Forget Frank Lloyd Wright and Ernest Hemingway”on Saturday, April 29, the kitchens of Oak Park and River Forest homeowners will be the top tourist attractions. From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., the locals will become the visitors as they tour 10 kitchens that have been remodeled within the last year. With an eclectic mix symbolic of these suburbs, Parenthesis celebrates their top fundraiser, the annual Kitchen Walk’s 21st anniversary.
The featured kitchens include many on some of Oak Park and River Forest’s more exclusive streets. All will have homeowners, designers and contractors present to answer questions and offer insight.
A touch of the Southwest in the Midwest
Ten years ago, Bill and Beth Clark visited Santa Fe for the Indian Market. They met and became friends with medicine man and artist, Felix Vigil, a native of the Jemez Reservation. “We bought a few of his paintings and kept collecting over time. He uses vibrant pastel colors,” explains Bill of the large and colorful oil paintings, “He uses traditional shaman symbols with mixed media such as real leaves.” Their remodeled kitchen now is a showcase for their unique collection.
“Cooking is one of her fantasy careers.” says Bill of his wife. “This really is her dream kitchen.” The Clarks, who live on North Grove Avenue in Oak Park enjoy combining their love of gourmet food with entertaining. “My wife loves to give dinner parties and people always spent the most time in the kitchen,” he says of their decision to remodel. “We wanted to create an enjoyable, pleasant atmosphere.” Head of vascular surgery at Mt. Sinai professionally, Beth, among friends and family, is “known for her pies, especially her fruit pies.” The Clarks have a low baking station with marble top for rolling pastry and butcher block and granite counters for food prep. They also have a dual-fuel cooking area with a spectacular raised mosaic of copper, marble, granite and tin above. But Mom isn’t the only cook in the kitchen. Recently, the Clarks’ daughter, 9-year-old Sarah, was on vacation from school and couldn’t watch TV due to some behavior issues. “Mom was performing surgery at the hospital, so Sarah decided on her own to make chocolate brownies,” marvels her father, a psychiatrist on staff at Northwestern University. “She did a pretty good job with help from Dad.”
Expanding their options
“We really expanded the kitchen because we couldn’t do an addition,” says Deborah Braxton, of North Kenilworth Avenue in Oak Park. “The house has a flat roof. We would have had to remove significant trees”overhauling the kitchen was really the practical solution.” The Braxtons had previously created a significant third floor family area to help fill the void but still felt something was needed downstairs. “The kitchen had a room within a room”a laundry room actually, inside”and to remove it would involve taking out two bearing walls, which the previous owners didn’t want to undertake,” she said. “The kitchen was poorly insulated so in summer, the heat came in and in winter the cold came in. It was really unliveable.”
With the addition of a dog last year as a pet for their two children”one at Holmes and one at Grace Lutheran”the kitchen door was always in action. “The door let in all the elements, it really had no introduction to the house,” says Braxton. They combined the kitchen, laundry room and cramped family room to create a large, welcoming kitchen that architecturally complements their majestic 1880s Queen Anne home. Now there is a mudroom, where “the dogs’ paws can be wiped and we can remove shoes and such before entering the house.” A well-placed center island creates a natural barrier between the kitchen and the large entertainment center.
A personal touch adding style and unique color are the hand-glazed Mexican Talavera plates utilized as a backsplash. “I knew what I wanted”I just didn’t know what it was,” explains Braxton, laughing. “I had lived in Mexico and was very familiar with the art there. When I went to the Pasta Shoppe in downtown Oak Park, there it was”the plates lined the windows, and I asked what they were, and he said Talavera.”
Braxton went online and located Talavera Emporium. “They get shipments of one of a kind Talavera,” she says. “I ordered eight or nine plates. I didn’t want the usual tile on the back splash as the sill was unusually high.” The complete kitchen remodeling was started in June 2005 and finished in Nov 2006. “I had reservations about using dark wood for the cabinets and the floors but it really matches the front of the house and pulls it all together stylistically.”
British Colonial, South Seas-style
Like many owners of older houses, Kelli Scott’s challenge was expanding a small kitchen. “The original kitchen was about 15 x 10″you know the kind, if two people were in it, it was crowded,” laughs Scott of North Fair Oaks Avenue, who is also a professional designer. The kitchen had an exterior door as well as an interior door leading to the dining room. “I call it the Carol Brady doors”you know, the double swinging doors,” she says.
Scott created the designs herself. “We started in January, removing the hot water heating system and replacing it with forced air”not the best time of year for that”and ended abut seven months later in July,” she recalls. “It was a major remodeling of the first floor and the basement.” The style she calls “British Colonial”Caribbean”you know, dark woods and palm trees.” In the kitchen, Scott replaced everything except the floor, which is maple and the exterior walls. The Scott kitchen and home has been featured on HGTV several times.
In addition to the use of tumbled granite and the handsome cherry cabinetry are 41 impressive panels of custom art glass that accentuate the warm hues and add an artistic effect. “I met the artist, who is from Southern Illinois, and I admired her work and really we just hit it off,” she says. The two have formed a business alliance, with Scott offering custom art glass to clients through her design business.
10 kitchens in 6 hours
Other kitchens included are a 1915 American Four Square, designed to showcase the owner’s considerable antiques collection; an updated classic bungalow; an elegant 1886 Victorian home that includes an Italian chandelier operated by pulley; and a Gothic-style 1897 Victorian kitchen that features bold color, including vibrant turquoise and Asian red.
The $40 tickets can be reserved in advance by calling 848-2227 or ordered online at www.parenthesis-info.org. Tickets will be sold for $45 the day of the event at Parenthesis, 405 S. Euclid in Oak Park. All proceeds benefit the Parenthesis Parent Child Center which is a not-for-profit organization providing services and education to parents of infants, toddlers and preschoolers as well as special programs geared towards single parents, teen parents and their families.