Dan Achatz
The kitchen's cabinet profiles, subway tile, and hardware match …
For her own residence, interior designer Gretchen Evans hoped to blend the charm of an older house and the conveniences of a new one. Judging from the kitchen and bath, she and the team from Stuart Silk Architects (comprised of Stuart Silk, Aaron Mollick, and David King) hit the mark perfectly. They separated the kitchen and dining area from the living room with cased openings and pillars, which define the space without closing it off. For the kitchen cabinets, Evans chose a putty-gray paint shade more typically found in bedrooms or living spaces. “I wanted it to feel more ‘not-so-kitchen,’” she says.
A lowered marble countertop ideal for rolling out cookie dough and pie crusts helps facilitate her hobby of baking with her children. The adjoining built-in cake cabinet adds visual interest, with a scalloped detail cut out by Evans herself. (Her husband, Benjamin Evans, acted as the project’s general contractor.) Neutral-hued granite counters elsewhere in the room supply a quiet backdrop. And wide-plank oak floors fit the suburban Seattle home’s slightly oversized scale.
Subway tiles cover the backsplash as well as the wall between the upper cabinets and ceiling, creating a finished look. The tiles reappear in the butler’s pantry, which features identical custom cabinetry profiles to those used in the kitchen, just painted in a different color. “We wanted to help unify the house by picking a few things I would stick with throughout,” Evans explains. Accordingly, the master bath also has subway-tiled walls and those same cabinetry profiles, this time executed in walnut. Chocolate-brown paint coats the bath’s upper walls and sloped ceilings. “When you’re in the tub looking up, you feel like you’re in a vat of chocolate syrup,” she says.
Project Credits
Builder: Benjamin Evans, Woodway, Wash.;
Architect: Stuart Silk Architects, Seattle;
Interior designer: Gretchen Evans Design, Seattle;
Cabinetmaker: Reflections Custom Cabinetry, Enumclaw, Wash.;
Living space: 5,750 square feet; Site: 2 acres;
Construction cost: $325 per square foot;
Photographer: Dan Achatz
Resources: Bathroom fittings and fixtures: Lefroy Brooks; Brick/masonry products: Dal-Tile Corp., Pratt & Larson; Dishwashers: Bosch USA, Fisher & Paykel Appliances; Garbage disposal: In-Sink-Erator; Hardware: Restoration Hardware, Rocky Mountain Hardware; Kitchen fittings: Franke Consumer Products, ROHL; Kitchen fixtures: Villeroy & Boch; Lighting fixtures: Hudson Valley Lighting; Ovens: Fisher & Paykel Appliances; Paints/stains: Benjamin Moore & Co.; Range: Wolf Appliance; Range hood: Vent-A-Hood; Refrigerator: Sub-Zero; Windows: Quantum Windows & Doors.
