Kitchen Conjuring
A neighbor was admiring our new front door and asked me where I ordered it. “I drew it,” I told her, not the answer she was expecting, I’m sure. I thanked her for the compliment and thought of all the ideas we had drawn up before landing on this one. Whether we’re imagining a new front door or a whole-home renovation, it always starts with a sketch. it’s a process that is second nature to me and my design team. We plan. We draw. We conjure.
Our Senior Designer, Jon Andersen-Miller, is a masterful sketcher and a thoughtful designer with a remarkable ability to visualize a space, how it will be used, and what matters to the owners. We recently collaborated on this multi-use kitchen—part of a home renovation in Princeton—and as we planned it Jon took pencil to paper.
“The clients were Manhattanites who had bought this house to be near his parents during COVID,” said Jon. “They were coming from the constraints of city living and cramped kitchens, so we wanted the kitchen to have a luxury of spaciousness. We imagined the flow of the space, the horizonal aspect and also the vertical—what’s happening above and below the counter. To create that luxury of space there are no overhead cabinets from the sink to the cooking area, just an unencumbered view of the window. And there’s no such thing as an island that’s too big.”
When we collaborate on a project, Jon and I tend to complement each other’s ideas. “The fun part is thinking about the materiality of the surfaces,” says Jon. “I saw this kitchen with golden white oak cabinetry and Katie came up with this semi-translucent quartzite countertop which adds that touch of magic. The counter is something you’re seeing and touching all the time so it’s where you want some depth and sparkle.”
As we were drawing the design for this kitchen, we figured out where each kitchen tool and dish would be stored. “Katie and I are both big planners and are always thinking about the small details—right down to what the client will see when they open the drawers.”
A new front door, a new kitchen, a full-scale renovation. Every project starts with the client’s wishes and we conjure those wishes with pencil and paper. It’s that process of drawing and conjuring together that produces our best work.
Photography by Pam Connolly
