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roomplanners SEPTEMBER 2012

love color? House Beautiful’s

Kitchen of the Year 2012

Learn to use color like the pros!

white hot!

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on the cover

The light-infused dining area inside House Beautiful Magazine's Kitchen of the Year 2012 featured white-washed rafters, a retro light pendant and weathered furniture at home indoors or out.

Tap into the power of color to transform your home, your wardrobe or even your art projects! Our seven color modules

make it easier than ever to become a color pro! Click on any module to read more about it!

This intro course is packed with practical ideas and a fresh look at color... including 7 things you might not know about the color wheel!

Learn the difference between color Lightness and color Brightness… and why each matters. You’ll make sense of color like never before.

What does color have to do with style? Learn about nine color personalities and how each can be used to create personal, distinct interiors.

See how the color pros put color to work for them! Ten tips and ten tricks cover color’s most fascinating and powerful effects.

Put what you’ve learned into practice. We look at the use of color in a dozen interiors, analyzing why some of them work, and some don’t.

A favorite pattern or object can inspire a compelling color scheme. Learn how to create color schemes from a variety of pattern types.

Neutral colors get a bad rap for being dull; but only if used as a default color! Find out which neutrals designers favor, and how to use them.

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There’s something special about white kitchens. Airy and clutter-free, they’re the obvious choice among modernists. But white adds a clean, light-infused quality to any kitchen style, from cottage and shabby chic® to simple classic designs.

So it’s no surprise that white featured heavily in House Beautiful magazine’s 2012 Kitchen of the

Year. Revealing the latest trends in kitchen design and new

products, this year’s popular “dream kitchen” was constructed in Rockefeller Plaza in the heart of midtown Manhattan for five days this summer.

Granted, most of us don’t have a kitchen the size of a

small house (this year’s kitchen, dining and sitting area

was 1,000 square feet!) But we think you’ll find plenty of great ideas here to inspire kitchen designs in a smaller space, too.

Celebrated kitchen designer, Mick De Giulio, masterminded this year’s light-infused cooking quarters… along with an interpretation of what he sees as the biggest trend in kitchen design: kitchen as the place we want to live in...

House Beautiful magazine’s Kitchen of the Year 2012 reveals that white’s popularity is far from waning.

(It also reveals the growing trend to live in our kitchens…)

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white style IN

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“Whites don’t have to match”, says De Guilio who layers white paint, white (Caesarstone) counters and white cabinets (KraftMaid).”

Sliding panels on either side of the induction stove-top revel spice shelves!

An oversized island breaks up the large space, complete with bookcase, L-shaped breakfast counter in wenge wood (Grothouse) and a home office tucked behind glass doors.

A mirrored panel below the counter houses a built-in power strip with row of plugs. Mirrored metal finishes and stainless steel add to the light, floating quality of the kitchen’s counters and cabinets.

“Every room needs a signature piece,” says De Guilio, who custom-designed the most distinctive piece in the room… a glass-door cabinet with hanging rods for pots—and a handy pull-out drawer for storing pot lids! A slightly-distressed metal interior contrasted chrome trim and a wenge wood frame.

Inspired by Scottish fisherman lamps, these nickel and glass pen-dants add an airy, casual mood.

cooking.

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At one end of the long island counter, De Guilio designed a built-in fruit bowl. The shallow, solid-wood bowl is elegant… and convenient!

Leather-topped stools with nailhead trim (Hickory Chair) add a warm, traditional ele-ment. The dark chair legs and dark leather are in keeping with the kitchen’s rich wenge wood finish.

A 45” sink, custom-designed by De Giulio (for Kallista), features a reversible sliding cutting board with colander and knife-sharpening rod. The over-sized sink basin features a corner drain and an increased pitch for faster draining.

“I like to sculpt a space, rather than to just place objects.” Mick De Guilio, kitchen designer

“I love opposites… and the dynamic they create,” says De Giulio. His choice of dark wood counters on floors to contrast white counters and cabinets add drama and warmth… and also create “a more informal feel.”

Islands are good for putting things away—and for hiding

large things, says De Guilo.

It's one of the most beautiful tiles I’ve ever seen,” says De Guilio about the hand-made Ann Sacks Davlin tile he installed on the back-splash wall. The tile’s luminescence was achieved with white goldleaf pressed between two pieces of glass. The blue sink adds a shot of color, albeit relaxing and celestial!

breakfast.

Floating glass shelves are held in place with wafer-thin stainless steel structure. ‘Thin edges’ are repeated throughout the kitchen, adding the overall ‘lightness’.

A really clever kitchen solution is De Guilio’s appliance garage. An extra-deep counter-top allows for a long tiled sliding panel to conceal counter-top appliances. The walls, he says, can even be motorized!

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Perfect for mornings, a well-equipped countertop is designed to get you on your way...

De Guilio’s “La Mattina” (the kitchen), a separate counter with room for a blender, toaster, coffeemaker and more, makes a quick breakfast easy and con-venient.

storage. As if tempered glass shelves

behind glass doors aren’t light and transparent enough, each

cabinet features built-in lighting, adding a china cabinet feel to

pantry shelves.

“Attention to details makes the difference,” says De Guilio. “They create a custom feel.” An antiqued mirrored backsplash reflects the metal countertop, adding even more light to this small space.

The pantry featured a recessed ceiling with blue Venetian plaster and gilded iron light fixtures… carrying the celestial blue color from the La Mattina breakfast counter into this neighboring room.

Behind the kitchen, but hardly in the shadows, the butler’s pantry is awash with storage… and light!

Celestial blue appears one more time… in a sparkling sink (by Jonathan Adler for Kohler) surrounded by hammered metal countertops. The color echoes the ceiling above.

Behind the kitchen, hid the charming butler’s pantry. Again, a marvelous melding of materials yielded a room full of visual interest.

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GENTLEMAN’S STUDY by:

David Scott http://davidscottinteriors.com/

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sitting. A trio of stone planters reinforce the strong horizontal line of the mantel... balanced by the flat-panel screen on the other side. The fireplace wall was another “Scottish fisherman” inspiration, executed with the linear Palladium Noir tiles by Ann Sacks. The wall was sculpted into several layers and depths avoiding a flat mass of stone.

Stacked tile contrast a thin, polished metal mantel, pulling in ele-ments of the kitchen.

“All of your living can be in your kitchen space,” says De Guilio, who designed a comfortable sitting area adjoining the cooking and dining spaces.

The biggest difference in today’s kitchens? “People are living in them,” says De Guilio.

A fireplace, flat-screen TV and casual furniture in natural linen and raw wood add to the cas-ual, but sophisticated styling. Two armless chairs and an armless slip-covered loveseat feel relaxed and easy-going.

“Light” is one of the most important elements of a kitchen, according to De Guilio, who designed whitewashed rafters and a skylight to infuse this room with natural daylight. The wide rafter planks and bare lighting fixtures add a raw and rustic feel to this or-ganic kitchen, contrasting the polished and shiny surfaces seen elsewhere.

eating.

Reclaimed wood and wicker chairs add cottage-style warmth in the dining area.

A linen table runner and placemats, a white pitcher with simple white flowers add a sophisticated, but rural, flavor.

A round iron wheel chandelier (Ralph Lauren) “centers the space,” says De Guilio. Its industrial quality contrasts the refined stone and polished metals seen elsewhere.

The distressed wood table looks like a rustic antique. Together with the wicker chairs (Frontgate), it brings an outdoor quality indoors.

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