The Bridge House Kitchen:

This is a house our firm designed and built from the ground up as a project for sale.  It was on a unique up-sloping piece of land in Santa Monica, CA, with beautiful ocean and mountain views.  With the sloping, the most imaginative aspect of this project became the bridge to the front door (shown on our website www.warwickgroup.net/portfolio/residential.  Bridge House.  The public spaces had the most spectacular views from the upper floor, while the bedrooms retained their privacy and had garden access from the lower level second floor. 

The kitchen was a delight to design in that it was completely part of the living room and dining room for this modern house, necessitating a very streamlined look and efficiency.  We used teak wood cabinetry from an Italian company named Desart in Beverly Hills on Robertson Blvd.  We chose to do the upper cabinets in an off white formica with no visible hardware (underneath finger pull) so they in effect, disappeared.  The kitchen needed the uppers for storage room yet we felt they would be too dense in the teak wood.  Instead of continuing the upper cabinetry over the area of the wine storage, we opted for two open shelves so you have a view the moment you enter the front door of the house.  Hafele hardware went the full width of the lower cabinets. 

The island became a focal point with the addition of two shelves for books while also creating a more open feeling, rather than a completely enclosed island.  We liked the addition of the metal aluminum sides of the island. 

While shopping for the granite, we came across an unusual stone called Silver Moon from Italy, sourced at Marble Unlimited in Van Nuys, CA.  Pale Grey veining with small splashes of cranberry accents worked perfectly to balance the kitchen while not giving up durability.  The backsplash tiles were 2”x8” handmade ceramics from Italy and felt like a natural extension of the Silver Moon.  The Tile Shop was the source for these.