Infinity Island

Inspired by the outstanding architectural design approach of Dan Boot of Studio DB3 in Sidney, BC, the kitchen’s layout consists of an L-shaped perimeter, a focal point island that I call the ‘Infinity Island’ and a sculptural eating bar.

 This highly artistic house frames incredible views of the Ocean and Piers Island, and the somewhat unusual materials chosen for the kitchen cabinetry have been pulled from the architectural language of the structure – concrete, glass, raw and stainless steel, copper and ‘wetwood’.

The perimeter cabinetry has been made from slabs of century old Birch, which has been reclaimed from the Great Lakes. On one end a tall appliance tower holds a stainless steel band of appliances – the Miele Speed oven, the wall oven and the coffeemaker, and on the other end is the Subzero fridge positioned.

Both tall units are being flanked by very special glass door cabinets – make sure to have a look at the frameless glass corner detail on them! This detail is an element I picked up from Dan’s architectural design as well, and the doors were certainly not easy to create.

Thanks to the committment of the builder Wilf Gorter, site foreman Walter Vanderkamp, very dedicated metal fabricators and the ingenious cabinet maker John Lavoie the crew managed to make my idea work, including floating glass shelves.

 The perimeter cabinets are topped with black Cambria Quartz, which beautifully reflects the oustanding landscape images flooding in through the huge windows.

Appliance tower with frameless glass corner endcabinet

The islands ‘theme’ has been inspired by the Infinity Pool outside, and the design of the stainless steel hood replies to the shape of a steel canopy which Dan designed for the barbecue area on the pool deck.

From this hood fan canopy the Thinkglass Pebblo Aqua glass runs down the wall, transforms into a 1 1/2” countertop and drops down to become a custom stainless steel prepsink at the end of the island.

The island carcass sits on a 8” high concrete base, and sports a row of wood drawers, with anther row of etched mirror drawers above it. The combination of those 2 materials allows me to emphasize the horizontal delineation of this island.

Concrete bar, copper cabinet door, steel I-Beam and Birch Counter

The sculptural bar is inspired by Dan’s design for the wood fireplace in the living room.

I chose to use concrete as the actual carcass of a bar cabinet (thanks for bearing with me, Wilf and Walt!), and behind the copper doors it holds liquor and bar paraphernalia. One corner of that concrete block has been spared out, and has been filled with illuminated stacked glass.

A solid slab of Birch was used for the bar counter, and it is supported by a piece of leftover I-beam from the barrel roof construction.

 As said before, my choice of design and materials was strongly influenced by Dan’s architecture, his strong sense of proportion, assymmetrie and balance.

View of Pier Island

I also wanted to invite the outside in, which is the reason behind the choice of glass counter – it looks just like a frozen piece of ocean, and with its flowing character, it’s watery texture and green hues wonderfully balances the concrete and the wood. The small amount of copper on the bar pays reference to the homes entrance door, and warms up the concrete base.

 You can find this particular project in our portfolio section under ‘Landsend’ in the Residential, Kitchen and Bathroom files.

The general idea for the blogs of THE SKY IS THE LIMIT will be to showcase current projects that are in the making, Before and After’s, discussions about new products on the market, and we might also look into technical issues of renovations in general, lighting, appliances, effects of colour and space on the human psyche…

We are open to suggestions, so feel free to write us a note about a subject of interest!

For today’s introduction I will present a renovation which lately has earned us several prestigious Renovation and Design Awards, and which is being featured in a number of magazines in 2010.

It’s a single family home, built most likely in the 1920’s, 3 houses away from the ocean, in a very nice residential neighbourhood.

This was the view from the main entrance – to the left was a space for dining, then the kitchen, and at the end of the long hall was a small home office hogging the nicest view of the garden.

To your right would be the living room, stairs, a small hallway towards the guest bath and guest bedroom, and a closet to the right of the back door.

This is (obviously) the ‘After’ shot, taken from the same vantage point.

After gutting about 75% of the main floor we reconfigured the space, but in a way that looks totally natural for a home that age.

The space on your left is what we call the ‘Games Room’ – a place to hang out and play board games in, read or write, even watch TV. It can be also used as a formal Dining Room.
The wall unit serves as a bar with storage for liquor, glasses and all the necessary acutrements for entertaining, as well as a pass through from the kitchen and display area.
Note the ceiling treatment – the light Greyish-Blue and the Limesickle Green add an almost Swedish flavour to the place!

This shot was taken looking through the pass through into the Games Room.
We wanted to create a defined entrance area without closing off the Games Room too much.

The other necessity was to create proper closet space for a family of 4, with lots of sports equipment, school stuff and all the other things we humans need to store in the entrance…

A tiled area rug design, made out of 2 colours porcelain tile, glass and granite, and the very special ‘Pebbles in Resin’ accent ( which scratches easily, so buyer beware – it totally depends where and how you want to use this tile!), defines the space nicely. A hige Thank You to Guenther for this fabulous job!

We positioned 2 large closets on either side of the living room, connected by an archway, and defined the Glames Room with posts and ponywalls, to keep the space breathing, but nicely enveloped.

If you look closely you will see that the openings, although centred onto each other, differ in width – the space between the 2 posts is actually wider than the the archway, which gives the living room more privacy, and adds dynamic to the space.

In order to avoid too much white on the cabinetry we added a beige for the paneling on the hallway units, which makes for a great combination with the light blue ceiling.

This was the old kitchen – although the large windows would usually be a nice assett to have, the view of the neighbour’s fence didn’t quite cut it …

This is the same location after the transformation.

Our plans asked for clerestory windows as an integral part of the hoodfan design – this way we get the effect of natural light, and a visual of the sky, without being bothered by whatever is going on at the neighbour’s house…

The grand hoodfan treatment ( based on the idea of a typical British Hob), is being flanked by tall units – left being the Kitchenaid fridge, and on the right the Appliance /Baking Centre, hidden behind retractable doors.

Because of the necessary depth of those units we were able to pull the work areas out more then usual, and give the homeowner a raised shelf behind the stove, which is great for having a number of spice bottles handy without giving up counter space.

The backsplash is a custom blend in blue and green crackled glass tiles from Sonoma, combined with 3 ‘pictures’ made of pewter and bronze relief tile.

This is the new informal seating area.

Remember that office space I mentioned earlier, with the nice view of the garden?
Here it is – integrated into the space the family hangs out in most of the time…

Again, we reconfigured windows – higher ones on the side of the neighbour, tall ones, that max out the available space, to look out onto the garden.

Just envision yourself lounging there on that comfy bench (storage included underneath), having the gas fireplace turned on, and watching the birds (or TV)!

The Oak table was existing, but we stained it black, for graphic impact, and to match the colour of the Add-On Island.

This was the original view from the back door towards the front door. On your right the entrance into the office, on your left you (barely) make out the closet, and then the stairs…

This is the same view now, including the wonderful family canine, who was my (and the trades’) trusted friend and helper during the reno, and a constant source of joy…(sorry, no names due to privacy concerns) – love you, C!
Great colours – don’t you think?!
Not always am I blessed with a lively and daring client like this one!
By the way, the blue is actually not quite as bright as on the photo – it’s more like a jeans blue…

The island is 14′ long – we had intensely discussed all the various design options for this long room, and the client decided on a continuous stretch of island.
In order to make this island more manageable we broke it up into 3 sections -
remember, lots of continuous counter is not necessarily a good thing, a lot of people simply start cluttering it up despite their best intentions!

The main island is 9′ long, stained maple in a jeans blue, with a black Cambria quartz counter top with brown flecks in it.
BTW – the bronze faucet is the reason why we introduced the bronze relief tile in the backsplash!
The whole area is for food prep and clean up, with a compactor and the dishwasher facing in towards the stove area.

The black portion is what I refer to as the Add-On-Island – it’s 4′ long, with the black quartz countertop dropped just by the thickness of the counter on the blue part.
It houses a 24″ Sharp microwave drawer, and features a curved door, to ease the transition between island and eating area.

Curves have been used to assist with the flow, and to introduce some dynamic to an otherwise very long and rectangular space.

The spectacular red stained, extra fat, custom made post from Old Country Woodproducts in Victoria, BC is the finishing highlight on this unusual island.

This area especially showcases the fantastic cabinet work of Martin Zemp from Zee Design in Comox, BC!

This is the desk/ message centre/ pantry part of the kitchen. It is actually wrapped around a structural post in the right front corner – but nobody could possibly guess…

That’s it for this project…

We used the following suppliers and trades:

Lighting
- Mclaren Lighting, Victoria BC
- Illuminations, Victoria BC
Appliances – Kitchenaid, through Sears
Countertops – Colonial Countertops, Victoria BC
Cabinetry – Zee Design, Comox BC
Turned posts – Old Country Woodproducts, Victoria BC
Colours - Benjamin Moore
Tiles – Decora Tile, Victoria BC

Hardware – Cantu, Victoria BC

Many thanks to the client for this wonderful project…

Happy Renovating!