contemporary kitchen remodel west bloomfield mi

West Bloomfield, MI Contemporary Kitchen Remodel

Remodeling and Home Design

This lovely couple is in their 70’s and previously remodeled their kitchen over 25 years ago.  With that in mind, the homeowners had three specific design goals for their new kitchen renovation – age, height, and ease of use, as well as keeping the new look in line with the unique modern design of their gorgeous home.  Neither owner is tall, (husband 5’6″ and wife under 5′); therefore, a kitchen with easy reach appliances and fixtures was critical.  The island design incorporated an extra thick quartz top but needed to be no higher than 35″. The ovens were lowered for safety and ease of use, and a pull-out stool was incorporated into the toe kick. 

The in-drawer downdraft control along with the wide rail stainless steel apron sink was incorporated for complete ease of use. The couple was not looking for a major change in layout but wanted to incorporate a 48″ wide Sub-Zero refrigerator into the “smallish” kitchen without creating an overwhelming feeling.  Moving all the tall units to one end of the kitchen (near the nook) gave the space an open feel while offering more substantial refrigeration.

This retired couple loves their home, cook daily meals and spend much of their time together in the kitchen. 

Our goal was to create a simple update that gave the homeowners a more comfortable feel of the space and a convenient way to work together in this new stage of their lives.  Keeping the simplicity of the design was important, but it also needed to reflect 21st-century amenities. With this in mind, they chose a 36″ SS Wolf Pro Gas Cooktop 18K Burner w/LED Indicators (CG365P/S) because they prefer to cook gas, loved the 5-burner setup and the knob location in the lower right corner of the unit. They were extremely excited about the DD36-SS ventilation with the concealed controls located in the drawer, as it works perfectly with the clean lines of the kitchen. 

One of the couple’s favorite amenity in the kitchen is the Wolf WGCO100S Countertop oven.  The recessed appliance garage was re-built with a stainless door specifically to house this unit.  Felt pads have been applied to the feet to ensure our clients can pull the oven in and out for everyday use. 

They hate to admit it, but this may be their favorite appliance in the kitchen as they are now just cooking every day for two!

The challenges for this kitchen remodel are also what makes this home so unique.  One of the problems was finding an appropriate new flooring to coordinate perfectly with the adjacent flooring finishes.  The original dark clay tile flooring in the kitchen was also used throughout the main living area of the entire home, only separated by a terrazzo hallway floor.  Updating the kitchen flooring was critical to the new aesthetics, but the homeowners were wary of the idea of three hard flooring finishes.  The over-sized 24×24 cement style porcelain tiles were the perfect complement not only to the terrazzo hallway, but also the large outdoor porch directly off the eating area. 

Another challenge was that the existing home has many unique wood finishes throughout, from custom Anigre built-ins in the family room to a Brazilian Cherry and stainless steel fireplace surround directly off the kitchen.  We needed to find the right materials for the new kitchen and matching or adding another wood seemed short-sighted and didn’t create the look and feel we were all hoping for.  We decided to mix stainless steel appliances and fixtures with textured grey oak horizontal grain cabinetry which turned out to be the perfect solution.

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