Three's Company

Tropical Punch

To create this sun-splashed La Jolla kitchen, Richard and Olivia Anderson turned to designer Rick Fahmie, who owns Kitchen Expo with his wife, Robin. The kitchen was gloomy, with no task lighting, heavy oak cabinets and black granite counters. A dark wood beam between the skylight and front doors bisected the amazing cedar ceiling—and ruined the view to a leafy front patio.

“This house is on 3 acres, and it overlooks all of La Jolla Shores,” says Rick Fahmie. “The view is so overpowering that I needed to have something strong enough to ‘carry’ the house.”

DESIGN SOLUTIONS: Fahmie’s first task was to carefully remove the wood beam and replace it with a steel beam for support. The cedar was seamlessly replaced. He then added a soffit around the ceiling’s edges to hold puck lights on dimmers.

“At night, those puck lights create a cascade of light that drapes the front of the cabinets,” he says. The display shelves also have accent lighting. To blend the fireplace into the backsplash, Fahmie drew a curving line, then created it in chiseled-edge granite for an organic look, as if the backsplash grows up to a natural break. Shelves to display artwork float across the space.

STYLE SCOOP: The kitchen is the entrance to the Anderson home; beyond, a 1,000-foot driveway winds downhill past ferns and palm trees.

“I wanted to carry over the feeling that you’re in Hawaii when you walk into the house,” Fahmie says. He chose Hawaiian koa wood for the cabinets, with figured anagray wood for the floating shelves and cabinet interiors. To bring out the glow of the wood, counters and floors are of Tuscany travertine from Stones Unlimited.

The kitchen island’s free-flowing curves become a theme: A curve in the fireplace is echoed in the cabinetry on that wall and the counter. The bar sink, carved from a block of travertine, is curved to match. On the left, storage cabinets that lead to the hallway have curved doors with tricky “pillow edges,” beveling on all four edges. The stove hood, custom-made, is also curved and arched. A neat sliding backsplash beside the stove hides appliances. Even the cabinet knobs, made from polished semiprecious stones, have a touch of the exotic.

Kitchen Expo, 7458 La Jolla Boulevard, La Jolla 858-456-0050; kitchenexpo.com.

Beach Buff

John and Penni Murphy moved into their 1958 Encinitas home, about a mile from Swami’s beach, in 2002 and began saving to fix it up. “All the old beach houses are really small,” John says. “This one wasn’t in great shape, but it was livable with a coat of paint.”

It had character to spare, but the galley kitchen was poorly designed and claustrophobic— which was tough on John, who’s a lawyer by day but also “a wannabe chef.” Friends fill their house for lazy weekend meals. The décor is cool and offbeat: He and Penni collect artwork from Russia, Mexico, India and Indonesia.

“It’s this funky beach house,” says John Mills Davies, director of design for Marrokal Construction. “We wanted to keep that flavor but incorporate their personalities. They’re both bubbly, vivacious people.”

DESIGN SOLUTIONS: The kitchen—which has won an ASID Design Excellence Award and a Best of the Best Design Award from Professional Remodeler magazine—had to be completely gutted. The Murphys met with Marrokal design consultant Steve Walton, who redesigned the space. A wall was removed to put in a countertop bar. The sink was moved into an expanded corner— created from an old utility closet—under a new window. Cabinets with lots of pull-out storage were added.

Doorways were opened up into arches that flow to adjacent rooms. Off the kitchen, what was once a barely used family room with a giant brick fireplace has become the dining

room; French doors lead to the garden beyond. The original tongue-andgroove cedar ceiling was refinished. Solar tubes brighten the space during the day; pendant lights and halogen track lighting add sparkle at night.

STYLE SCOOP: The Murphys wanted a casual beach-cottagestyle kitchen to reflect their love of both the beach and brightly painted artwork. Mills Davies stepped in to help with product selection. A CaesarStone countertop mimics the look of beach sand; recycled glass tiles from Oceanside Glasstile make up the backsplash and bring to mind slightly worn beach glass. “When the sun is shining, it gives off purples and greens and reds; it’s amazing,” John says.

The floor is porcelain tile from Arizona Tile. Alder cabinets in a Shaker-door style with chestnut stain are a custom creation by Marrokal. The finishing touches: an ever-changing selection of art and mismatched chairs.

Marrokal Construction Company, 9474 Kearny Villa Road, Suite 205, San Diego, 619-441-9300; marrokal.com.

Modern Evolution

In the airy living room of their onebedroom La Jolla condo, Richard Ogden and Regina Rooney effectively mixed modern décor with antiques from Ogden’s native England and the couple’s travels. But they needed to find a way to improve the high-rise’s typical galley kitchen. Cut off from the rest of the living space by hanging cabinets, it was dark and narrow, with a miserly opening onto the hallway.

“You couldn’t walk through with the dishwasher open,” Regina says. “When my sister and daughter came over, they would stand looking through the peephole while I cooked!” Opening up the kitchen would be key, but storage was a big issue.

DESIGN SOLUTIONS: The answer came during a visit to the Bulthaup showroom. The couple flipped for a floor model, a line that was being discontinued. (This style has been redesigned and modernized to offer a wider selection of possibilities.) Bulthaup designer Anita Lewis worked with them to design the multifunctional unit into their space. “It’s a highly engineered product,” she says. “It requires trained installers and designers who understand the philosophy and the system.”

First, Lewis widened the kitchen and swapped the positions of the sink and stove. Now the cook faces guests and the living room, not the wall. The bar top and counter were cut to fit the smaller space; with large storage drawers underneath, hanging cabinets could be eliminated. Even facing the living room, under the bar top, there are cabinets and hidden shelves.

A matching sidebar in the hallway acts as a pantry. The matching glass shelves, a cutting board, metal utensil racks, the wood wall panel and the stools all came from Bulthaup. Improving on the fluorescent lighting was crucial. Contractor Dean Perry put in recessed fixtures and added backlighting behind the glass Bulthaup cabinets over the sink.

STYLE SCOOP: Richard and Regina think of themselves as “cobaltand- red people,” but they fell for the gray-green glass on the cabinets. “It’s just a beautiful neutral,” Regina says. One of their favorite touches is the coordinating backsplash, with its wonderful 12-inch-square glossy Chiaro glass tiles in Gray Flannel by M2. Steve Schibetta of European Bath, Kitchen, Tile & Stone, on South Cedros Avenue in Solana Beach, picked out the tiles and supplied them.

The countertop is maple, with birch on the sides. Perry came up with a solution for the floor: extrawide maple planks that are 7 feet long and flow through the big room. “He showed it to us, and we went mad about it,” Regina says.

Bulthaup San Diego, 5070 Santa Fe Street, Suite B, San Diego, 858-483-1447; bulthaupsandiego.com.

Beach and Modern images by Gary Payne.

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