Marshall Evan
When Jen Sommers moved into her Dublin home in August 2017, she slowly found herself replacing appliances throughout the house. When she was ready to tackle the kitchen, she knew the way it looked was just as important as how well it functioned. And, as an interior designer with The Cleary Company, she already had a vision of what she wanted in her head.
“One of the reasons I decided to use Cleary for the design-build was that with a full-time job, I wasn’t able to do everything that it would take to get the drawings and specifications into the program we use,” Sommers says. “One of our designers took my ideas and inspirations and put them into the drawings. When it was time to produce the project, a project manager managed the build efficiently. It all came down to time.”
Sommers’ original kitchen was lacking both storage and organization, and it had a walled-in pantry that was unorganized and its layout left little room for utility. When it came to replacing the stove, Sommers knew functionality was going to play a huge role.“I enjoy cooking with my cast iron on my gas cooktop since converting from anelectric to dual fuel range,” Sommers says.
Marshall Evan
“The function of the kitchen makes cooking easier and more enjoyable.”
Tucked away in the corner is a unique feature that coffee lovers can appreciate. Hidden behind retractable cabinet doors, Sommers has her own coffee station equipped with a coffee machine and mugs at the ready.
“When I was thinking about what I wanted to do, I asked the cabinet maker if he could make the doors retractable so they weren’t in my way when I was making coffee,” Sommers says.
Sommers also paid close attention to the color scheme created with the wood floors and backsplash. One of the challenges she faced was deciding which kind of wood to use or if she’d be forced to use stain on the cherry to blend with her acacia-engineered hardwood.
“I knew I wanted to go with a more natural wood look and loved black as an accent,” Sommers says. “It all came out nicely and blends very well.”
The project took roughly four to five months to finish from design to completion, and Sommers is happy to see her dreams and inspirations come to fruition.
“With any remodeling project, you're going to run into certain delays. The cabinets took a little longer and some other things were back-ordered,” Sommers says, “but in the end, it was all definitely worth it.”
Rocco Falleti is an associate editor. Feedback welcome at rfalleti@cityscenecolumbus.com
