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THE BACKSTORY | “I’m originally from Holland and I remember gathering around these large tables for dinners that lasted three or four hours. I love that camaraderie. My wife and I will sometimes do six or seven smaller courses just so we can prolong the time at the table. We wind up sitting there for hours, even though it is just one part of a large living room.”

HIDDEN GEM

RUARD VELTMAN,

architect and homeowner

Living rooms are often so isolated from family

life they should be stripped of the word “living.” But if you do as architect Ruard Veltman did and tuck an artfully disguised

kitchen into one corner, yours could become the true

heart of the home.

This is one unusual layout. You’ve got a cooktop, a sink, and a big, long table in your living room.Why not? It’s the most beautiful space, so why would I not want to be here every day? Did you try to make the cooktop and the sink disappear?Not totally. I wanted them to look like two pieces of cabinetry that just happen to function as a sink and a cooktop. Both have stainless steel on top, but it’s recessed. If I had wrapped them in stainless steel it would have looked too much like a kitchen.Where’s the refrigerator, and oven, and all the rest of the stuff?In a working pantry off to the right. When this house was built back in 1949, that was the original kitchen. But it had no windows; I couldn’t imagine cooking there. The table is in the original dining room, which we opened up to the living room.So how does the cooking actually work?You bring all your ingredients in here. I enjoy making a meal—washing the vegetables in the prep sink, chopping them on that piece of stone. You can even bring over a hot pan from the stove and serve from the stone.

CHAPTER 3

rebelTHE UNKITCHEN. HIDDEN BEHIND CABINETRY OR MERGED INTO THE LIVING ROOM, IT’S HARD TO TELL YOU’RE EVEN IN THE KITCHEN.

The big Dutch “gable” on the wall, painted with easy-to-wipe oil paint, acts as a decora-tive backsplash. A stone slab set on the din-ing table serves as a work surface and serving station. A sink is in the left cabinet while a professional series cooktop by Viking sits unobtrusively in the right cabinet. The door-way straight ahead opens into a former porch that’s now a children’s playroom.

“ So many people are scared to live in their living room. They’ve got a formal living room and dining room in the front of the house, and they end up living in the back, in the kitchen. I dreamed of a house where you really do cook and eat and live in one room.”

“ The cabinets are just planks glued together with a little separation in between, to give them a bit of age and make them look more handcrafted.”

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H I D D E N G E MH I D D E N G E M

So why not just open up the pantry to the living room too? Make it all one great big space?The idea was to enjoy the things that I love to do in a kitchen—cook and chop and wash fresh fruit and vegetables—but not deal with any of the mess. The pantry is 140 sq. ft. and everything having to do with our daily routine is in there. There are two dishwashers, one on either side of the sink, fronted in simple vertical slabs of wood. The wall ovens are to the right of the sink and the washer and dryer are on the left. Sometimes the stainless prep table doubles as a laundry folding station.What’s on that wall in the pantry? Two more sinks?Actually, four. That’s a 12'-long secondhand sink that I found in this restaurant supply place, and it has four bays. Overkill, I admit, but I like those big gestures sometimes. It was also an instant countertop and I adore it. You can do anything in there and you can’t hurt it—wash up kids’ paints and paintbrushes, wash muddy boots, wash clothes, wash the dog . . . What is this stunning pantry floor made of?When I took up an old tile floor I thought the pattern of the old glue on the sub-floor looked great, really incredible. So I simply scraped, sanded, and sealed it. I think it looks like aged leather. It never looks dirty.

THE PANTRY IS COMMAND CENTRALIf you’re going to have 12' of sink you’ll need extendable industrial spray faucets to clean it up. For parties, the Veltmans will sometimes place a chopping block over two of the sinks and set up this area as a bar. The sink unit, stainless-steel worktable—from Recycled Restaurant Equipment—and the stainless-steel clad Sub-Zero refrigerator (on the left) lend this utilitarian pantry some full-on industrial chic.

WHAT IF . . .YOUR OVEN AND YOUR

COOKTOP LIVED SEPARATE

LIVES? MAYBE EVEN IN

SEPARATE ROOMS?

“ I’m torn between two things: a very clean, modern kitchen with everything hidden, and a very utilitarian space with every-thing on open shelves—glasses, dishes, equipment, food. By having two rooms, with a prep sink and cooktop incorporated in the furnishings of one, and the ovens, storage, and cleanup out of sight in the other, I can have it both ways. After a dinner party we can quickly put every-thing to do with the meal in the pantry, turn off the light, and go on with the evening.”

