Two Kitchens Featuring Original Wood Beam Vaulted Ceilings
Vaulted ceilings are attributes of each of these kitchens, yet the rooms have distinctly different vibes.
Photo by Michael J. Lee
Staying true to the architecture of a historic home while modernizing it for practical (and stylish) daily use is no easy feat. Designer Jill Litner Kaplan was up to the task with this Weston estate’s kitchen, incorporating stainless steel elements, custom blue crocodile leather stools, and oversize Italian mirrored pendants over the island. The beams were original to the home, and the choice to keep them was “structural as well as aesthetic,” Kaplan says. “It was a very cool intersection of the old and the new.” Though wrapping the beams was discussed (“It was a subject of great debate,” Kaplan says, laughing), they were left rustic and patinaed in contrast to the sleek, modern finishes the clients gravitated toward.
Builder
JW Construction
Interior Designer
Jill Litner Kaplan Interiors
Photo by Joyelle West
Hannah Oravec’s clients loved the idea but not the execution of the original beams that “trussed across” their early 2000s kitchen, says Oravec, the founder of Lawless Design. “They were really large and visually made [the ceiling] lower,” she adds. Removing them and adding live-edge wood beams tracing the line of the ceiling opened the room considerably and accentuated the stunning 16-foot ceilings (bonus points for framing the original arched window, which Oravec had painted black to amp up the contrast). Hanging brass globe Rejuvenation pendants bring in light without disrupting the view of the window and “help highlight the scale of the room” even further, Oravec says.
Builder
American Built Construction
Cabinetmaker
Vartanian Custom Cabinets
Interior Designer
Lawless Design
