Memphis, Tenn., Residence

Project Details

Project Description

2004 CHDA
Custom Kitchen / Merit Award

Whether you're standing at the kitchen island looking out or you're in the great room looking back at the kitchen, the views are great in this Modern, open-plan house. Architect Todd Walker provided his clients with a high-energy feast for the eyes both from and in the heart of their new home: the kitchen. It's the core of family life, Walker says, and the hub of his open design.

The kitchen is the command center of a plan that is angled to take advantage of harbor views from the small, urban lot and to emphasize the transparency of the house when viewed from outside. From its strategic position, the adults working in the kitchen have unimpeded visual access to the patio and porch, where their children play. Eschewing walls, Walker delineated the kitchen with a Brazilian cherry floor that contrasts with the maple used everywhere else in the house.

Though the kitchen is outfitted in simple, economical materials—birch plywood cabinets and white laminate countertops and cubby doors—it sets a whimsical yet sophisticated stage for daily life. Open cubbies and enclosed cabinets create a Cubist-like pattern on the kitchen's back wall, while eccentric cutouts that serve as pulls on the cabinet and cubby doors play off the abstract muntin pattern of the great room window. The birch pantry continues Walker's open-and-shut theme. In a surprise move, the architect set the pantry on casters to provide access to an electrical panel behind it. All in all, a “fun place to cook, eat, and be with friends,” the judges agreed.