The Portland Symphony Orchestra's 12th Annual ShowHouse
REMARKABLE - NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2007
By Joshua Bodwell
Photography Darren Setlow
Kitchen
Tracy Davis
Urban Dwellings
Cheryl Cuddy and Renee Tringali
New England Cabinetry
Debbie Kingry
Foreside Design
Powder Room
Kim Connell
Coastal Maine Interiors
Dining Room
Penelope Daborn
Penelope Dabor Ltd.
Kitchen
Kitchens are truly the heart of a home. Given the importance and centrality of these rooms, perhaps it wasn’t excessive that four designers each put their touch on the new Oakley estate kitchen: Tracy Davis of Urban Dwellings, Debbie Kingry of Foreside Design, and New England Cabinetry’s Cheryl Cuddy and Renee Tringali. “The kitchen is the focal point,” says Kingry. “And great kitchens often equal great homes.”
In utter contradiction to the old adage that “too many cooks in the kitchen can spoil the soup,” the team of designers created a room that is not only beautiful and stunningly sleek, but exceedingly practical for a modern family. Things got rolling from Davis’s sketches of the cabinetry and counters. “With this project, we were the builders of the ‘hardscape,’” says New England Cabinetry’s Cuddy, “and Debbie was the artist of the ‘softscape.’” All told, New England Cabinetry contributed to nine of the rooms in the ShowHouse.
In addition to the long-countered “working” side of the room—which succeeds in being both spacious and chef-friendly thanks to Urban Dwelling’s thoughtful floor scheme—major structural renovations to the kitchen’s “hardscape” created room for a great deal of additional living space. A comfortable sitting area (complete with a large new fireplace, hearth, and flat-screen television) with built-in bookcases and a small hideaway desk was added, as well as a corner-wrapping butler’s pantry. “I wanted the space to feel sophisticated,” says Kingry, who oversaw the kitchen’s finer points, “yet still be a comfortable place for hanging out.” The room’s abundant windows fill it with light, and a set of French doors open onto the home’s back patio.
The creamy Roman Column paint by Sherwin-Williams gives the kitchen a warm base, but it’s the finer details that make the room glow. The classic leaded glass used in the cherry-trimmed cabinetry speaks to the home’s vintage, as do the antiquated-finish absolute black granite counters and the antique pewter hardware. The rich blue accents throughout the room imbue it with a flavor that is equal parts coastal New England and country French. “The family is never going to want to leave this kitchen!” Kingry says enthusiastically.
Powder Room
Even though Kim Connell of Coastal Maine Interiors in Yarmouth tackled one of the house’s smallest rooms, it’s almost certainly going to be one of its most visited. Neatly tucked beneath the main staircase, Connell has transformed the tiny powder room into an alluring space.
Connell says the estate’s vintage encouraged her to add a “touch of elegance” to the powder room. While she didn’t dare add an area rug for fear that someone might trip while stepping down into the room, Connell did wrap the sink in a large, flowing skirt that puddles on the floor beneath. “I wanted to add some drama and texture,” she says.
A member of the Window Coverings Association of America, Connell crafted treatments for the room’s small window herself—delicate shutters with inserts made from the same fabric used around the sink. With the new shutters as her inspiration, she also created a magazine rack from a large antique shutter.
Dining Room
You always have to start somewhere,” Penelope Daborn says pragmatically. When it came to designing the dining room, Daborn started with the focal point of any room where people come together to eat and imbibe: the table.
Daborn selected a cherry-wood Georgetown Double Pedestal Extension table from Thos. Moser, and it glows at the center of her design’s warm palette. Daborn says she decided to take the more precarious approach of introducing contemporary elements, such as the table, into the old estate. “I wanted the dining room to feel a teeny bit edgy,” she admits. The table, with its classically proportioned oval shape and sweeping legs, fits perfectly into the room’s mix of furnishings and items from several periods and styles—a common characteristic of Daborn designs. “I like to combine old and new,” she says. “Houses feel warmer when they’re a bit mixed up—like life.”
Around the table, the shell-like backs of Moser’s Aria chairs echo the capice-shell chandelier above. Beneath the table, a bold hand-painted floor mat by Mary Lynn Engel bristles with Cubist energy. Beyond the table, Daborn’s treatment of the large windows overlooking the estate’s lush backyard is also a blend of traditional and modern: crisp, un-pleated curtains made from the unusual pairing of silk and cotton.
But all of these dramatic elements aside, the walls are what first capture the eye and set the tone. The color Daborn used, Concord Buff from Sherwin-Williams, infuses the room with so much light it feels as though the table might float away. “I knew I wanted warm,” Daborn says with a smile.
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