PROJECTS feature articles
West Meets East
The Living Kitchen, www.subzerowolfkitchens.com
By Olivia Bell Buehl
Photos By David Duncan Livingston
and John Birchard
A spectacular site on California’s coast guided the placement of this kitchen, but its design references the Pacific Rim, almost 6,000 miles across the ocean.
Don’t compete with Mother Nature is the decision that Sharon Kiss and Matthew Rao made when designing Kiss’s own kitchen overlooking the Pacific Ocean. For Kiss, who admits she loves excess, the kitchen is remarkable for its restraint. She jokes that her nearest neighbors to the west live in Japan, which may explain the space’s aesthetic.
Kiss, an interior designer who relocated from Atlanta to California several years ago, has often collaborated with kitchen designer Rao. “Even experts need experts,” she explains. “Matthew’s focus is primarily on the kitchen, whereas I see it as part of the whole house.”
“Working with another designer opens up all sorts of options,” agrees Rao. “I often recommend that my clients bring in an interior designer to take a good kitchen to a great kitchen.” The two are quick to also credit architect Robert Ross, who oversaw the teardown of most of the old house and construction of a larger one.
A serious cook who likes formal entertaining, Kiss says, “I chose a galley plan because I don’t like having other people in the kitchen.” Guarding the entrance to the new space is a bronze figure she acquired years ago. “He’s full of attitude,” she jokes, “and seems to be saying, ‘Stay out!’”
In fact, the bronze sentinel inspired Rao’s design of the peninsula. “It is a perch, but also a barrier,” he says. Kiss adds, “The peninsula keeps the kitchen from looking like a bowling alley.” She opted for a single stool, which she uses when reviewing cookbooks. “My husband also sits there while I’m cooking,” she says.
“When a galley kitchen incorporates good work space, enough clearance, and proper placement of things, it’s the most efficient layout,” notes Rao. Here, the almost 10-foot width—the space is 181/2-feet long—permitted a full 38 inches of clearance between the end of the peninsula and the perimeter cabinets.
Kiss often hosts large parties, so she needs a big refrigerator, which could have overwhelmed the space and gobbled up counter and storage space. The solution: place the appliance behind a pocket door in a pantry beyond the sink. In the kitchen proper, three Sub-Zero integrated drawer units serve everyday needs.
Careful placement of cabinets and appliances keeps the galley kitchen from seeming oppressively narrow. “That’s why we didn’t want tall elements on the range wall,” explains Rao. “This is very open for a galley kitchen.” Key to the airiness is what he calls “negative space,” or areas deliberately left empty to provide visual relief—in this case, between the Wolf rangetop and a tower comprised of the Wolf electric and microwave ovens and warming drawer.
Kiss and Rao opted for oak cabinets with an espresso-color stain, which extends the Asian aesthetic. “To focus attention on the view, we wanted them to lay back, much as you look thinner in a dark dress,” she explains. Additional wall cabinets of pale laminate and textured glass provide a 12-foot run of valuable storage. A minimum of materials and objects reinforce the calm mood. “It’s not that I don’t like to collect things, but my instinct is always to keep a space spare,” Kiss confides.
She wanted to cook over gas, but the remote location precluded natural gas. The rangetop, fueled by propane, delivers the Btus she demands. The tall range-hood chimney balances the room’s primarily horizontal lines. Its placement mirrors that of the wood-burning fireplace at the far end of the adjacent living room. “I like the idea of two hearths,” says Kiss. “One cooks. The other warms.”