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Epicurian Sanctuary
SUMMARY: When we arrived, this house looked like it got drunk the night before and stayed up too late. Its cottage charm was masked by a tired color scheme, spindly columns, and a crumbling porch that thrust the home owners straight down to a busy street. Mikiten Architecture restored the house’s dignity by turning the entrance sequence to shelter the front door from the busy street. Now instead of the clatter of the street confronting the house, the porch fed the house a peaceful energy. Strength and character were added by doubling up square columns to the porch roof, and cladding the base in stone. What a difference materials and sequence can make. Some people call it good Feng Shui. We call it good architectural design. The clients, who had been suffering for years with the house’s original kitchen, needed a grown-up kitchen and a connection to the rear garden. The couple are masterrful chefs and gardeners, and have frequent dinner parties. They needed more space, efficient layout for multiple cooks, and a stronger connection to their lush back yard. Our solution shows that you don’t have to have a lot of space or money to have a gorgeous room and a high-end cooking experience. Using common materials (plastic laminate countertops, even!) this kitchen achieves class through the details, such as the tall backsplash, the small vaults at the entrance to the kitchen and at the breakfast room ceiling, and the row of continuous windows on the south wall. The added new breakfast room feels like a greenhouse set intimately in the back yard. With it’s vaulted ceiling, an idea borrowed from the existing front porch, the new space is dramatic, open, and friendly - the culminating experience of this charming Berkeley Hills home. Custom colors designed in-house completed the look, inside and out, making this house a neighborhood show-stopper. Awards and Publications: 2002 HUD/AIA Alan J. Rothman Award Project Data: Project Team |
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