FAIRFAX COUNTY TIMES

HOMESHOMES Friday - Sunday, JUNE 9 - 11, 2017Page B-4

nn How Michael Nash projects routinely outperform their

budgets

By John ByrdSPECIAL TO THE FAIRFAX

COUNTY TIMES

“Kitchens are the most re-modeled room in any home, yet there’s nothing obvious about the best way to remodel one,” says Sonny Nazemian, founder and CEO of Michael Nash Kitchen and Homes. “In the end, every kitchen is as unique as its owner – a reflection of personal tastes, square footage requirements, but also budget decisions, structural challenges, even code regula-tions.”

Nazemian should know. He started his business 30 years ago as a kitchen design specialist and, by his own estimate, his firm has now remodeled over 10,000 kitchens, mostly in Northern Vir-ginia. Along the way, Michael Nash has garnered every major award for kitchen design excel-lence offered by the remodeling industry. Yet he still takes pride in the “distinctive qualities” of every makeover that bears his company’s signature.

“We’ve succeeded in gener-ating a widening spiral of repeat customers,” he says. “There are many reasons for this, but a major one is that our team is motivated to produce a space that will sig-nificantly outperform its budget. This shows up in the choices we offer in our show room, our pur-chase options packages, the expe-rience we bring to bear in space design, the efficiency with which we can develop a sensible design solution.”

By way of example, the re-modeler points to two recently completed kitchens – each with a different owner program, yet common goals regarding func-tional improvements and style coherence.

Generous new space for a cook’s gourmet kitchen“I had been thinking about

improving the kitchen since we bought the house three years ago,” says Philip Breddy of Great Falls. “As a passionate cook, I found the restricted space was a problem – but then I didn’t like

the aesthetics of the kitchen any-way, so we were looking for an inspiration.”

A chance visit to the Michael Nash showroom on Lee Highway in Fairfax soon reignited Bred-dy’s still formulating remodeling plans.

“There were lots of relevant displays,” Breddy recalls. “Be-fore we left, I had scheduled an appointment with Sonny Nazem-ian.”

As Breddy tells it, Nazem-ian – who is a certified remodeler (CR), certified interior designer (CID) and certified kitchen and bath remodeler (CKBR) – es-tablished his bona fides as space planner shortly after seeing the house for the first time:

“Once it was clear that the professional caliber stove and hood I wanted would have to be attached to the wall between the kitchen and the utility room, the plan called for moving the rear el-evation further out onto the back deck.”

To create the necessary square footage, the remodeler proposed expanding the existing footprint in two directions. First, he would remove the home’s west-facing rear elevation and install an I-beam mounted on vertical shafts to support the second floor. The new elevation would now extend the back of the house over 150 square feet.

Secondly, he would delete

the pantry in the wall between the kitchen and dining room, claim-ing an additional 50 square feet of usable space inside the perimeter of the existing kitchen.

Revising the rear elevation allowed the designer to remove ceiling-flush bulkheads hous-ing plumbing and electrical. The conduits were re-routed up from the basement and joined to both a pot-filler above the new range oven and a work sink in the food prep island. Increased headroom also permitted space for taller cabinets – a welcome 20 percent increase in storage capacity.

To improve visual linkage to the backyard, the new rear eleva-tion features a 4’-by-15’ bay win-dow above the sink. French doors with sidelights – replacing the former picture window – further increase available light and pro-vide inviting back deck access.

Meanwhile, the niche formed by removing the pantry handily accommodates a 72-inch refriger-ator/ freezer, two floor-to-ceiling pantries, a beverage center with wine refrigerator and built-in cub-bies, and a serving station steps away from the formal dining room.

Overall, the new plan unfolds “generously” in every direction, Breddy notes.

“It’s a place where we can entertain,” he adds. “And it works beautifully for that pur-pose. But it’s also where the kids do homework while meals are be-ing prepared.”

A lighter, brighter McLean

Even a kitchen you helped de-sign yourself can eventually seem tired.

Back in the 1980s, Marianne and Franklin Polk built a hand-some 5,000-square-foot home on a shady lot, an ideal place for raising children.

With nine-foot ceilings and a large dining room and a breakfast room, the floor plan met all for-

mal entertainment requirements, leaving for family-use a tradi-tional-style kitchen Marianne had personally helped create.

The space was comfortable in all the ways busy parents require.

