Wanda's Wonderful Kitchen

This kitchen remodel is part of a whole house remodel that we designed for our wonderful client Wanda Kristjanson.  With the help of our structural engineer John Nissen, we were able to open up the kitchen into the dining/living room, add vertical space and give Wanda the island that she always wanted.  We were able to remove the wall between the kitchen and the dining area and create a large island with seating for guests.  We also relocated a fireplace that had been inhibiting space in the existing kitchen (see before picture)  Acacia wood flooring coupled with horizontal grain bamboo cabinets are offset by a striking black mosaic tile backsplash.

Perfect for entertaining as well as daily living, Wanda's wonderful kitchen is a good example of how your surroundings can significantly impact your level of happiness.  Wanda is happy and that makes me happy!

 Before picture kitchen:

Tale of the disappearing hood...

Planning a new kitchen involves selecting ventilation for your cooktop.  For many years, selections were limited to a variety of large overhead hoods or a down draft system that rises and lowers from the counter.  The choices are still Overhead or Downdraft but the visual presence of a hood now fades into the background.  The hood as the center of attention in the kitchen is no longer a given.

These kitchens all have ventilation for their cooktops, can you find the hood?  The Futuro hood is called the 'Skylight' which gives a hint as to the location, way up in the ceiling.  It is combined with a strong light which gives the impression that the unit is actually a type of skylight.  The second picture is the Faber pull out fan, it is the tiny 2" cabinet material above the cooktop.  You pull the trim forward to use the vent and tiny LED lights automatically turn on.   This hood can be vented or filtered (non vented.)  The third kitchen features a cooktop by Jenn Air that has a downdraft fan integrated into the actuall cooktop.  It is finished in the same color and finish as the cooktop so it blends in and becomes un noticable.  It does not need to go up and down, the power of the fan is strong enough to pull the odors down.

These new appliances give us more design options, letting us decide what we want to visually feature as well as what we want to hide!

Award winning Kitchen!

Christine Suzuki, ASID, LEED AP  (me!), was awarded First Place for Residential Small Kitchen, in ASID's 2015 Awards of Excellence competition.  I love all of my design projects but it is nice when we receive confirmation that others love them as well!

This kitchen is in a small condo on Queen Anne hill. The original kitchen was a small rectangular room with two entrances, one from the hall, the second from the dining room. My role in this project was to create a space that looked and felt bigger, create an island with a breakfast bar and to add ‘a little bling.’  .  We removed the wall separating the dining from the kitchen and added an island with a breakfast bar.  We also bumped the back wall of the kitchen into the bedroom behind it giving us extra room to maneuver.  I like to minimize any protrusions into the space, so I selected the recessed finger pulls for the cabinetry.  

The opaque glass insert create a feeling of space as well.  The richness of the brandy stained cherry cabinets is balanced by the warm yellow color of the cork floor. We created a ‘feature’ wall behind the sink with glittering round metal tiles, centering the upper cabinets.  The hanging metal hood doubles as a light fixture.  All the upper cabinets are a double bi-fold tilt up style which makes it easy to access all items in the cupboards while retaining a clean horizontal line.  The large pantry cabinet to the left of the dishwasher is actually a 6” deep cabinet that is fit within the studs of the wall behind it.  

We also created an upper U shaped drawer for the sink cabinet to gain precious storage space.  The challenges for this project are typical of a condo, we needed to keep the drainage and venting in the same locations.  The cement radiant heat ceiling meant that we had to create a lowered ceiling with shallow recessed lights.  The old elevator was small and we were challenged in getting the granite counters up to the fifth floor.  The ending result, however, was outstanding and the clients have enjoyed this Seattle get away ever since.

Soft Modern Kitchen

What is soft modern?  Modern design without the ‘coldness’ of what we associate with modern.  Soft Modern incorporates ‘tactical’ elements to balance against smoothness, ‘friendly’ colors that are muted and relaxing.  Round shapes are allowed to associate with rectangular shapes.  I was happy to be selected as the designer for this Soft Modern kitchen.

