Separate but Equal: Duplex Lower Level Kitchen

The partner and other owner of the duplex in High Park where I installed one of Ikea's first kitchens lived in a separate apartment on the lower level of this large house.  (The Ikea kitchen was located in the large second-floor apartment.)

This half-owner of the duplex wanted a custom-made kitchen, and not Ikea.  As I have said, in those days in the early 90's, the big-box stores had not yet taken over a large chunk of the kitchen reno business. Instead, small shops or carpenters did the work, and it was much more custom than any work that big-box stores can deliver today.

Here is a custom pantry, faced with melamine that uses a narrow space along one wall that would otherwise go to waste.

This owner loved the dark grey and white linoleum tiles I used in the upstairs kitchen, but he wanted something more muted, hence the light grey-blue and white tiles he chose.  He also wanted the walls to be pale peach in colour so therefore the blue of the floor tiles is a complementary pastel because it sits on the same side of the colour wheel.  In real life in Interior Design, I often or usually need to go with certain preferences that my client may have.

This photo above also shows the necessary work triangle (the fridge is off to the left, unseen).  The black trim on the lower cabinets provides definition and ties in with the dark controls on the dishwasher and the gas stove elements.

  Here is another view of this corner.  The uppers are plain white and blend softly into the pale peach wall colour.

Here is the window corner with the small fridge showing to the left.  The window has been left open and clear, but storage is taken care of by the large pantry on the opposite wall, already shown.  All surfaces are white melamine and beautifully washable with a quick swipe.

This is the way it was, folks!

When Ikea Kitchens Were Young

I did my first kitchen with modules in the early 90's.  Ikea was one of the first to enter this field at the time.  I must admit my general contractor did not much like the idea of working with it, and the unusual - at least to him - needed filler pieces.

Before this time the kitchens I did were one-offs, constructed on site to exact measurements by skilled carpenters.  There were also, and still are of course, high-end shops which did made-to-measure kitchens, and I used those too.  Now, it is the big-box stores which have taken over the Kitchen Design world, and Interior Designers work within them, doing kitchens only.

Solid surfaces were mostly unknown in the early days; only laminate was widely available.

I specified and designed a kitchen for each floor of a large house in High Park which the partner-owners were duplexing for themselves.  This Ikea kitchen was one of the first ever used.  The counters were not even laminate, but some sort of synthetic material which actually needed seams.

Even then, these kitchens had style!  The glass-paned uppers relieve the solid lowers in this small but hard-working galley kitchen.  The floor is raised slightly to accommodate plumbing.

Here is a photo of the galley looking outwards towards the dining room.

The other side of the kitchen betrays its age only by the old, boxy microwave.  Otherwise, this kitchen could serve its owner well even today.  I chose the same rich grey linoleum tiles as I did for my office/solarium (this time paired with clean white) because they matched the available Ikea counter-top so exactly. Again, placed on an angle the tiles widen the feel of the narrow space.  They have a classic European feel too.

   

The galley kitchen leads right into the adjoining dining room.  Double French doors at the end of the room lead to a very spacious wood deck, which sits above the kitchen on the lower floor of this house.

I think this kitchen which is about 25-years-old proves the maxim that good design will stand the test of time, maybe with a few tweaks here and there.