What makes the kitchen the heart, soul, and stomach of any home? Some might argue the importance of a spacious island or ample room for gathering but — if cooking, cleaning, and preserving are the top priority — a roster of quality appliances is the workhorse in the kitchen.
Many industry insiders know where to go to find the best appliances — designer Chrystalla Neocleous of The Breakfast Room says a mix of style and function makes Sub-Zero, Wolf, and Cove’s offerings a “no-brainer” — but the question remains: Do you conceal units behind well-appointed paneling or celebrate them in their original glory? Cleverly, Neocleous found stylish solutions for both schools of thought.
When the New York designer was tapped to take on a home in Long Island’s Kings Point enclave, she knew the kitchen would be built for entertaining. “The clients come from a very large family, so they wanted multiple options for hosting and entertaining,” she explains. “We tried to balance all the storage and stacking cabinets with open space to not make the kitchen too overbearing.”
Though the kitchen’s crisp palette offers a blank canvas for all the gatherings that’ll take place here, Neocleous wanted to add some warmth to the mostly white space. While the marbled accents and glass-fronted cabinets create an inviting atmosphere, the appliances keep the space from feeling sterile.
“There’s a lot of white happening in the kitchen, and the stainless steel of the appliances really breaks it up nicely,” she says. “It looks like a kitchen, even though it’s very clean and decorative.” Neocleous adds that the client loved the “industrial look” of the Sub-Zero Classic Over-and-Under Refrigerator/Freezer, which laid the foundation for the room’s other gourmet touches.
“The wall ovens were going to be exposed no matter what,” she explains. “Instead of going with the really contemporary ones, we went with the professional styling of Wolf’s Built-In Ovens. The red knobs made perfect sense for this traditional kitchen.”
Another appliance hiding in plain sight? An electric cooktop. “They wanted to have another cooking surface, but they wanted something other than gas,” Neocleous says. “It created a space for them also for Shabbat, so they were able to keep food warm.”
Appliances might be proudly placed on full display in this Kings Point project, but Neocleous counters that’s not always what a space needs. In another kitchen — which has a larger footprint, but lower ceilings — the designer concealed the Sub-Zero Refrigerator/Freezer to create the illusion of more height. “They’re fully integrated designer models, which are great because they have cabinet-depth and blend in with the [rest of the kitchen.]” Meanwhile, the Cove Dishwasher is cleverly concealed for a barely-there effect.
Not only are the Wolf Microwave Oven and Convection Steam Oven tucked away near the refrigerator, but a duo of refrigerator drawers are built into the island.
“These drawers are awesome features for a kitchen of this size to give another area of refrigeration,” Neocleous says of the latter. “They don’t even look like appliances.” Since the refrigerator drawers are concealed, the attention stays on the bright blue island, which Neocleous says is the room’s “wow” factor.
To conceal or not to conceal? That might be the question, but Neocleous says the Sub-Zero, Wolf, and Cove Showroom always helps inform the answer. “We give [our clients] that direction and then the showrooms really take it off and go into the specifics, and then the clients are able to make their decisions,” she says. “The cooking demonstrations also allow my clients to see these appliances in action.”
Sub-Zero Group East is the local distributor for Sub-Zero, Wolf, and Cove and offers three showrooms conveniently located throughout Northern New Jersey and the greater New York Metro area.
Photography by Keith Scott Morrison.
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