIE GEDEON
STYLING: KARINE GRAVEL
A couple with their primary residence outside of Montreal wanted a chateau look for their renovated kitchen to complement the well-crafted traditional furniture that defines their home.
“Our designer, Christian Béland, seized the opportunity to incorporate finely sculpted corbels, pilasters with a Greek column flavour, as well as intricate crown and foot moldings to achieve the desired look,” says kitchen design specialist Karine Gravel at Les Armoires Créabec.
The custom kitchen cabinetry is made of birch with a hazelnut stain. “Birch is one of the best woods to stain because it absorbs colour so much more evenly than say, a maple wood does,” Gravel says.
Several of the units sit directly on the counter to prevent the heaviness that would exist if the ornate cabinets had been placed in a standard upper-and-lower arrangement. “We made very sure, however, never to disturb the flow of the counter spaces,” Gravel adds. “And the units are big and solid enough to discreetly store a microwave or television – basically anything the homeowners don’t want on display.”
Each of the columns alongside the gas stove is actually a pull-out drawer that offers hidden space to store oils and spices.
Creamy-coloured granite was chosen for the countertops because of the nutty brown features within its natural grain. The backsplashes are composed of a porous marble fashioned into a brick pattern to stand up to the cabinetry in apparent weight or substance and yet provide a necessary brightness. They also go perfectly with the marble floor tiles.
“The marble tiles delineate the kitchen area from the dining room with its dark wooden floors, but we made sure these different materials were perfectly level so that no one has to fear tripping from one surface to the other,” Gravel adds.
Armoires Créabec dropped the kitchen ceiling to eight feet to accommodate recessed and pendant lighting and to once again differentiate the space from the main living area’s cathedral roof.
Ornate customized glasswork makes the bar a worthy dining room showpiece. “The clients wanted something that defined the bar as classic furniture, rather than merely an extension of the kitchen cabinetry,” Gravel says. “Along with a convenient secondary sink, it has ample space to store wine and liquor bottles, as well as glassware.”
Every aspect earned artisanal focus. The cabinet knobs from Art.Moire were each handmade using a stainless base and silver finish along with an individually molded epoxy. “They really are the little jewels that provide the finishing touch to this kitchen,” Gravel says.
