A Closer Look
One of the biggest surprises of my career, and possibly my life, has been the reaction to our kitchen in Ross, California..
I mean… looking at it now, I know… it looks good. But the truth of the matter is, our kitchen was never intended to be something spectacular or noteworthy… it was really just supposed to be a regular, run of the mill, well designed space!
This story is one of my favorites, because it is a perfect example of ‘design pivot’.
There are countless moments on design projects where ‘something’ is just not going to be able to work out the way that you had wanted it to… and now, you must figure out a ‘new’ way to interpret the space and create something completely different from where you started…. The amazing thing, that I have learned, is that pretty much 10 times out of 10, that ‘pivot’, that ‘challenge’, is what makes design ‘magic’…
Cue, the Wellington Avenue kitchen.
The truth is, the kitchen was suppose to be a single story ‘regular’ kitchen. When we went through the planning process in the Town of Ross, we were granted the ability to build the two-story structure of the kitchen addition, but we were refused the second story en suite bedroom that had been planned for the space above. It was the additional 300 sq ft of living space (FAR) that the Town objected to….
I was mad about it… to say the least.
But, now here we were, with a 15’x20’x28’ space… and the need for pivot was REAL. How to make a beautiful kitchen out of what I was convinced was a space that would feel like an elevator shaft!!
I sharpened the pencil and this is where we landed….
House Beautiful: December/January 2018
Press had really never been my thing… and as a testament to that, if you care to look back, you will see very little about me or my projects before 2018. Not to say I hadn’t been grinding away in this field already for a good decade plus, before that, it’s just… I was of the mindset that ‘it was about the craft’… I really didn’t see the need.
Perhaps, yes, incredibly shortsighted, but nonetheless that mindset came from the fact that I had been a practicing Interior Designer since (gasp) BEFORE THE INTERNET.
This shot was modeled after the Instagram shot that caught the editors eye… a photo I took the first Thanksgiving after we moved in… I had snuck up to the second floor balcony and caught the most beautiful moment of my family, so many of them, working quietly together to create out Thanksgiving meal.
Fun fact: my dad and I took the ‘champagne position’ (naturally) and as the shoot wore on we wound up delightfully ‘ahead’ of the rest of the group! Good times.
My mom was stationed at the stove… because thats where she was in the Instagram shot. She became completely betwixt at the idea that she was just supposed to ‘pose’ like she was cooking something on the stove…
She made Delia fetch her a box of noodles and a lemon, so she could ‘get in to character’ (LOL) and she cooked those noodles until they were nothing but mush. This photo is nothing if not authentic!!
I started my career, when orders were FAXED to vendors… and to place a fabric reserve or order with a showroom, you needed to pick up the (landline phone) and CALL your sales person.
Now… everyone calm down, I’m not 100 years old… its just that, the wave of ‘social media awareness and participation’ happened FAST… and as a pretty old school gal, again, I just didn’t see the need…
I had never ‘not had work’ since opening up shop in 2001, when I was 22 and everyone I worked with was a ‘friend of a friend’ or someones divorced ex brother in law… and in a way, I have always liked keeping it ‘close to the vest’. The work I did was always super personal… and so, the idea of opening up to a broader audience didn’t really feel true to who I was, or what I did….
Photo: Erin Kunkle, House Beautiful, Nov/Dec 2018
Naturally, as time wore on… this point of view was challenged. But again, who in their right mind wants to open themselves up to critics if they don’t have to??? This was my reasoning. LOL
A dear friend, and public relations guru, Emily Reaman, was CONSTANTLY on me about this… when she saw the post, of my family cooking from that first Thanksgiving, SHE was the one who decided my time on the sideline was over, and she sent it with a note to Sophie Donelson, the EIC of House Beautiful at the time.
Photo: Erin Kunkle, House Beautiful, Nov/Dec 2018
House Beautiful decided to run it, and the issue was out… HB posted the ‘Hero Shot’ of the kitchen on to their Instagram account… and people reacted. Wow, did they react!!!
I remember looking at the post, and as my own toughest critic, I thought… ‘oh shoot, i would never put forks in a julep cup like that… is this what I want people to see from me???’ OMG LOL… get a grip.
Photo: Erin Kunkle, House Beautiful Nov/Dec 2018
The Holiday photo brought people joy and inspiration, and the flood of questions and compliments and gratitude for the inspiration were overwhelming, in the best possible way….
I realized, to sustain in this new and ever changing space… we were going to have to share… and in the end, is that really so bad? Celebrating the ‘final product’ of years of hard work and artistry with a community so engaged in seeing beautiful things?
California Homes: Nov/December 2018; Photo: R. Brad Knipstein
And so, design pivots are a fact of life… I’ve learned that much like those pivots in life, you just have to re-frame your perspective and make the best of it… usually, you wind up in a much better place for it anyway!
photo: Aaron Leitz
Here, our ‘Finished Photo’ of the Wellington kitchen, is the best example of turning a ‘not great’ planning mandate, into a fabulous opportunity to create something unexpected and wonderful!