Riverbluff Kitchen

May 26, 2011 by Jeff Erkelens

I thought I’d take a second to spotlight the kitchen at Riverbluff, as the kitchen is a space where we love to play with different textures and finishes. It’s usually the kitchen that is the time capsule and tip off for when the house is built, whether it’s avocado appliances and orange Formica counter-tops from the 70′s or cherry cabinets and granite cabinets in the 90′s.

I’d like to think we are building something that is timeless, but who knows. I mean we are using stainless steel appliances, which I have to think at some point will fall out of vogue. My tastes skew to both the comfort of the country farmhouse and to the crispness of modern design.  Maybe it’s too much of a mish mash, but I like this eclecticism and believe country and modern play well off each other.

Excuse the photos as I quickly took them myself.  It’s also a little difficult to capture as it’s a pretty narrow, galley kitchen.  This kitchen is another take on what we were playing around with on the Rockland house.  I love using two different sets of cabinet faces and counter-tops in a kitchen and how they play off each other.  On one side we have the sleek stainless cabinets with the soft butcher block top.  On the other side, we have the more coarser appearing concrete counter-top with the crisp white, foil finish cabinets.

The devil is in the details, and here are a few in this kitchen: I hate how hulking fridges are and how they protrude past the cabinets. So we made sure to place the fridge at the entry way to the kitchen, where a wall hides this fact. The cabinets are from IKEA, but they unfortunately don’t make a stainless steel toe kicks, so we are having custom made brushed stainless toe kicks made up (one of many punch list items). The IKEA farm sink, also from IKEA, which we love, is not meant to have the backside exposed, so Tommy made a custom wood trim piece that wraps the sink and masks the unfinished areas. Thinking about lighting, we made sure to put in a bulkhead between the kitchen and dining area as it both defines the kitchen and keeps the overhead lighting from spilling out into the dining room.  I also acknowledge that there is not a lot of upper cabinet space, as I love open kitchens with windows. Obviously, got to keep all the food somewhere, so we have a dedicated pantry closet with ample shelving right off the kitchen.

As far as appliances, we are sticking with a Bosch brand dishwasher, as it has proven to us over numerous houses to be extremely reliable and quiet. This is also the third house where we have installed an induction range by Samsung. Induction uses magnetism to heat cookware directly, so the actual cooktop stays pretty cool to the touch and is a great safety feature for kids. Plus, induction boils water faster than gas or electric and has the same precision of temperature ranges that great a gas range would have. My dad always had great industrial restaurant style gas ranges and I have a great nostalgia for that, but there is something to be said for the the ease of cleaning a glass top and not sacrificing performance.

Project: Riverbluff Circle, 120 · Tags: , , , , · Leave a comment

Mean Green Kitchen Countertops

August 31, 2010 by Joey Conover

Daily Progress / HOMEstyle Special Section : September 2010

Jan Ferrigan recently contacted Latitude 38 for some advice on environmentally friendly countertops. Countertops, like floor coverings, are a place where a lot of people think about using a local, renewable or recycled product to reduce the environmental impact of their home. It’s a great visual piece that people see and use everyday, and there are many options available out there there for those interested. However, it is worth noting that this is a relatively small part of the home and its total embodied energy. Recognizing the environmental impact of the countertop is important, but should always be looked at concurrently with other building materials and long-term operating aspects of a home. Although there has been much advancement in environmentally responsible product sourcing, I look forward to the day when we can show off the embodied energy and material content of ceramic toilets, the glass in our windows, and metal roofing material. If you have any suggestions of products, please pass on the word.

Here is a related article that covers the environmental impact of all kitchen elements quite well: USGBC Green Home Guide: Creating a Green Kitchen: From Resource Planning to Maintenance

Project: Uncategorized · Tags: , , · Leave a comment

the kitchen…

June 5, 2009 by Jeff Erkelens

Kitchen is coming together. I feel like I waxed on about the design a little to heavy in a previous post, so thought I would stick to some practical construction aspects of actually building the thing.

So, I had this vision of the stainless base cabinets with the butcher countertop contrasted with grey concrete counter and wood cabinets for island. Had the kitchen layout and sizing designed.  Framed up the house, plumbing and electrical were in place, drywall, paint ect. Time came to run the Ikea gauntlet. Found out at the store that the stainless cabinets only come in a few select sizes. I was able to rework some things on the fly, but they don’t make a stainless corner cabinet, which I had to have. It’s a 2 hour drive up there and I needed to come home with some cabinets. Sheeeeeeit (Clay Davis style)

A lot of terrible solutions came to mind like reversing the kitchen where the stainless and butcher would be the island. But, I saw the island as the place where the magic happens and really wanted a surface that you could put hot pots on or roll out pie crusts and not be a pain in the ass to clean.

Anyway, bought the stainless and bought a white corner cabinet and figured I’d come up with something.  Long story short, bought some 4′ x 8′ sheets of brushed stainless steel via the internet and worked with the awesome folks at Martin Roofing and sheet metal.  They bent some pieces to clad the corner cabinet along with bending some stainless for my backsplash. Also, Ikea doesn’t make a stainless toe kick. I didn’t want to leave it open and create a fantastic home for crumbs and dust, so made some stainless toe kicks as well. It’s a nice touch.

