An Elegant Display...Finished

I am so excited to share these photos of our front display. We are more than pleased with the way it turned out.

This classic design features inset cabinetry from Custom Wood Products, Walker Zanger porcelain tile from Stafford Tile, an ivory CornuFe range, a masterpiece tin hood from Metallo Arts, a black walnut countertop on the island from Grothouse Lumber, Crema Marfil Marble, and of course the chandelier from the castle (mentioned here).

This is such a New Orleans style kitchen. The vintage finish on the island gives it the old yet worn feel and the eggshell finish on the other cabinets accomplish the classic look that we were going after.

The hanging gardens pattern hood from Metallo works perfectly with the chandelier.

I will be posting photos of our other displays soon. We are awaiting some pewter tops from Metallo Arts, a vetrazzo recycled glass top, and a few appliances for one of our displays that is sure to knock your socks off!

The Epitome of Faded Grandeur

Today, while searching for some inspiration, I stumbled upon this website. I assume it is for people looking for fabulous movie locations (most of which seem to be in Europe). I was looking for Victorian era kitchens and was pleased to find many wonderful examples. This abandoned castle took my breath away.



I will post some better examples of Victorian Era kitchens, but this image definitely needs to be discussed. The back left part of the picture shows the built in cabinetry and the right side shows the stove. I now see where Clive Christian got his inspiration...period kitchens. I am so in love!

This appears to be another kitchen in the castle. I could stare at these photos for hours.
The stove again, in the main kitchen. Is that subway tile I see?

Beautiful Details!
If you look closely, you can see the delicate mural that adorns the walls in this room.


I love the shade of blue in this room.
This is my favorite room. I guess it was the library or a ballroom. If I had lived here it would have definitely been used as my ballroom.
I have had a love for old abandoned homes for years. My mother had this book about anti-bellum homes in Louisiana that I used to pour through when I was a child. I never grew tired of those images. I have so many questions for this castle. Who lived here? Why did they abandon it? There must be someone out there who would want to live here. It is kind of sad that no one gets to live amongst these beautiful rooms. I am so happy that I found this website and this castle. I will visit these pictures often for inspiration and post some of the beautiful Victorian kitchens that I found real soon!

Mahogany and All of it's Splendor...

I have been a very bad blogger lately. With the holidays, our upcoming move, and work consuming most of my time, I just have not been able to spare a few minutes to focus on my blogs--until now!
Today, I had the chance to visit a kitchen that I completed last year. I had not seen the lovely tile back splash yet and was eager to take pictures. Boy do I wish I had before pictures of this space. It was one unsightly room! We removed a large walk in pantry, which was where the range and cabinets on the far wall (in the above picture) are now. It also consisted of laminate countertops, a peninsula that took up far too much space, and very out-dated appliances.
My client's chose these beautiful African Mahogany Inset cabinets. The upper cabinets are a custom 4 feet tall. Can you imagine having all of that storage?
This is my favorite thing about the kitchen-- A custom Armoire/Refrigerator/ Pantry. The center cabinet is the refrigerator and the pantries are on either side. This kitchen will always be special to me. My client's encouraged me to use my imagination---my favorite type to work with (and they are also related to one of my co-workers.)

A few things that I would have done differently:

1. I would have gone with a wood hood or a beautiful hood from Metallo Arts (too bad that I did not know about them then.)

2. I would have added an island in the center of the kitchen.

Overall, I am very proud of this kitchen!

An Old Beauty on the Avenue

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to measure the kitchen of a very beautiful home on St. Charles Avenue. The home was built in the early 1900s and has all of the fabulous details that one would expect—12 foot cove ceilings, beautiful moldings and casings, a large center hallway, fireplaces, gorgeous stairways, an original marble sink with marble turned legs, and built in hutches with fluting and egg & dart molding. Though the rest of the home is stunning, the kitchen is definitely in need of a renovation. It currently has laminate floors and countertops and a not so functional layout. There will be obstacles of course—three 8 foot tall windows that fall 28” from the floor and three doors that will not be moved. My favorite thing about the kitchen in its current state is the beautiful tin ceiling that is painted a solid color. I will suggest a decorative finish that will bring out all of the detail in the tin, but at the same time work with the colors in the new layout. I am so excited about this project. The owners are very nice people and want to retain the historic features of the house and implement them into the new kitchen design. I love working with clients that have an appreciation for the era that there home was built in. There are so many people that would rather tear down an old home than deal with all of its quirks and issues. I really do respect people that take on such projects and long for the day when I too will be able to restore an old beauty. As for the kitchen, I have been thinking about all of the possibilities pretty much non-stop since I left the house and cannot wait to finish my designs for the space.