 I call this kitchen ‘Earth Water & Air’ because of the materials selected and their relationship to these natural elements.  Usually, a design using ‘natural materials’ has a dominant color of browns which represent wood.  In this case, soft reflective gloss green cabinets remind us of water,  little globe lights bubble in the atmosphere.  Blue and green mosaic tile creates a sense of air or smoke going up the hood and the satin textured granite counters say ‘stone’ in the very basic sense of the word.  The granite has a very subtle color without normal busyness of granite patterning.  The ‘hand’ of the stone, a subtle but distinct texture, along with the color, was the basis of the entire design, providing our first strong relationship to nature.  The enlarged windows allow this family to be ‘one’ with the outside elements.

Take a look at all the pictures of this kitchen on our website www.christinesuzuki.com under portfolio/kitchens.  

With gratitude, Christine

Creating healthy living choices – My new favorite appliances

Calling these small units appliances may be stretching it but I use them every day and they have changed my health for the better.  Coincidently both were Christmas gifts. The first one was from my dad – a single induction burner with accompanying cookware.  My first reaction was “but dad, I already have a stove, a nice gas one that works really well.”  “Oh but this is different, it is better, I saw it on a commercial” (two for one plus shipping and handling) he said.  Reluctantly I accepted the gift bringing it to my office to experiment cooking at work.   WOW! I am sold!  ’ NuWave Precision Cook Top’ is better than any other cook top I have used.  Plugged into a regular outlet the unit has an internal fan that keeps the fire alarm from going off.  Place your pot or pan on the unit and you can boil water INSTANTLY.  No more waiting for the water to warm up, induction cooking is truly instantaneous and safe.  Once you remove the cookware the cook top stops heating the pan, you can touch the cook top and it is not hot, you will not get burned.  I have known about induction for a while and always regulated this type of cooking to the ‘good for when you get older’ category.  I knew about the safety, however I did not realize how much faster the cooking process is.  Your food starts cooking immediately after turning on the burner.  This cook top came with 2 non stick (safe) frying pans which make washing dishes a joy.  I also received a ‘pot’ that has 3” sides that can cook an entire meal.  While you are cooking your dinner, you can place the steamer unit (same size, also comes with the package) on top of the pot to steam your vegetables.  A single glass lid fits both the pot, the steamer and the large frying pan. I do not need any oil to cook my food, I am eating healthier and washing less dishes.  Plus it uses up to 90% less energy than the typical gas or electrical cook top.  I even have a fondue accessory that fits onto the pot that holds the fondue sticks (also came with the package.)  What a bargain! ($19.95 for everything). 

My second ‘appliance’ was obtained at a Christmas gift exchange from my Aunt Jane.  This small blender/mixer is cute and portable.  But since I didn’t really blend food, it took me a while to appreciate it.  Now I use it every day and it has also changed my health.  With Bella’s Rocket Blender, I can make a single serving (or half single serving) smoothie and guess what?  After blending, turn the cup over, remove (unscrew) the blade and the cup turns into your drinking cup.  There is also a top that you can screw onto the plastic cup if you want to take the juice to go.  So, besides being very small and portable, you do not have to wash a blender AND a cup, it is one and the same! My morning breakfast has changed from a ‘breakfast burrito’ to a very yummy and healthy smoothie created from Vanilla Yogurt, Vanilla Metafuel (Univera meal replacement), 4 oz of Xtra (Univera antioxidant energy product) 3 oz of Aloe Gold (Univera immune system protectant) and 3 oz of water.  When I feel wild and crazy I will add in fresh blueberries (more antioxidants) and/or cocoa nibs (more antioxidants). The last time I went through the drive through at McDonalds the cashier said, ‘where have you been, we miss you!’  ‘Sorry’, I said, 'I am working towards a healthier lifestyle!’ Between daily yoga, a healthy diet, and my life changing supplements, I am going to live forever!’ (I’m going to learn how to fly – FAME!) - I think I just dated myself,

Eating green, Christine