Steve Rosenthal
Too many cooks in a kitchen design usually spells disaster. But a group approach proved to be just the right thing for this Concord, Mass., project. Homeowner Dawn Epstein is an accomplished woodworker with her own furniture-making studio. She hired local cabinetmakers and designers Kochman Reidt + Haigh to help her overhaul her kitchen and interior designer Sue Kwasnick to advise on color selections. The KR+H team included Paul Reidt, Karla Monkevich, and Hannah Swartz. “[The design process] usually doesn’t work well with so many people, but in this case it did,” says Reidt.
The new room’s most striking aspect is its circular pantry, detailed to look like an enormous tree trunk. Prima vera, a blond tropical hardwood, forms the tree’s “bark,” while sapele comprises the leaf and branch details. Slumped glass fills in the leaves, transmitting light from inside the pantry. “It’s a magical, magical spot,” says Epstein. “For all its aesthetic interest, the pantry is also functional—everything is right out in front of you.”
Prima vera also makes up the room’s base cabinet doors and drawerfronts, while the wall cabinets consist of quilted maple doors with sapele framework and accents. “Dawn has a remarkable appreciation for woods,” says Reidt. “The whole project is really a celebration of that material.” Arts & Crafts details on the wall cabinet doors are borrowed from the 1908 Greene & Greene-designed Gamble House in Pasadena, Calif. A carved sapele breakfast bar rises up over the granite island countertop to supply a casual dining spot for Epstein, her husband, and their daughter. And a freestanding hutch and built-in corner cabinet, along with the rest of the woodwork, relate to some of Epstein’s furniture pieces. “Paul drew out my aesthetic in the cabinetry,” she says.
Project Credits
Builder: Kistler & Knapp Builders, Acton, Mass.
Designer: Kochman Reidt + Haigh Cabinetmakers, Stoughton, Mass., and Dawn Epstein, Concord, Mass.
Interior designer: Interior Visions, Newton Centre, Mass.
Project size: 450 square feet
Construction cost: Withheld
Photographer: Steve Rosenthal
Resources: Backsplash tiles: Trikeenan Tile Works; Dishwasher: Asko; Fittings/fixtures: Grohe; Paint: Benjamin Moore; Range: Wolf; Refrigerator: Sub-Zero.