But over time, styles change. So, too do personal needs.

“Our kitchen had gotten dated,” Marianne Polk admits, describing steps that inspired her to pursue a complete makeover. “I’d been looking for a plan that would work better for casual entertaining. I was looking for ideas; not sure where to go.”

The problems were every-where. The existing island’s counter top which included four electric burners, was configured on 3’-by-2’ surface, an arrange-ment which left little room for staging the ingredients needed to

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A tale of two kitchens

PHOTOS BY GREG HADLEY

Great Falls - A food prep island completes one leg in a work triangle that includes a six- burner gas range oven, and easy access refrigerator, storage and cookbooks; the step-sav-ing configuration facilitates all the essential cooking and clean-up tasks.

BEFORE: A four-burner cook top built into a food prep island was the only range in the old kitchen – an arrangement which the owners considered too dark and space-restricted. Eliminating a pantry (behind the door) opened up the footprint needed for a 72-inch refrigerator, floor-to-ceiling cabinetry, and a beverage center.

McLean – With peninsular counter space between kitchen and breakfast area removed, a unified but well-articulated interior emerges. The mid-room floor-to-ceiling hutch works as a serving station, but also provides added storage.

By re-routing HVAC and eliminating bulheading, the remodeler replaced 30-inch cabinets with 42-inch cabinets. The island’s Calacatta marble surface – with its uniquely soft veining – is a particularly distinctive design element in a white-on-white interior.

Friday - Sunday, JUNE 9 - 11, 2017 fx FAIRFAX COUNTY TIMES Page B-5

prepare a meal.The peninsula – which had be-

come a catch-all for clutter – was mostly a barrier against free-flow-ing traffic in and out of the kitchen.

It was also now apparent that the original 30-inch cabinets really didn’t meet current storage needs.

It is at this juncture that Polk met Nazemian.

“I recognized right away some of the design limitations that were common to kitchens created in 1980s and 1990s,” Nazemian re-calls. “A decade back, there was less concern for optimizing space; we’ve since learned that re-routing HVAC concealed in bulk heading can create the wall surfaces needed for taller cabinets. Replacing 30-inch cabinets with 42-inch cabinets, for instance, can be a good starting point for a better kitchen plan.”

With these discussions under-way, the remodeler next proposed re-locating the gas range to the south-facing interior wall. Crowned with a decorative cook top hood, the new cook station would become the kitchen’s primary focal point.

But first a series of demoli-tions and deletions were in order.

The ceiling-flush bulk head-ing would be removed. Addition-ally, the small cook top island would be eliminated, along with the peninsular counter surface.

With the old hearth no longer needed, the kitchen’s inside back wall could be completely re-de-signed, making room for a dou-ble refrigerator/freezer, a stacked oven with microwave and a spa-cious serving station crowned by glass-facing cabinets.

Removing the archway be-tween the kitchen and breakfast area was the next obvious call, one that allowed more light and visual continuum.

With the “open” plan now fully in view, Nazemian proposed an in-novative food preparation island that would incorporate glass-facing display cases and custom-designed drawers. The built-in would be sit-uated between the new gas range; the sink to the right and refrigerator and stacked ovens on the left.

“We established work trian-gles in three directions,” Nazem-ian says. “The island provides direct support for cooking, meal prep and clean-up, yet three feet of surrounding floor space allows

for comfortable thru-traffic.”The island is the defining

piece in an interior design scheme skillfully developed throughout the interior. A row of glass-facing cabinets on walls formerly occu-pied by bulkheads provides dis-play space for Polk’s collectibles.

A new floor-to-ceiling hutch between the kitchen and the breakfast table augments the dis-play opportunity as well as stor-age for mats, table-cloths, and other kitchen necessities.

“There’s been a 30 percent increase in storage here,” Nazem-ian says.

The white Calacatta marble used for counter surfaces and backsplashes meanwhile presents a distinctive design element in a white-on-white interior.

To further enhance natural light availability, Nazemian replaced the box window above the sink with substantially larger bay window.

For information call (703) 641-9800 or go to MichaelNash-Kitchens.com

John Byrd has been writ-ing about home improve-ment for 30 years. He can be reached at (703) 715-8006, www.HomeFrontsNews.com or byrdmatx@gmail.com

HOMESContinued from Page B-4

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A pull-out cake mixer and drawers sized for special bowls are among the kitchen’s custom built-ins.

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