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Project Case Study { Spotlight on creative, problem-solving kitchens and baths } By Kim Berndtson Designer Erica Westeroth creates an eat-in kitchen with architectural details and an openness that reqects her clients��� appreciation of art. Toronto ��� At the minimum, a kitchen serves as a place for cooking and food preparation. However, when Erica Westeroth, CKD, ARIDO, XTC Design Inc. in Toronto, Canada, was commissioned to renovate a 6,500-square-foot home for clients in the greater Toronto area ��� including the eat-in kitchen, solarium, family room, dining room/ foyer, powder room and laundry room ��� the homeowners wanted something more for the space where meals are created and family members gather. ���The family has an appreciation for art and design,��� notes Westeroth, who has been a partner at XTC Design for almost 20 years. ���The homeowner appreciates the thought, work and creativity that go into them. She wanted more than a kitchen���she wanted an art form as well.��� GREATER CONTINUITY The home, built in the early 1990s in a hillside community with large lots and luxurious boulevards, was uninspiring and mundane. The eat-in kitchen, although large in footprint, was functionally ine���cient and poorly laid out. An island provided ample counter space, but was isolated and rarely used. While the homeowners wanted a new kitchen with interesting architectural details, they also wanted it open to the adjacent family room so everyone could do their own thing in their own space, yet not be isolated from one another. Westeroth began the redesign process with several physical changes, including the elimination of a small pantry. Working with SCAPETECH Contracting, also in Toronto, Westeroth changed the location of several interior doorways as well as the dining room to eliminate corner cabinetry and create a more functional kitchen layout. The orientation of the island was altered to face natural light. Its new rectangular shape was splayed to create interest as well as additional perimeter work surface, and to visually draw people into the kitchen. A lowered table was fused to the island to provide a place for quick meals and snacks. A curved so���t, with dimmable lights, was added above the kitchen table to create a more intimate informal eating area. ���There are always concerns and challenges when you open up a space and take down walls,��� says Westeroth, noting that the opening between the kitchen and family room was widened and architecturally enhanced with symmetrical cut-out niches/pedestals that beckon entry into the sitting area and serve as a place to display art. ���We were left with a big room. One challenge was to create continuity between the two principle rooms: the kitchen and family room. We wanted to make them cohesive, to make them work together and have the same feel, yet have interesting details with a cozy, warm feeling.��� To accomplish those goals, 24 | Kitchen & Bath Design News January 2013 Westeroth focused on materials and finishes such as natural Jatoba qooring that runs through both rooms. Its burgundy/deep red/orange hue set the tone for the space, which focuses on Eastern tranquility with natural, soothing materials in a modern kitchen with clean lines. Linear ribbon mahogany cabinetry from Ne��� Kitchens, with both matte and high-gloss pnishes, serves as storage in the kitchen, while asymmetrical cabinets and a beveled ���picture frame��� fa- cade, hand-crafted by a local carpenter, surround the fire feature in the family room. The window opening between the kitchen and solarium was crafted from the same mahogany and was designed by XTC Design with an Eastern motif of open grillwork that echoes the square motif of the pre feature.