House Beautiful Profiles A-List’s Stunning ‘Workhorse’ Kitchen Design
When it comes to great interior design, looking good is simply not enough. Especially when it comes to the heart of a busy family’s home: their kitchen.
Photo by Brittany Ambridge
“The clients were a young family with twin girls, and they had just moved out of the city into this house. So they were having a lot of guests on the weekends, hosting playdates for the girls.”
— Anelle Gandelman
A-List Interiors’ designer, Anelle Gandelman, took into account the aesthetic tastes of the young family and their needs for a functional, durable kitchen.
How do you combine form and function with sophistication?
1. Combining marble and quartz
While marble is elegant and traditional, it can show wear quickly in heavily used areas, such as the counter tops and island in this home. Quartz is a more durable product that comes in varieties that can be matched to natural stone—which Anelle incorporated into the backsplash.
2. Natural variations to help mask wear and tear
Rather than sticking with the white of the kitchen cabinets, Anelle designed the island to use a natural oak stain. The variations in the wood grain will help camouflage any marks that would be instantly visible on a white surface.
“For the island, we knew people would be pulling up chairs and prepping there a lot, so there would be marks and just general wear and tear. With the stained oak, there’s already this wood grain, so the marks don’t show up as much—they just look like part of the grain.”
3. Kitchen hardware that stands up to hard wear
Anelle selected solid hardware for the handles, so there’s no chance they’ll come apart with use over time. Using bronze will also allow the metal to react and develop a unique patina over time, rather than looking worn.
The end result is a kitchen design that is not just worthy of being featured in magazines, but one that’s also ready to serve at the heart of this young family’s new life.