Featured Homes
Pizza Heaven
Our 2008 winner shows off a sleekness and warmth that caught our judges' eyes. Contemporary and efficient, this kitchen has it all—from a prepping, cleaning and serving station to a hand-made wood-burning pizza oven. How could we resist?

The pizza oven is more than just a “fun” element in this North Bend kitchen; it is the “hearth” of the Buells’ home. Cheri insisted on its inclusion and asked her brick mason father to build the oven enclosure as well as a massive masonry fireplace in the adjoining living room. Cabinets have touch latches to keep the look clean and avoid extra surfaces that could collect grime; the built-in Miele coffee system from Albert Lee Appliance is installed flush with the cabinet faces.
Cheri and Tim Buell make a family dinner in their custom Pedini kitchen, SH&L’s 2008 Kitchen of the Year. The granite-topped island provides an intimate experience for the family of four, as well as plenty of room for entertaining guests. The amber glow of lights by German lighting-designer Tobias Grau above the island counterpoints the flickering flame in the wood-burning Italian pizza oven by Forno Bravo.
Pedini cabinets, from the Integra series, are riff-cut stained gray oak in a satin finish; counter tops are antique brown honed granite from Pental Granite & Marble.Red leather Folio chairs from Crate & Barrel complement the Spanish red accent wall. Cork flooring was glued down and finished in place; it’s comfortable to stand on and cushions dropped objects.

Tim Buell, owner of Finely Finished Construction, has been installing Italian kitchens for Pedini Seattle since 2001. So when he and his wife, Cheri, were making kitchen decisions for their own new house in North Bend, Buell knew exactly what he wanted. “I had grown to love the lines and exceptional quality of the Pedini kitchens, and I just wouldn’t have been satisfied with anything else,” Buell says.

Cheri Buell, a merchandise manager at Eddie Bauer, explains that their original house vision was a woodsy Northwest contemporary, but the ultramodern lines of the Pedini kitchen ultimately brought them to what she calls the “next level” of design. The couple collaborated with Paul Nadolny, owner of Pedini Seattle, on the kitchen’s design and with Kevin Gysler on the home’s structure.

The young couple with two small children had a number of kitchen requirements in addition to perfect engineering. They wanted their kitchen to be a flexible, inviting space that would be comfortable for their family but also accommodate large numbers of guests, because they frequently entertain. Practical upkeep was another sine qua non for the busy household.

The striking result is a temple of high design that is also extremely livable and easy to maintain. Occupying about a quarter of the home’s open living area, the kitchen has a sleek, minimalist profile that drives the overall look and feel of the interior. Materials, colors and furnishings are all kept to a minimum, and the focus is on the outdoors and the dead-on view of Mount Si across a verdant expanse of forest.

Delineated by honey-colored cork flooring, the kitchen makes a quiet impact with its horizontal lines and the warm espresso browns of the riff-cut gray oak cabinetry, huge rectangular island and honed granite counter tops. But on the far wall, restraint turns to drama with the kitchen’s pièce de résistance: a wood-burning Italian pizza oven framed by a wall painted a rich Spanish red.

The oven was a nonnegotiable item for Cheri, a brick mason’s daughter for whom the hearth is the definition of home. (Her dad built the massive masonry fireplace in the adjoining living room as well as the pizza oven enclosure.) Nadolny is quick to offer that he initially lost sleep over the oven: “I’ve seen some awful ones, and I was worried about how we were going to make it work with the Pedini kitchen.” But the finished product, with its muted porcelain surround accented by a bold stripe of stainless-steel tiles, beautifully bridges the gap between traditional and contemporary Italian elements.

Functionally, the kitchen is organized along the lines of a restaurant kitchen with specific functional areas. “The triangle kitchen is dated, and this kitchen encompasses a prep station, a clean station, a dirty station and a serving station,” Nadolny says. On the back wall—which highlights Tim Buell’s strong preference for symmetry—two Liebherr refrigerators are flanked by two Kuppersbusch ovens, a built-in Miele touch-button coffee system and a microwave hidden behind a lift door. The separation of the ovens allows smooth access for multiple cooks, and they are bookended by twin pantries with back-painted gray glass doors that subtly reflect the mountain scenery.

The generous proportions of the 12.5-foot-by-4.5-foot, single-height island accommodate food preparation (with a deep custom sink and Miele dishwasher), cooking, serving and dining. The Kuppersbusch five-burner gas cooktop is ventilated by a recessed Dacor downdraft rather than a hood, to avoid blocking the view. Lower cabinets and deep storage drawers are easily accessed by the children. The dining side of the island houses more storage and full knee space for four counter seats.

Tucked on one side of the pizza oven is the main cleanup area, with a second dishwasher and an oversized sink designed to hide vast amounts of dirty dishes. On the other side, a cabinet doubles as a bar and serving station. Because upper cabinets are limited, additional storage is provided in an adjoining butler’s pantry.

Reflecting on the glorious result of their labors, the designer graciously credits the owners. “The process was very easy because the clients knew what they wanted and were so well versed in the marketplace,” Nadolny says. And the homeowners are equally appreciative. “I love that you are still part of the party when you are in the kitchen,” Cheri says. Tim agrees: “And everybody can participate in making dinner. Pizza here is an event!”

Writer and designer Lisa Kennedy lives in the South Lake Union neighborhood.

 

Design Details:

 Kitchen and Cabinet Designer
Paul Nadolny, Pedini Seattle, Seattle Design Center, Ste. A-229, (206) 838-8794

Builder
Tim Buell, Finely Finished Construction, P.O. Box 965, North Bend, (425) 444-8000

Building designer
Kevin Gysler, Gysler Design, Redmond, (425) 836-9444