Two wins for Main Street in the 2012 No. California NKBA design competition

The 2012 winners of the Northern California NKBA Design Competition were announced on Jan. 19, 2012,  and we are delighted to post that the two designs we entered  both came up award-winning finalists! 

Here they are:

 

SMALL KITCHEN WINNER: Second Place

This was a small galley kitchen in Walnut Creek, which badly needed updating.

Before kitchen: Facing dining room

Before kitchen: Range side

Before Kitchen: Sink side

Thanks to an earlier remodel, the view from the kitchen sink window faced directly into an in-law suite and even with the white cabinets and counters, the lighting was dim.

Thanks to the client’s flair, we combined forces to convert the outdated look for some of the best trends happening now – dark flat cabinets, larger-scale subway tile, contemporary floor patterns and thicker counters.

Here's the after:

  After kitchen: Facing dining room

After kitchen: Range side

After kitchen: Sink side

 

OPEN KITCHEN PLAN WINNER: Third Place

Talk about extremes – from the galley kitchen above, we head to a large full-scale home project we completed last year – 14 rooms, one of which was this large-scale kitchen, dining room, and family room layout for a busy, hip urban young family.

 

Before: Open Plan Kitchen facing corner

 

 Before: Open Plan Kitchen facing back wall – the walkway for the front entry entered right through the middle of the kitchen! 

Before: Open Plan Kitchen towards entry

Before: Rest of Family Room. When the sun shone, the reflection turned the walls orange.

The clients asked for restful and serene and weren’t especially fond of the kitchen overtaking the other areas. We were looking to correct and soften much of the erratic architectural lines of the walls and beams, and took our "serene" vision from spa colors.

 (In addition to completely altering this home, most of the materials you see here were recycled or re-used.)

Here are the end results:

After: Open Plan Kitchen facing corner

 After: Open Plan Kitchen facing back wall – tying in the architectural beams and columns and removing the focal point from the ceiling and back to the room really helped! 

After: Open Plan Kitchen towards entry – the refrigerator is both hidden from the rest of the room and blocks off the former entry into the kitchen. Now the entry is centered in the room (hidden behind the flowers, in case you can’t see.)

After: Rest of Family Room. The fireplace next to the patio door disappeared, the 12x24 flooring added light warmth with out the orange glow, and the furniture carried the soft “spa” colors into the family room.

You can view the projects more in depth in our showroom – as you can tell, we are thrilled to show them off. Congratulations to our clients – thank you for trusting us with your homes!