San Rafael Pt 1

The house is a charming 1950s ranch with unobstructed hilltop views in the coveted San Rafael neighborhood of Los Angeles. The location was perfect, but the couple knew it was sorely in need of an overhaul to accommodate their growing family (3 kids under 7 with one on the way, a puppy, and 2 cats). While Shialice Spatial Design was hired to do a more extensive rebuild to add square footage, their most pressing concern was the kitchen.

At the time of move-in, the kitchen lacked important storage, with (oddly) no upper cabinets or shelves, and even more wall space lost to poorly placed doors and windows. It was closed off with a partial wall behind which the washer/dryer was awkwardly shoved, eating up valuable square footage. The wife and kids spent a lot of quality time baking together, so a functional and enjoyable kitchen was high priority.

Having worked with Shialice Spatial Design on two homes in the past, the clients trusted her to provide a strategic reimagining of the kitchen as a first step to personalizing the house for their family. Alice hit the ground running to reshape this space, with baby #4's due date as a clear deadline for completion of work: the awkward peninsula and partial wall was removed and the washer/dryer was built a new home by the bedrooms. By repositioning key windows and doors, additional wallspace was reclaimed making room for floor to ceiling cabinetry that doubled their storage and offered a much more luxurious and spacious floor plan, including large stacking doors for an inside-outside feel by the dining area.

Alice understood the client's love of color and she proposed a blue and oxblood scheme that gave a nod to the bright colorful kitchens of when this house was built, but with a more gentle hand and subdued tones. Mixed metals added subtle dimension with chrome (the husband's personal request as a tribute to his chrome saxiphone) and unlacquered brass throughout.