Another thing I like is the the little ledge shelf that it’s in the kitchen. Great place to put herbs, vases, whatever. That comes from my idea of wanting to use 4′ superior walls, but instead of building a floor on top and having a crawl space, we would pour a slab inside (that way the slab is encased in insulation and protected from the elements) and stack regular 8′ walls on top of the foundation.  That way when you step down into the slab, you’ve got 12′ ceilings. By stacking 2 x6 walls on a 11″ foundation, you are left with this great opportunity. So, the ledge shelf detail carries around the dining room and the living room. My personal motto: always need to have a place to set your g & t in case you need to gesture wildly. 

For the shelf we actually used stair treads that had yet to be cut for steps and were 16′ long. That way they were a really good grade and had a nice rounded nose on the front.

I also really dig the lights. You have to see it in person as they are all different heights and it’s pretty dramatic. I like it because it gives the feel of dropping the ceiling and making the kitchen feel more intimate.

Thinking about the ceiling (you can see the plywood ceiling in one of the photos): It’s a mosaic of 16″ wide by 8′ long pieces that I really like the look of. A little thing I’m proud of: We ripped 4′ wide pieces into thirds on the table saw (made a ton of sawdust for Jesse’s chickens as I recall). We made three separate piles that way each sheet of plywood being ripped in third would be in a separate stack. Then, when we installed it, we pulled from one stack completely before moving onto the next. That way we got a ton of variation and contrast between pieces and never put two of the same pieces next to each other. These are the things I enjoy thinking about.

Also plugged in the fridge. Ice cold lemonade from here on out.

Project: Rockland Avenue · Tags: , · 1 Comment

Kitchen Preview

May 11, 2009 by Jeff Erkelens

I’m a little reticent to show pics yet as it is missing some key elements, but here we go.

So, I think this is going to be the coolest kitchen we’ve done so far in terms of tones, textures and materials. I really wanted to do stainless steel base cabinets as I think they are really striking.  To soften the feel of that, we are going to install butcher block countertops, which almost gives a country feel. There will also be stainless steel backsplash that rises up to a wood shelve that goes around the entire L of the stainless cabinets.

For the kitchen island, I thought it would be cool to basically flip the colors. So, instead of grey colored base cabinet and a wood top, we went with birch veneer base cabinet and we will install a concrete countertop on top. I decided not to add any pigment to the countertop as I want to maintain its light grey color to play off the stainless steel.

We went with those large, linear ikea handles too. I worry a little bit that the look will become dated and almost become the mod equivalent of cherry cabinets and granite countertops in McMansions. So, reflecting on this, we didn’t go with the extra long handles and only put them on the island cabinets.

As far as the function of the kitchen, I went with the concrete island as I see that as the place where you make all your food and wanted something extremely durable that you could both put hot pots down on and could take some water.

One could argue that the biggest drawback to the kitchen is that there are no wall cabinets. This is because there are two large windows in the kitchen that take up most of the wall space. We did this as I love a kitchen with lots of natural light and we wanted folks to take in the awesome views of the mountains.

Now, to remedy this, we’ve done a few things. It’s a large kitchen with plenty of base cabinets for storage to help compensate. It’s hard to make out now, but we are building a large ledge shelf around the exterior wall cabinets as an extra spot to put stuff.  The ledge would make a great spot to grow herbs too.

 In addition, we’ve got a nice pantry area with french doors (we are going to build shelves at the height of the glass). And, we installed some more shelves in a utility closet just off the kitchen.

Check out the pics:

Project: Rockland Avenue · Tags: , · 1 Comment

Concrete Countertops

May 11, 2009 by Jeff Erkelens

Kitchen is starting to come together. We have a fairly large kitchen island that we decided to pour a concrete top for. It’s been a few years since we’ve gotten to do one, so it was exciting to go through the process.  Of course, I say this before having to lift it off the floor into place.

Like most people that have done a diy concrete countertop, I just  bought Fu Tu Chengs Concrete Countertops and followed the instructions. This was pretty easy as there were no sink cut outs or anything fancy.

I just love the texture and tone of finished concrete. It’s such a great material as it take the form of whatever you use to make your mold out of. We used melamine board, which is perfectly smooth, so hopefully when we flip it the top will be completely smooth to the touch.

The only thing I’ve really come up on my own is how to vibrate the concrete to get out any air pockets and voids. They sell mini portable concrete vibrating snakes, but their really expensive. So, I just use a palm sander with no sanding pad and put a plastic bag over the concrete so it doesn’t get on the sander.

I’d like to think I’ve made a lot of progress in terms of thinking about passive solar design on this house. Besides the window orientation, great insulation and large roof overhangs, we have gone with a concrete floor on the first floor as a way to capture that solar gain in the winter time, such that it can be released at night.  In the kitchen, we have a large south facing window, but the combination of the height of the window and the cabinets in the kitchen will probably prevent a lot of the sun from striking the floor.

Now, I’m not just saying this as I actually believe the concrete countertop is large enough and properly placed to actually capture heat from the sun and radiate heat.

Project: Rockland Avenue · Tags: , , , , · Leave a comment