Someone’s in the Kitchen area | Naples Florida Weekly

Best: An extended island accommodates seating in this kitchen in Olde Cypress intended by Sherri DuPont and Hailey Burkhardt of Collins DuPont Desing Group.

Typically REFERRED TO AS THE Coronary heart OF A property, the kitchen area has taken on even extra significance due to the fact the pandemic commenced.

“Since COVID, I’ve talked with so many clients who are seeing cooking channels on Television,” states Sherri DuPont, ASID, president and principal of Collins DuPont Design Team. “If you are looking at and want to check out recipes, it is not entertaining performing these things by on your own. You want to share them with family members.”

To accommodate this trend, Ms. DuPont and her personnel are generating chef’s tables and extended islands with seating in several kitchens they structure.

Typically reserved for VIP company, a chef’s desk in the kitchen area of the restaurant is the most popular seat in the residence, where diners can observe the chefs and generally love a tasting menu.

“We really like to transfer this idea to our clients’ residences,” Ms. DuPont claims. “The chef’s desk is a nod and refined update to the breakfast desk or nook. Generally, this space is the considerably less formal solution to your eating space and is reserved for family members or shut good friends to obtain in the kitchen area for brunch or cocktail hour.”

An upholstered banquette, two eating chairs and two counterheight chairs make for an inviting kitchen in a Port Royal property with inside by Sherri DuPont of Collins DuPont Style Team. AMBER FREDERIKSEN / COURTESY Photo

She likes to offer you whimsical selections for tables and chairs for this spot, together with customized banquettes for growing households upholstered with overall performance dependent textiles for operation.

She notes that, as an extension of the chef’s table, an ongoing pattern is the use of much larger kitchen islands for relaxed foods and buffet-design nibbling. She likes to use purely natural stones for the foundation of this space of the house, making sure longevity and timelessness.

For a more substantial kitchen area island that will be employed for the the vast majority of the family’s foods, the Collins DuPont workforce generally pair comfy and interesting counter stools with sometimes surprising features or textiles noticeable from the back again, leaving no depth of the chef’s table unturned.

A kitchen area that Ms. DuPont and designer Amy Coslet developed for a property in Mediterra gained Silver Aurora and Grand Aurora inside style awards from the Southeast Building Conference as properly as 3 Sand Dollar Awards from the Collier Setting up Business Affiliation.

The metal panel guiding the cooktop in this kitchen area by K2 Style and design Group was fashioned by an important Canadian artist. Very low-force laminate that appears to be like like weathered barn wood was employed under the walnut butcher block bar with walnut-backed bar stools. COURTESY Image

“The loved ones has four daughters and desired area where anyone can prepare dinner and take in at one area in the kitchen,” Ms. DuPont states. “The spouse and children lives in the kitchen.”

The craze in chef’s tables has been going on for a although but intensified with people today remaining at household far more all through the pandemic, she adds. A kitchen table is ordinarily made use of for breakfast and lunch, with evening meal currently being served in a eating place. Getting a chef’s table in the kitchen area will allow spouse and children members and visitors to be element of the cooking expertise and permits for much more artistic dishes, she describes.

The kitchen area she intended in Mediterra has an more sink and dishwashing area as well as handy storage for condiments that are most frequently needed while cooking.

“It’s all really centrally found so you can get what you require whilst you’re ingesting,” Ms. DuPont claims. “It requirements to be enjoyment,” she provides about cooking and consuming as a spouse and children. “The whole issue is you want to appreciate the loved ones, the food stuff and be playful with it.”

The formal eating table, at suitable, seats 8 when the chef’s desk nearer to the kitchen area hub is set up for 4 in this Barefoot Seashore home with interior by Kim Collins and Alina Dolan of Collins DuPont Design and style Team. TOM HARPER / COURTESY Photo

For prolonged islands, she often models various sinks, qualified pull-down taps and room for 3 or 4 men and women to cook at a time. She considers this an “arena kitchen” exactly where cooking is a display.

