Homeowner Scott Mitchell created the island’s basic design, which he presented to Randall Omoto, of Homeowners Design Center, who finalized the specs and added storage on two sides.
|
It was big, yet unbalanced. It had storage space, but not enough. The island? It was bulky and provided hardly anything more than a single-tier countertop. The positioning? Nonsensical. The kitchen had potential, but it lacked character, among other things.
“It didn’t have very much personality. It was very vanilla,” says Randall Omoto, of Homeowners Design Center.
Ironically, for a kitchen in Hawaii, this space was unusually large, yet it lacked storage. For a family with four teenage children, it didn’t make much sense. “We had just enough cabinet space to fit what we needed on a weekly basis,” says homeowner Chrissy Mitchell. The kitchen was also falling apart. “All of it was press board and it started to swell. Things just weren’t working right and some of the appliances were starting to break down,” she says.
Chrissy and her husband, Scott, knew it was time for a change. “When we bought the house, we knew that eventually it would need to be remodeled,” she says. The Mitchells took their time to plan and research exactly what they wanted. “We were going to remodeling expos, and I collected magazines for about two years,” Chrissy says.
After all their research, the Mitchells knew that they wanted something warm. It would need to fit their larger-than-usual kitchen space, provide enough storage and also incorporate their love for the outdoors.
With a basic plan in mind, the Mitchells interviewed three kitchen designers, including Omoto, whom they eventually chose to help with the renovation. “We just really liked his approach to the design phase and also the quality of cabinets he had,” Chrissy says. Omoto’s balance of good design and high-quality, affordable products won them over. “His ideas were really aligned with what we had in mind,” she says.
A previously unused breakfast nook was replaced with a bar area, featuring an undercounter wine refrigerator and more cabinets.
|
The kitchen was a 20-foot-by-20-foot square (with an informal dining area splitting the room in half). “The big challenge in these larger kitchens is for them not to look gigantic,” Omoto says. He needed to create a design that would achieve a sense of balance, combining flow, aesthetics and functionality equally.
To achieve the balance, Omoto removed a breakfast nook, which sat in the corner. This allowed for the cabinets to wrap around, creating a more cohesive feel.
The flow came with a little rearranging and a new (bigger) island. “We have the oven in a new location. The refrigerator is in a new location and, of course, the sink,” Chrissy says.
With the kitchen cabinets now wrapping around the room, the larger island does not emanate the bulky feel of the previous one. “When I first brought it in, I was like, ‘Wow. That’s a big island,’ because the kitchen didn’t wrap around. Now it balances out,” Omoto says. The dual tiers, extra storage and built-in cooktop also allow for multipurpose use. Now, the family has “an area where they can sit down and eat without interfering with the cooking or prep on the other side,” Omoto says.
To tie together the balance, flow and functionality of the space, the design honed in on aesthetics. The homeowners have a great love for the outdoors and wanted to incorporate nature into their new space. “There’s a lot of greenery out here, and we wanted some of that indoors as well, so even our walls are green,” Chrissy says.
To carry the theme further, Omoto chose a natural cherry wood for the cabinets and a granite countertop with green, gold and brown hues swirling throughout. The travertine floor’s sandy color complements the outdoor feel and fits the family’s lifestyle. With the pool just outside the kitchen, the flooring holds up to wet feet. “It’s easy to take care of. Also, because we’re using lots of natural materials, it marries off well,” Omoto says.
The combination of balance, flow, functionality and aesthetics has paid off well for the Mitchells. “Randall helped us design something that really fit our needs,” Chrissy says. “It worked out really well.”
