Bronxville Dream Kitchen Inspiration

As I mentioned the other day, I am working on the dream kitchen of all dream kitchens and in a home that is an interior designer’s/decorator’s dream, in “Bronxville, New York” where I’m an interior designer.* There are ten foot ceilings, Palladian windows, in this turn-of-the-20th century Italian Renaissance beauty. Well, this sucks the big petunia. I was going to link back to the original post, however, it’s the one where the photos have gone AWOL.  Fine.  Here’s one photo of the sun room taken last year, in addition to the ones from the other day to refresh your memory.

*please forgive my flagrantly disgusting self-aggrandizement, but the SEO Google Gods loves that sort of thing and they REALLY love it if the same words are in the first paragraph and if you repeat the “focus keyword” and it appears in the “meta description.” Did you know that? What’s SEO, you ask? Google it please. :]

Now, before you get too bored, I better get to the pretty pictures to convey the dream kitchen inspiration. It was already all in my head. It would be elegant, classic and timeless; just like the home. (One of my interior decorator pet peeves is a kitchen which in no way shape or form pays homage to the historical period during which the home was built.) If your home was built after 1945, quite frankly, I don’t care what kind of kitchen you put in it, but if its pre-war, I always try to do something which feels as if it was always there.

Here are some photos that have inspired my design.

Kind of takes your breath away, doesn’t it? I mean, why is that woman looking at a magazine. She’s living in one! I think that this may be one of the top kitchens posted on pinterest and no wonder. It has classic, mind blowing drama with those cabinets that reach up into the heavens, pilasters, and those thingies that I can never remember what they are called… hold on… it’ll come to me.

CREMONE BOLT!!!

Well, we’re not doing them because they need to be able to open the doors easily, but we are going to have a built in hutch with doors and pilasters just like that and drawers below that.

The next images are from O’Brien Harris

I found a place to make the hood. Its antique nickel and yes, it costs a gazillion bucks, but its going over a wolf range and its absolutely going to be the drop dead focal point of this dream kitchen. And yes, we are going to do a Calacatta Gold marble back splash because its the most beautiful marble that God ever created. (its the same type of marble we used for the fireplace surround in the dining room.

The island we’re basically copying except the sink will be larger and centered. Notice the wonderful mirrored X doors. We aren’t doing them in the kitchen, but we designed a gorgeous built in cabinet and that will be located in the newly renovated master bathroom.

Another view of the same kitchen. We’re also doing a classic coffered ceiling. Since there is one in the dining room that came with the original architecture it only makes sense. Previously, there were these fugly, dark, heavy, (un)decorative, faux rustic beams. In its previous incarnation it was the ubiquitous French Country. It was very nice, but not my client’s thing and not really right for the home. In addition, the kitchen also had some design issues which made it sometimes difficult to work in. Then, there was the hideous over-scale window that someone put in. That’s going and we’re revamping the heating/air conditioning because in the winter the home owners are freezing.

I’ll be posting some before images of the kitchen before we tore it out, very soon!

Oh, and if you want to see some more of some of my favorite kitchens, please check out my pinterest kitchen board!

xo,