If room permits, she likes to make a butler’s pantry for appliances and serving dishes that are not desired each and every working day but that must be close at hand.

With thorough get the job done taking spot in kitchens, Ms. DuPont likes to use pendant lights over islands augmented by task or recessed lighting.

Though the trend toward white kitchens carries on, Ms. DuPont suggests the island is exactly where “everyone is staying creative. It’s the place exactly where you can be much more playful with coloration. White is the neutral qualifications, but the island is the star that brings your individuality into it.”

A generously sized island has space for prep do the job and plating as very well as seating. This 1 in Bonita Seashore was developed by Kim Collins and Alina Dolan of Collins Dupont Design and style Group.

Coloration is employed not only for the islands but also in fabrics on stools, chairs and other seating. A single of Ms. DuPont’s favorites has a Caribbean truly feel with greens and reds.

She suggests wooden floors for kitchens mainly because “they are unquestionably extra forgiving on your legs. If you are going to be standing in the kitchen area for 3 of four several hours, they’re superior for you.”

Jenny Provost, founder and owner of K2 Layout Group, agrees. “The planet has long gone mad for wood flooring,” specifically in kitchens, she claims.

“There’s this section of the housing that was crafted in the mid-1990s that is screaming for renovation now. We’re ripping out a whole lot of limestone and travertine floors and building plywood less than the wood flooring. It’s considerably improved on your joints, and it feels genuinely nice to stroll on.”

Maintaining hardwood floors in Florida utilised to be time-consuming and costly, Ms. Provost says, largely for the reason that humidity often prompted cupping. Today’s engineered wooden flooring are considerably far better suited for the local climate. As opposed to strong wooden flooring, engineered wood flooring is created from a fairly skinny layer of hardwood bonded around a substrate of large-quality plywood. Installation is much easier, steadiness is superior, and pricing is far more realistic.

K2 Structure Group outfitted this kitchen with an integrated wine cooler, an built-in Miele coffee maker and a blend oven/steam oven. COURTESY Picture

Ms. Provost claims Legno Bastone engineered wooden finishes are “unbelievable” and notes that a single is hand-torched to caramelize the shade.

Like Collins DuPont Design and style Group, the K2 Style Group group is observing a ton of aim on kitchens this yr, particularly upgrading appliances. Ms. Provost suggests her new individual favourite is the Fisher & Paykel CoolDrawer, a multi-temperature appliance that can be set for fridge, freezer, chill, pantry and wine.

She has also seen amplified level of popularity of steam ovens and mentions the Miele Combi-Steam oven as a wonderful second or third oven that can be quickly created into a kitchen.

Continuing with that model, she likes the Miele coffee makers, specifically when paired with a dwelling coffee bean roaster. “If you’ve in no way had a latte macchiato from a Miele device, you have not lived,” she explained. “It’s extraordinary.”

In this smooth kitchen area by K2 Design Team, the integrated fridge (big copper-colored panel at again) is flanked by two regular ovens and a steam oven. The copper complete is truly acrylic the kitchen also has superior-gloss lacquer (off-white) and very low-tension laminate (the darker wood-appear finish). COURTESY Image

An all round kitchen area pattern that Ms. Provost suggests is owning a totally built-in appear so all appliances blend in. She layouts panels to go over the front of appliances, generating the total kitchen area seem like drawers or cabinets. She likes textured low-pressure laminate, obtainable in many shades, calling it “a huge innovation in cabinetry.”

With all these thoughts for enhancing a kitchen, there’s no greater time to continue to be dwelling and get cooking. ¦

Substantially like the chef’s desk in a good restaurant, the desk in this kitchen area in The Regent condominiums provides friends a entrance-row seat although their meal is ready. Kim Collins and Alina Dolan of Collins DuPont Style Team are the designers. LORI HAMILTON / COURTESY Photograph