The kitchen’s soapstone counters are a visual cousin of its concrete floor, and the fir cabinets seem a natural extension of the building’s fir plywood walls and ceiling. The cabinetry in the main work area maintains a low center of gravity, with only a set of open shelves rising above counter height. With three walls “missing” and no wall-hung cabinets, storage might seem in short supply, but Hohlbein made up the difference with a long wall of floor-to-ceiling cabinets. Extending from the work area to a courtyard door, and shielded from the family room by a room divider that provides additional storage, this “panhandle” constitutes a walk-through pantry—and a brilliant stroke of space planning.
Builder: Fulks Inc., Seattle; Architect: Rex Hohlbein Architects, Bothell, Wash.; Project size: 250 square feet; Construction cost: Withheld; Photographer: Steve Keating.
Resources:
Dishwasher: Miele; Garbage disposer: In-Sink-Erator; Kitchen cabinets: Whidbey Designworks Inc.; Kitchen plumbing fittings/fixtures: Grohe, Kohler, and Whitehaus; Lighting fixtures: Bruck; Oven: FiveStar.
Details
In plan, this kitchen occupies one corner of a simple rectangle, but the framework of exposed steel beams overhead provides distinct subdivisions within the space. Most striking is the cooking niche created by a 16-inch-deep I-beam and a soffit of fir joists. In a kitchen with only one wall, this configuration conveys a comforting sense of enclosure, an effect that is heightened by the contrast of daylight from the clerestory windows above.
