Designing the Red Kitchen
You receive opportunities when you least expect it.
It was a normal work day, wintertime, when I received a phone call from a new client. I was referred to them by one of my fireplace suppliers with whom I worked successfully on several jobs. Design, like any other business, is all about relations. I receive the best referrals through people that I trust, and they trust me.
So that’s how the “Red Kitchen” started. I spoke with a lovely lady on the phone who was looking for an interior designer to remodel her kitchen. Soon I set up a site consultation with her and meet with the family in less than a week.
The house was built in 1940, located in Kensington–Cedar Cottage neighborhood in east Vancouver. Beautiful heritage house with unique architectural details. Right away I fell in love with this house. There was a lot of character and room to work with, and no surprise that the owners were beautiful, vibrant and eclectic people. Mark and Maya, the owners of the house, were an intellectual couple who had traveled the world and were familiar with different cultures, and as expected, they wanted something different and were not afraid to use color.
They surprised me when I asked them what color they imagine the kitchen to be, and I heard Maya saying: We want red cabinets.
I stopped writing the notes in my notebook, looked up and repeated: Red??
I couldn’t believe my ears. It is not easy to find courageous people these days who don’t want a simple white and grey kitchen. Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with a beautiful minimalist white kitchen. But as an artist and a designer, red kitchen?? Really?? I can’t wait to make this happen.
They wanted this red kitchen to bring the family joy and happiness. They were envisioning themselves cooking and preparing meals in this warm, lovely joyful environment. They also needed comfort, good quality cabinets and functionality.
A week later I was hired as their interior designer and started working on planning the kitchen right away.
Second phase of the design was adding build in cabinetry to the living room and around the fireplace to create more aesthetic and storage. Something simple while balancing the unit with the ceiling details as you see in photos.
After a period of waiting for planning and building permits, finally we commenced the work. I had the opportunity to cooperate with a wonderful team under supervision of Emare Contracting, to make this design happen. Many thanks to Amir Khorsandi, for his time management and dedication. Century Cabinets made such beautiful high-quality cabinetry for this house and delivered+installed them in timely manner.
Everyone in this project was exceptionally cooperative, responsible and on time.
Mark and Maya, the owners, were absolutely amazing during construction and showed so much strength, patience and cooperation with the team.
One of the joys of doing interior design is having the chance to meet different families and making new friends. Residential design requires a lot of patience and deep involvement in families emotional well being during construction. Seeing them happy, satisfied and smiling with their project in the end, for me is a sign of success. Renovation is called “marriage test” for a reason. And when you deliver the job with people smiling, you know that you have done a good job.
Details about this design for those of you who are interested:
Cabinet Doors: Richelieu – BRILLANTÉ Rojo
Combined with ARBORITE W431-VL - CASHEW TĒKKA high wear laminate
Countertops: Ceaserstone 5141 Frosty Carrina
Red kitchen beside being beautiful in aesthetics, is built by high quality doors, hardware and high performance laminate. We incorporated roll out shelves in the pantry for ease of access. Both sides of the oven is dedicated to roll out spice racks which will make it easier to access while preparing a meal. The wood laminate box cabinets with glass doors add to the beauty of the design while providing extra storage. along with the mix of wood shelves to bring some interest into the design. The little bench wood top is accessible for more storage and is a little secondary seating inside the kitchen.
So here was the story of the red kitchen. Looking for more design inspiration? Keep reading our blogs. There is more stories coming up and will help you understand how we design and how it is to hire an interior designer.
Sepideh Meshkin (Sepi)
Before & After Photos
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