Removing peninsula to make more room

Daniela Forte’s clients, a young couple with a gigantic dog and an orange cat, wanted a fresh, new look for their funky, split-level home in Marshfield. Tired of feeling trapped in the kitchen when they came inside, they also needed a new layout. “A peninsula that jutted out from the wall immediately left of the side entry door hemmed you in,” says Forte, founder of Forte Interiors in Dedham. The original layout also confined the kitchen to about 145-square-feet jammed into one end of the long living space, leaving the adjacent dining room feeling a bit like a bowling alley.
Forte’s first move was to do away with the pesky peninsula. This offered opportunity to enlarge the kitchen by pulling it toward the dining area. To make that work, however, the designer also needed to get rid of a bump-out. Luckily, there was a closet behind it that the owners were happy to sacrifice. This allowed Forte to elongate the kitchen by 7 feet. The final result is a 240-square-foot kitchen and dining space.
Taking cues from the clients’ fondness for California-style interiors, the leafy property, and her own love for nature-inspired palettes, Forte paired natural white oak elements with cabinetry painted Sherwin-Williams’ Clary Sage. The herbal-hued cabinetry wraps two walls, and includes abundant upper cabinets and an appliance garage. The arrangement creates a color-block effect around the window, punctuated by an edgy, black concrete farm sink from Native Trails.
On the adjacent wall, upper cabinets hang on either side of the white oak range hood, which Forte kept shallow and close to the ceiling — out of the way of the tall homeowner’s head (mostly, anyway). The hood shows off the skinny, stacked tile backsplash that provides rhythmic texture and subtle contrast against the mottled, rusty toned quartz counters.
The focal point is the refrigerator. “Since the situation didn’t lend itself to doing a distinctive hood, we concentrated on the fridge,” Forte says. White oak chevron-patterned panels simultaneously disguise and celebrate the large appliance, which is nestled into the niche created after eliminating the bump-out. Crown molding unites the refrigerator with the tower cabinets that flank it, lending a furniture-like feel reminiscent of an armoire.
A center island with a waterfall countertop, which matches the perimeter countertops, provides a clean expanse of prep and serving space and accommodates three stools. A Blu Dot chandelier with tinted olive glass shades runs above it. “We kept the island under the seven-and-a-half-foot ceiling in order to effectively light it,” Forte says, noting that the ceiling ascends a full story over the dining table.
The pill-shaped white oak dining table made by Nutmeg Table Co. in Connecticut facilitates physical and visual circulation. “The soft curves let the eye move more easily around it,” Forte says. This is particularly important given it sits in the same orientation as the rectilinear island. Black chairs with cane backs and arched tops pop without feeling blocky and tie to other black accents. “The black metal stair and beam supports drove the decision to incorporate black industrial elements such as the matte black hardware,” Forte says.
Forte carries the green and black scheme into one bathroom, while repeating curved geometries in the other. “His bath is more masculine while hers is more feminine and playful,” the designer says. Feminine but not saccharine, thanks to Forte’s starting point: metallic pewter wall tile for the shower. “The tiles look like watercolor paintings,” she says. “They were a beautiful splurge.”
A storage cabinet featuring arched doors with reeded glass inserts adds to the fun. Using plaster to create a niche with an arched top would have been prohibitively expensive, so Forte found a workaround. “We installed a wood face with an arched opening that is painted to match the walls, then added arched doors painted Sherwin-Williams’ Dressy Rose,” Forte says. “The design isn’t cheap, but this clever construction concept made a big difference.”
Forte advises spending on showcased areas, then filling in with more affordable options. “Put your money in places that mean something,” she says.
Resources
Interior designer: Forte Interior, forteinteriors.com
Contractor: Kingston Construction Co., 617-960-6152
Photographs




Marni Elyse Katz is a contributing editor to the Globe Magazine. Follow her on Instagram @StyleCarrot. Send comments to [email protected].
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