Utilitarian Grid-Style Kitchens Can Be Beautiful, Too
From Jennifer on February 2nd, 2010 in Kitchen Remodel
The Sliding Kitchen by Workstead is a new design scheme to save space in a tight kitchen.
LEED AP Stefanie Brechbuehler and Robert Highsmith of Workstead designed this kitchen transformation from top-to-bottom. The problem: lack of space in a cramped Brooklyn apartment. Their solution: utilize a grid system with the cabinetry and optimize headspace by implementing sliding cabinet doors. Genius.
Because there wasn’t much countertop space in this single-wall kitchen, the designers worked to offer creative spaces for displaying pretty objects and keeping useful items within arm’s reach. They accomplished this by stacking multiple wall cabinets over the base cabinets and countertops, as well alternating slider doors and open cabinets.
The gray-on-gray color scheme brightens up the space, giving the illusion that it’s bigger than it is and accentuating the room’s openness.
The cabinet door sliders really do provide quite an advantage. Not only are they easy to operate, but they save more space than traditional forward-swinging cabinet doors. Sure, an open cabinet door doesn’t need much space, but in a diminutive kitchen, an open cabinet door slices through the visual breadth of the room and cuts it down a size.
What really helps tie the room scheme together is the mirrored format for the living room’s entertainment center. From the living room staring off into the kitchen, it appears as if there’s a continuous wall spanning from one room into the next, which also adds to the illusion of grand size and space. Well done.
The kitchen before transformation:
