Rick and Sheri Smith happily entertain at least some of their extended family nearly every weekend, and always on the major holidays, in their Westerville home.
These get-togethers can be labor-intensive affairs, given that the extended family is five grown children, six grandchildren with the seventh due in early March, three living parents, and several brothers and sisters and their families, most of whom live in central Ohio.
That meant frequently dealing with the reality that everybody gathers in the kitchen, even when there’s work to be done preparing meals. And being able to chat while working, even if the visitors were in the adjoining family room, wasn’t all that easy – it was often impossible, the Smiths found.
The solution: Tear out the dated kitchen in their Windemere home, where they had lived for 10 years, and make it user-, family- and guest-friendly.
Rick says Sheri had tinkered with sketching plans but couldn’t come up with one that would work.
“I said, ‘Let’s go to a professional designer,’” he says. “We went to Dave Fox, the only one we went to” after researching remodeling builders.
The Smiths outlined their wants and wishes to Gary Demos and Tonya Rutledge, president and interior designer, respectively, of the design and remodeling company.
“Tonya and Sheri hit it off right away,” Rick says.
As their first meeting closed, Sheri looked over several items – cabinet doors, knobs, tiles – and showed the ones she liked to Rutledge.
“I wanted something timeless, not modern, not traditional,” Sheri says.
Rutledge did a great job putting everything together, Sheri says, from the dark wood cabinets, lighter wood floor and stainless appliances to other amenities, such as improved lighting that includes pendants.
To seat more people, especially during meal preparation, the company designed a counter-height island that extends into a windowed area that had been a nook with a dinette table. Another goal was to allow the Smiths to chat with comfortably seated guests as they work.
While the top is counter height, an attached dining shelf at chair height allows for nine to be seated in upholstered chairs. On one end is a drop-in cooking top with induction venting. Quartz countertops are used throughout.
The Smiths wanted the chair seating around the island for the convenience of their parents, all of whom are in their 80s and would be uncomfortable on stools.
A frequent problem was visitors needing access to a coffee pot or some other refreshment while Sheri worked around a smaller island that was closer to cabinet counters and appliances, she says.
“I enjoy them being here, but not underfoot,” she says.
A solution – besides more space between the island and countertops – is a beverage center near the family room entrance, which doesn’t get in the cook’s way. The center, suggested by Rutledge, has a refrigerator for various items, a coffee pot with its own water line so it’s always ready to brew and storage for cups, wine glasses, napkins and the like.
Two small closets were removed to make way for the center, while new, taller kitchen cabinets provide more storage. Rutledge notes that the laundry room was reconfigured to make room for a pantry cabinet, too.
A convection microwave and oven are built in and replace a standard range, creating more counter space for food preparation.
To better incorporate the kitchen with the family room, a standard door opening was doubled in size, a step Demos says required adding a specially built beam to carry the upper floor load, the only major structural work that had to be done. The larger opening allows more togetherness among visitors seated in the two rooms – and for Sheri while cooking.
Besides weekend gatherings and occasional weeklong family visits, the Smiths have hosted large family gatherings the past two Thanksgivings, Christmases and Easters, as well as for other occasions, such as football games. They had a total of 18 last Thanksgiving, says Rick, explaining that some were seated in an adjoining dining room that will seat 10 to 12.
The new cooking arrangement was overwhelming the first time they cooked for a group, Sheri says, but they quickly became accustomed to it.
“It’s very user-friendly,” she says. “We’ve really broken it in.”
Duane St. Clair is a contributing editor. Feedback welcome at gbishop@cityscenemediagroup.com.
