A Dual-Duty Dream Kitchen

When Carolyn and Michael Spellman were planning their New Castle home, Carolyn had two goals for the kitchen: a bar area where guests could gather apart from the food preparation area and a second kitchen island. “It’s where all the action takes place,” she says. “In our first house, we had a small kitchen island and everyone stood around it while I was trying to cook, which makes it a challenge to navigate around your guests.”

The solution was two kitchen islands: a larger space for food prep, close to the stove, ovens and dishwasher; and a second island in an area where guests could mingle over their beverages, close to a bar area. Linda Cloutier, of Linda Cloutier Kitchens and Baths in Greenland, worked closely with Don Cook of D.D. Cook Builders, Inc., in Greenland, to make the Spellmans’ dream kitchen a reality.

Cloutier recommended creating a larger entrance to the kitchen from an adjacent hall, creating more space and providing a visual separation between cooking and entertainment spaces. “They wanted a big kitchen,” Cook says. “The space is twenty feet by thirty-two feet, and goes from front to back of the house. The windows in the room face the front and back yards, and you can easily go in and out.” The kitchen also opens directly onto a sunny family room.

The larger island, topped in two-inch-thick quartzite, contains the main sink. It’s directly across from the cooktop, and near the dishwasher and a set of double wall ovens (a microwave and warming drawer is to the left of the ovens). A full-size refrigerator is hidden behind custom cabinetry to the right of the cooktop; to the left is a full-size freezer and a large walk-in pantry. The second island offers easy access to the wine refrigerator and two additional beverage refrigerators. Lining one wall, the bar area features marble countertops and custom-built, backlit cabinets as well as a second sink. In the original design plans for the house, the bar area was originally meant to be a formal dining room. “So few people use separate, formal dining rooms anymore,” Carolyn says. “I said, ‘Why don’t we open this space up to be a bigger kitchen?’”

The Spellmans’ interior designer, Anthony Catalfano of Anthony Catalfano Interiors, Inc., in Boston, created a calming color scheme that unifies the kitchen with adjacent living spaces. “Because the kitchen opens up to the family room, I wanted it to have a clean, cohesive look, and incorporated shades of gray and taupe, with blue accents, that echo other areas of the house,” he says.

The Spellmans were delighted with their design/build team’s collaboration as well as their new kitchen. Cloutier, too, is happy with how the project evolved. “The Spellmans’ home is very welcoming and beautiful,” she says. “The kitchen reflects their love of entertaining. It’s definitely one of my favorite kitchens.”