DESIGN by LISA WALZER, WALZER ARCHITECTURE
PHOTOGRAPHY by VIC WAHBY
TEXT by DONNA ROLANDO
Shed no tears for the restaurateurs in and around Maplewood; they’re still getting plenty of business. They’re just seeing less of Dana and Kim, owners of a four-bedroom colonial in town. Why? Because an astute 2024 renovation of their kitchen has made home a much more desirable place for them to hang out. Now they can even cook together without colliding or squeezing or tripping each other.
“I feel like we used to like to go out to bars and restaurants and enjoy outside space,” says Dana, “but now because our house just feels like home, it’s a place we want to be all the time.”
Shortly after buying the home in 2018, the couple hired Lisa Walzer of the eponymous Livingston architecture firm to create a master bathroom from a smaller bedroom. Satisfied with the master suite, they left the designer with a promise to call again. They had the kitchen on their hit list, but took Walzer’s advice to live in the house for a while before tackling this key room. Then, when COVID kept everyone stuck at home, a kitchen reno soared to top of mind.
“We were obviously in the house a lot and had time to think about it,” says Kim.
The couple’s old kitchen was big, but its usable space was encroached upon by a basement door and a powder room. “It was a totally different shape that was awkward both to use and to be in,” says Walzer.
The new kitchen provides a dramatically improved sense of flow. And one new feature that further kindles this couple’s zeal for entertaining is a passthrough window above the farmhouse sink that facilitates serving guests at the outdoor counter. “If you’re inside cooking or grilling, you always feel like you’re part of the group,” says Dana.
For Kim, who likes baking and cooking, Walzer provides ovens on either side of the cooktop, all Café appliances, along with pullouts for essentials like spices, and an island prep sink. Dana, who previously focused on cleanup, appreciates that there is a zone for that too, with a Kohler undermount sink and a Bosch dishwasher. But you’re likely to see Dana cooking these days as well, now that the two can work in an organized workspace without bumping elbows.
Serenity was the name of the game for Mouser’s recessed-panel cabinetry, which offers “a nice composition of neutral colors,” Walzer says, varying from light Divinity for the wall cabinets to a rich Carbide for the island.
For added interest, the designer chose floating shelves—where accessories lend color—and a textured backsplash of snow Zellige from Tile of Ezra, teamed up with white-and-gray quartz countertops. She then accented with black in the clear glass pendants by Rejuvenation, pulldown faucets, cabinet hardware and ebony-and-ivory stools.
The project remedied not only the kitchen but also the family room, out of which Walzer carved a mudroom. The family room didn’t suffer from the lost square footage, but gained its first fireplace—with unique fireproof construction boards by Promafour and a faux wood-beam mantel. It’s just the clean, modern look the clients wanted. To give the fireplace center stage, Walzer arranged for new windows in a new spot. She also enlarged the opening between the family room and the kitchen and replaced the acoustic tile ceiling. The couple’s existing furniture fits the neutral and transitional design they wanted—thus it remains.
The mudroom is perfectly located where the couple walks in from the garage. Deviating from neutral tones and the Carlisle engineered oak flooring throughout, its design offers Lilypad green, custom cabinets by Mouser and a herringbone-pattern pewter-gray tile floor from Virtue Tile. Storage is everywhere, even under the bench, warding off chaos.
The redesign changed this couple’s life for the better, and they enjoyed their journey working with Walzer. Recalls Kim: “There was always a healthy amount of our saying what we wanted and her giving us feedback on whether it made sense.”