Make a Home Your Own
I’ve seen scores of kitchens and bathrooms over the years as I search for houses to feature in magazines like this one. These two rooms intrigue me more than any of the others. I love to see how designers and builders interpret their clients’ needs and wants to give them both beauty and functionality in a single space, which isn’t always an easy dance
to choreograph.
Janice Randall Rohlf
Editor
And the choices! Strolling through a tile or hardware showroom (which today are more like museums than retail outlets) is sure to make your head spin — in a good way. This issue features a range of kitchen and bathroom styles and the professionals who work diligently with their clients to deliver rooms that are both easy on the eye and support their way of living. If you’ve been thinking about making a change in your kitchen or bathroom, we hope these spaces will inspire you to jumpstart the process.
“My job is to say, let’s get excited about your house,” says designer Kacey Graham of Boehm Graham Interior Design. For one family in Bedford, her infectious enthusiasm prompted a total reinvention of their first-floor living areas, all of which radiate out from the kitchen. (Graham did the upstairs rooms, too.) The result is a cohesive design where each room riffs on a set of unifying colors and materials so that the spaces all relate to one another without losing their own distinct personalities (page 66).
Over on Lake Sunapee, a decidedly Scandinavian aesthetic underpins the clean lines of a modern house designed with hygge-like comfort in mind (page 76). For example, by setting the kitchen island at a standard table height instead of bar height, a more inviting social space was created. “It was designed to draw people around it,” says the architect, Marcus Gleysteen. What better incentive to gather with family and friends?
Reaching out to the community is a large part of Jan Dean’s role as first lady of the University of New Hampshire, where her husband, Jim Dean, is president. Among her varied responsibilities, Jan is called upon to host and entertain at home and on campus. At her get-togethers, guests are often treated to meals rooted in different regions of the U.S. where she has lived, from Pennsylvania and North Carolina to New England, and she shares some of these recipes with us, starting on page 28.
We’re on the verge of autumn, when cooler air will nudge us indoors. Now is the time to celebrate your home and, perhaps, reward it with a makeover.
