Kitchen Doctors

Tired of their cramped and leaky kitchen, a pair of Seattle physicians asked an architectural designer to wipe the slate clean, creating a sleek, new space with plenty of storage and room to socialize.

Photo: John Granen

Ellendee Pepper and John Nemanich could always tell how hard it was raining by the amount of precipitation that accumulated—in their kitchen. "Every time a big storm came, water would just pour down the walls and onto the cabinets," recalls Pepper, a Seattle dermatologist.

Although she tried to maintain a sense of humor (it comes in handy when your name is Dr. Pepper), she finally reached her breaking point when the cabinets started to peel and the microwave exploded. The couple asked architectural designer Louise Durocher to end the calamity and give them a space that was contemporary but still highly functional.

Working with contractor Eric Johnson, Durocher gutted the existing kitchen and then bumped out the back wall nine feet, which increased the room's size by a third. The extension culminates in a bowed wall that preserves a nearby gingko tree while making the addition appear less bulky from the exterior. (A new metal roof has halted the indoor showers.) Sleek SieMatic cabinets topped with Imperial White granite wrap the kitchen's perimeter. The cabinets' dusky pine bases match the floors in the neighboring rooms, connecting the contemporary space with its more traditional surroundings. White lacquer uppers blend into the background, disguising the ceiling's low clearance.

Photo: John Granen

An earlier remodel relegated the living room to the second floor, but guests rarely ventured that far, preferring to crowd into the downstairs kitchen while their hosts did all the cooking. Dinner parties are now a communal affair, and guests can gather around the 14-foot island and lend a hand if they feel like it. "In the past, I couldn't have people cooking with me," Pepper says. "Now, they can actually come in and take part, and nobody's in your way." A pop-up power strip in the center of the island means an outlet is always in reach; a pair of ethereal Sospesa fixtures from Fabbian hover overhead.

The homeowners consume a lot of fresh produce, so Durocher set a raised cutting board in the top of the island and installed refrigerated vegetable drawers underneath. A Wolf range commands the outside wall under a trim but powerful hood. "I can pan-sear things at high temperatures now without smelling up the house," marvels Nemanich, a cardiologist. Recycling bins flank the sink and dishwasher in the window-lined bay; a second Miele dishwasher just outside the dining room lets the couple whisk glassware off the table without missing a moment of conversation.

Despite all the improvements, the good doctors still keep a second stove in the garage—just in case they decide to make potato pancakes. "That's an odor you cannot escape," laughs Pepper. "One year we accidentally left the car inside. For two or three weeks, every time I got in, I smelled latkes."

What the Pros Know

Before the remodel, storage space was at such a premium that Pepper had to stash her vintage serving pieces under the dining room furniture. Now they slip undetected into drawers concealed in the cabinet toe kicks. "Usually toe kicks are dead space," observes Louise Durocher, an architectural designer. She raised the ones at the Pepper/Nemanich house to eight inches to maximize their storage capacity. (Cabinets above were correspondingly shortened, to keep counters the standard 36 inches high.) To accommodate tall items like cooking oils and stockpots for the couple, who cook a lot, Durocher combined the toe kicks of two cabinets with the drawers above, creating an additional eight inches of clearance. Although toekick drawers are common in upscale cabinets, they're also often available in mass-market lines, if you ask for them. Be sure to install flooring first (otherwise the toe kicks might not open), and make certain the floor is level (because drawer outlines will magnify any discrepancies).

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