Rich Schell and Greg Wragge are no strangers to home renovations.
Their Old North End home, built in 1969, is the fourth home and second major kitchen renovation in their 42 years together. Boasting midcentury architecture, Schell fell in love with the bones of the house. The home is unique and a perfect canvas for his transitional, curated and collected style. The last 22 years in the home have been spent making it uniquely theirs.
The kitchen's sleek design is breathtaking and so was the timeline for its recent renovation, which occurred between events hosted in their home. Schell explains how they threw up zipper walls from April 29 to June 15 and lived in the mess. Anyone who has experienced a construction schedule knows how impressive it is to fit that amount of work into that amount of time.
Entertaining is a favored pastime for this pair and thus dictated much of the design.
Schell explains how excited he was to get upgraded Wolf ovens and an induction cooktop as well as a Subzero refrigerator from Roth Living in Denver. He mentions how registering his new appliances gives him access to a Roth Living membership program focused on inspiration and education, providing regular cooking classes as one of the membership perks–one which he absolutely intends to take advantage of.
He walks through the kitchen explaining how they eliminated the soffits in the house and took the cabinets all the way to the ceiling. Pulling out the stepladder to get to the top shelves is a small price to pay for the extra storage and design element of adding height to the room.
“Oversized pulls are just jewelry for the cabinets,” he says dismissively, as if this is common knowledge to the rest of us.
The excitement with which he discusses removing the two-sided stainless steel sink rivals that of upgrading the new appliances. He explains how he chose Corian quartz countertops because they are nearly impervious to germs, but a matte finish because it absorbs light rather than reflecting it, creating a more subtle look. This, in addition to the champagne gold fixtures, adds softness to the space.
They ran into a challenge when it came to their flooring.
During the renovation, part of the design was to remove a dish pantry and a coat closet to make an alcove. In expanding the space of the kitchen, they needed to carry the flooring in from the current kitchen space–but the original tile was no longer available. Rather than remove a design element they already loved, they chose to add patterned wood floors next to the tile to add some visual interest and subtly divide the spaces.
The structure of the space is such that the kitchen and the living space are open and shared. This is an excellent set up for entertaining, but Schell warns that in a conjoined space, it is vital that when the kitchen is closed, it transitions into the living area at night. He stresses that it needs to blend, they accomplished this in their space was by incorporating strategic lighting to include quality under counter lighting, using ambiance to marry the spaces together.
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