White-hot and cool

Today's white kitchen invokes comfort, updates '50s classic look

December 05, 2008|By Susan Diesenhouse, TRIBUNE REPORTER

When the Yingling family moved into their 1920s Georgian North Shore house, the kitchen decor was tasteful if somewhat dull and the room cramped. Dark maple cabinets lined the walls of the square area, eating up an entire corner with little space left to maneuver.

"It was boring; it had no zip," said Cindy Yingling, a 47-year-old mother of two teens who is married to Jeff, an investment banker.

But just in time for the holidays, she has transformed one of her family's favorite rooms into a white kitchen with dove white cabinets, freezer drawers and panels on the dishwasher and refrigerator. It has white marble countertops, an ebonized walnut island and armoire food pantry. Two new doorways have added several more inches, making it feel more spacious.

"Now we have a 'wow' kitchen," she exclaimed. "It complements our traditional house, but is updated, and the kitchen feels much roomier."

Why go white? To many people white seems as dowdy as the 1950s kitchen to which grandma was tethered day and night or as bland as the kitchenette of a no-frills rental apartment.

But to Yingling and a growing number of homeowners "a white kitchen is clean, cheerful and timeless," she explained. Given today's economic turbulence, Yingling added, "the family is eating more meals at home and this space provides a lot of warmth and comfort. It's a scary time; this is a good place to nest."

As outmoded or utilitarian as the white kitchen may sometimes appear, it's the hot new thing to many of those decorating everything from suburban houses to cutting-edge city dwellings. Indeed, the tranquil and sophisticated white kitchen is moving into territory once dominated by trendy dark wood and stainless steel.

Many are switching, as did Yingling, from cherry-colored hardwood cabinets and unyielding metal appliances to kitchens defined by white cupboards, drawers and appliance veneers.

"White has always been the kitchen color, but it's going through a period of rising popularity because it's a comfort; it conveys a sense of stability," said Mick De Giulio of Wilmette-based de Giulio Kitchen Design, who designed the Yingling kitchen in his own line of white cabinetry, which can cost more than $100,000 per room for cupboards, drawers and panels. "White is always there -- dependable, fresh and warm."

While the price tag for a de Giulio kitchen can rise well beyond many budgets, lower cost options are more plentiful than ever. "With the popularity of home goods stores like Ikea, Home Depot and others, you can pick your budget from $10,000 to $100,000-plus," De Giulio said.

Along with other interiors specialists, he credits designer and home goods manufacturer Christopher Peacock with reinvigorating the cachet of the white kitchen.

Back in 2000, bored with yellow and blue, Connecticut-based Peacock "developed a white kitchen look of my own that people reacted to instantly," Peacock recalled. "They liked the simplicity and classicism and it's still our most popular line."

At a cost of $80,000 to $120,000 for the cabinetry, "It's understated elegance, most popular in the Midwest and Northeast," said British-born Peacock who has a downtown showroom in the Merchandise Mart. "There's been a recent bump-up in the popularity of the white kitchen and it's here to stay."

With the economy shaky, "People want to feel secure," he said. "It affords them the subliminal comfort of remembering an old house where they or a relative once lived."

Or, perhaps, it may be a memory-in-the-making of a family house that today's children will one day inherit. That's what Catherine Dowd, 41, and her husband Patrick, 50, hope for their newly built Lake Geneva vacation home, where they installed a white kitchen that inspired the decor for the entire house.

"Our kitchen runs into our dining area and we carried white cabinets, drawers, panels through the entire house -- the cabinetry, the countertops, wallpaper. Everything is lighter, whiter, simpler," said Dowd.

This is a big change from her last lake house that had dark walnut cabinetry, terra cotta-colored tile countertops and stainless steel appliances.

Now, "whatever could be paneled white is," she said.

She was prompted by taste and circumstance. "Given how haywire the economy is, we were longing for a light-hearted feel. We want life to be easier, freer, a place to get away from problems and a vacation house that our children [3- and 4-year old daughters] could inherit."

She's not alone. "I'm absolutely seeing more white kitchens among my friends on the North Shore," Dowd said. "It's elegant yet homey for the family."

Urbanites too are jumping on the white kitchen bandwagon, said Cathy Osika, principal at Burns + Beyerl Architects, a firm that focuses on residential work.