Showroom Update

I am beginning to become very eager for the completion of our new showroom on Magazine Street. We have another month and a half before our last display comes in and then a few weeks more for pewter tops and tile. There has been so much thought put into each display and every aspect of this showroom, for that matter. I am pretty sure we spent about a month just on the design/floorplan of EACH display. Why??? I wanted to show people how creative you really can be in kitchen design, how to think outside of the box, and that kitchen design is not just about putting boxes on the wall and floor. We researched and acquired the most unique and exquisite products to carry and I feel we have done a wonderful job at expressing our design capabilities. I truly believe that Artisan Kitchen & Bath will be one of the most unique showrooms around. Now I just have to patiently wait for the next two months to slowly stroll by, but in the end it will have all been worth the time and energy.

note: Photo is of an unfinished display. We will be getting our marble and Walker Zanger tile in the next few weeks.
Photo by: Jimmy Clay

The Doll House

The Doll House is a house in the French Quarter that I had the chance to work on a year ago. I recently posted on The Four Leaf Clover a few details and pictures about this wonderful little piece of history. Last Thursday the PRC (Preservation Resource Center of New Orleans) held an event at The Doll House-- as they do each month for select historic homes that are in the middle of a renovation.
The owners opted to leave the walls, fireplaces, and doors of this 1810 home in place, which allowed for a rather choppy kitchen design. The kitchen had a total of 5 doors and a large fireplace that I had to work around. I was actually happy that my client's chose to keep the existing layout. From day one, my client made it clear that she loved a furniture look, wanted stainless steel appliances, and wanted a large island with seating and open storage. I was thrilled when she found 3 beautiful antique hutches at a local urban salvage center. My job was to come up with an island that would house a 3 foot wide Wolf range, a dishwasher, and a sink. After doing several drawings, I came up with the perfect island! The pictures of the room are not the best--the space is so small and I was trying to snap shots around people moving in and out. The picture above shows the Wolf range with a 3"x 3" post on either side with open shelving. The dishwasher is beyond the shelving and the sink is on the opposite side of the range.

I love the antique pieces that she rescued and also the wood beams on the ceiling.

Here is the opposite side from the dishwasher. The white carrara marble overhangs about 9" and offers a place for seating. I love the open storage. (I am sure those shelves will be filled when they actually move in.)
Viewing the room from the copper sink, you can see the fireplace and another furniture piece in the background.
This is my favorite furniture piece. I think it would look nice with some bead board attached to the back too, maybe painted in a contrasting color.
Very old brick floors and a shiny new Wolf range--this space definitely mixes modern elements with the old.


This is the third antique piece which is obviously used as the bar. If you will, notice the wood beams in the mirror. My clients and I are very pleased with the end result in this kitchen. I have never been fond of just putting boxes on the walls and floor, and am certainly glad that that is not the case here. I am so happy for my clients. It would be a dream to have the opportunity to live in the French Quarter, especially in a place as beautiful as The Doll House.

A Classic Bathroom with a Modern Flair

I found this bathroom at Southernliving.com several months ago and cannot get enough of it. I love it. The traditional cream colored cabinets work perfectly with the stained concrete floor and coppery colored marble.
The stainless edge around the marble countertops adds a modern flair. I think that my favorite thing about this bathroom has to be the criss-cross doors with the mirror inserts. I love how the designer repeated this theme above the mirrors on the wall. It really ties the design together.

The built in linen cabinets are so wonderful. The tall stack of drawers and the open shelving in the middle give the design a furniture feel---and what a perfect place for a television. Can you imagine having this much storage in a bathroom?

The exposed brick walls around the tub are another feature that I am crazy about. The window panes behind the tub are yet another genious way to mix modern with traditional. What a lovely bathroom. I would die to be able to unwind in a space like this.

Photos by Laurey W. Glenn

The article can be found here.