This elegant white kitchen, designed by Emy Frau Hamamy and custom built by Fortino Custom Cabinets, reflects the owners’ love of a classic, ornate look. With full height cabinetry, elegant marble backsplash and countertops, and large central island with seating, it is as functional as it is beautiful.
Hidden no more, kitchens take a visible role in modern home layouts.
In the past, kitchens were functional, says designer Emy Frau Hamamy of Hamamy Design, whose portfolio includes several suites at the Trump Hotel Toronto, including the all-black Rock Star penthouse. "The living room [and] the dining room was where the entertaining happened. The kitchen was for cooking and that's about it. Only your closest friends and family ever saw it."
From the fifties to the eighties, she explains, "there was a formality about a home and whom you invited. Bosses don't come to your house anymore. Now, we're a much more relaxed society."
As a result, kitchens are often central to today's floor plans, part of an open layout that makes them visible from multiple rooms. "We invite our friends over and we want to include them when we're cooking," Ms. Hamamy says. "People sit around the kitchen while you finish the food. Now, we not only have function and practicality, but we need it to be a beautiful space. They're fully exposed."
It's critical, then, that one of the first tasks when planning your own kitchen is to understand – and be true to – who you are.
"People see a beautiful kitchen and think, Oh, I want to have that!" Ms. Hamamy says. "But you really need to sit down and think about how you work and who you are."
An increasingly popular trend is to include dedicated spaces as small vignettes within the kitchen. "I'm creating a lot of 'stations,'" she says. "Lately, it's coffee stations. People love to serve cappuccino or tea to their guests and not everyone has the luxury of a servery."
To get the functionality you need, custom cabinetry can allow you to make sure your mixer, barware, or whatever accessories best suit your lifestyle are readily available and yet don't clutter up your look. Offset with subtle design touches, they create a personalized statement, such as the darker stools used to offset the all-white decor of the kitchen pictured.
Traditionalists might choose cabinetry with a classic, ornate look. For urban condo dwellers, Ms. Hamamy says that cabinet fronts for appliances, such as refrigerators, help keep the look sleek in a small space. To make choices that will stand the test of time, stay away from anything overtly trendy and be ready to make hard decisions if you fall in love with those choices.
"I put an old world Perrin and Rowe faucet in my own kitchen. It's beautiful, but it splashes everywhere," she says, adding that it's lacking an integrated sprayer in favour of having one on the side, a decision she made to prioritize the gorgeous faucet. However, it isn't practical. "But I made my choice. I chose beauty over function." For example, if you choose a small fridge (with a second larger fridge in the basement) because you like the look, you'll be running up and down the stairs all the time if you have a big family. "And you're going to end up hating your kitchen," she warns.
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With a trend towards personalization showing up everywhere from our Netflix to-watch lists to skins for our cars, it’s not surprising that people are choosing to build their lifestyle into their kitchen cabinets. Whether you’re a baker, mixologist or empty nester with accessibility issues, retrofitting with gliding shelves is one smart way to make sure that your kitchen suits you perfectly. “Some people aren’t interested in a full-on reno,” says Marianna Keselman, a dealer for Toronto’s Gliding Shelf Solutions. “They just want to make their spaces more functional. It’s great to have something beautiful, a wonderful stone counter and brand new hardwood, but it needs to function.” The company’s gliding shelves are custom-manufactured to measure, which not only gives easier access to frequently used items, but can also create additional space. “Not every item you put in your pantry is 14-inches high,” says Ms. Keselman. “People tend to stack their canned goods and their jars, and they end up having no idea what they have.” Use of their shelves in bathrooms has also increased in recent years, along with home offices. “People have big armoires that they convert to filing cabinets,” she says. “Anywhere there’s a cabinet, we can put a pull-out shelf, drawers, dividers, whatever is needed to help it do what you need it to.” |
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