FALLING WATERTHE LIVING ROOM PREP-SINK FAUCET BY DORNBRACHT IS SO BEAUTIFULLY STREAM-LINED IT NEARLY DISAPPEARS.

“ I hate those two-level sinks with a tiny vegetable basin, so I designed my own, with a larger basin on one side. This is the ‘clean’ sink, just for vegetables and fruits. No greasy pots and pans. The faucet is very simple and the handle is within the sink, so you don’t have to reach up with a wet hand and get the wall wet.”

CRAVING . . .STELLA ARTOIS ALWAYS ON TAP; IT’S ALL ABOUT HOSPITALITY.

“ Beer bottles take up a lot of room in the fridge—too much room really—and I like to always be prepared for a party. I keep three or four cases of wine on hand for the same reason. Behind this tap is the garage and that’s where the kegerator lives. I can say to friends at any moment ‘just come on over.’ This tap is a wonderful thing.”

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The dining table is 11' long and the slab of travertine (a type of limestone); makes for a beautiful and durable work surface. Veltman chose travertine not just for looks but also because “you can’t hurt it and it’s easy to clean.” Its pitted surface is usually filled and sealed when it’s used for a kitchen countertop, but Veltman likes the natural look of the unfilled crevices.

“ At one point I thought of designing some sort of island to float over the table, but then I thought, ‘No. Too complicated.’ It should feel as if you went into your backyard and just found a piece of stone. One end is chiseled to look like it was broken off and it’s propped up with two blocks of oak to raise it to counter height.”

Where did you find these beautiful light fixtures in the dining/prep area?I designed them and had them made. The idea was for the fixture over the table to look like those lights you see strung over courtyards in Europe, draped effortlessly over a patio. They’re just bulbs hung from electrical wires so you get these pretty ‘V’ shapes and a nice rhythm. And as with anything this simple, the result is always elegant. You can dim them down for dinner or turn them up high for cleanup and prep. Then the two sconces installed in the gable backsplash are made of hollow brass tubes, so electrical cords run right through them. It let me avoid doing an ugly sconce back plate.

COLOR FORMSVELTMAN CREATES TRANQUILITY WITH BENJAMIN MOORE

WHITE DOWN 970.

“ It’s the warmest white and it’s always soothing, never too bright. You know how some movie stars’ teeth look way too bright and you think ‘what is wrong with them?’ This white is never like that. It can be a little loose or it can be formal and it’s a great backdrop for art, flowers, vegetables, whatever—nothing competes with it.”

Go for very unkitchen-y task lighting. Veltman designed surprisingly elegant sconces for over the sink and stove. (1) Place 420650 from Fine Arts Lamps over your workstation and suddenly food prep becomes gloriously swank.

Design cabinets that jibe with your decor. The “gable” backsplash and built-ins in Veltman’s kitchen have a simple Dutch farmhouse feel that’s in perfect harmony with the rest of the room. The sink and cooktop hide ever-so-discreetly in plain sight.

Choose an unobtrusive range. The Viking Professional Series Cooktop works in the Veltmans’ kitchen because knobs are on top, rather than arrayed across an apron, so the stove stays undercover.

Pick a durable splash-ready dining table so you can site a food prep station right on top. Veltman’s Verellen farm table is made of reclaimed teak. (2) The elegant Mayan Teak Rusa Dining Table, from HOM Escape in Style by Cisco Brothers, will gussy up your kitchen even though it’s tough enough to use outdoors.

Seek out dinnerware that multitasks—casual enough for everyday, fancy enough for entertaining. (3) (LEFT) Ballard Designs’ Siena Goblet hits just the right note; pretty not prissy. (RIGHT) Metallic glazed stoneware, Pewter Stoneware from Juliska, looks antique but it’s actually freezer, microwave, oven, and dishwasher safe.

Be brave. Choose sophisticated seating that might not feel like it belongs in a kitchen. (4) The Classic Cove Settee by Barbara Barry is living-room-chic but it’s also perfectly scaled for breakfast rooms and kitchens.

And for something completely unexpected: candlelight in your pantry. Veltman hung an ornate antique candle sconce next to his beer tap—talk about mixing high and low. (5) You could use Tuvalu Home’s Vintage Flowers Bouquet Wall Sconce in your bedroom but think of the impression it would make in your pantry next to the breadbox.

Use an industrial sprayer as sculpture. Sink sprayers by Fisher lend maximum impact to Veltman’s pantry, and oh, they’re practical too.

STALKING THE LOOK

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