Park Slope Brownstone Kitchen

The owners of this mid-century Park Slop brownstone, both of them filmmakers, hired the architect Elizabeth Maletz to thoroughly transform their home for a fresh new look. The kitchen, located at the rear of the house and measuring just 85 s.f., had not been updated since the 1980’s. Maletz stripped the room of its outdated Formica surfaces and linoleum, while keeping the simple layout.

Southside Workshop Inc. to fabricate the custom cabinets and shelving. The contrasting light and dark custom millwork, Calacatta marble countertops and modern milk glass backsplash created a warm updated look. The custom cabinetry was designed to look like pieces of furniture. The owners wanted knotty walnut for the lower cabinets. Because of the knots, clean cuts were hard to find, so it was faced with single pieces, ensuring a consistent grain. Its edges had a slight curve, lending softness to the space.

The upper cabinets and custom refrigerator panels were made from holly. A lovely light-colored wood, which contrasts beautifully to the dark walnut, holly has a uniform, pale white color with virtually no visible grain pattern, so ultra-smooth that it’s used for black piano keys. Because holly is a shrub, not a tree, it was hard to source large pieces, so the pieces were ingeniously fabricated with that limitation. The clear finish highlighted the wood’s sleek texture.

The kitchen also featured a retractable hood over the range, and open, spacious shelving. Task lighting under upper cabinets illuminated the countertop. A pantry at the far end served to keep typical kitchen chaos out of sight.