“On winter days in Seattle,” says designer Graciela Rutkowski, “it can be very gray. Perhaps counterintuitively, when you use gray in interiors, it can actually help warm up the room. Bright colors don’t necessarily work with the light spectrum we have in the Northwest.” For the cabinets in this kitchen, part of an overall remodel of a traditional 1920s Tudor house by architect Anne Adams from Stuart Silk Architects, Rutkowski made the unexpected choice of a metallic pewter gray. “I love using metallic paints because they cast such a pretty glow and show off the lines of the woodwork,” says Rutkowski, “but this was the first time I had tried them in a kitchen.”
Rutkowski also took the road less traveled for the backsplash, using a long, narrow, light-colored marble tile with dark gray grout, and anchored the grays with black granite countertops. “Because the kitchen is open to the sitting and dining rooms, it needed to reflect the colors of those rooms,” says the designer.
“The linen-colored stacked tiles are more modern than subway tiles, and the honed finish is a nice offset to the sheen of the cabinetry,” notes Contributing Editor Rebecca Sowell Hawkins.
Despite the relatively compact 16-by-12-foot space, the kitchen incorporates two dishwashers behind cabinet fronts, a steam oven, and a built-in espresso machine. And though it’s refined, it passes the ultimate test: three small children.
Designer Graciela Rutkowski
Graciela Rutkowski Interiors
Mixing influences from different eras and cultures, Graciela Rutkowski creates interiors with an easy, sophisticated feel. Based in Seattle, she is greatly influenced by faraway places, a love instilled in her during childhood. Fashion, art, and architecture also inform her work. Rutkowski’s designs have been featured in a number of publications, including House Beautiful, which named her one of the top 25 young designers in 2003. She was also honored at the 2006 Seattle Design Center’s Northwest
Design Awards.
206/527-1962
www.grinteriordesign.com
