Robert Graham and Cindy Chin's kitchen once a 'cold cave' now exudes warmth and light.
Photo: John Granen
Cooking with family and friends was always great fun for Cindy Chin and Robert Graham - at least in theory. For 15 years, the dark, outdated kitchen in their 1929 Tudor-style Seattle home had soured the experience. "It was a cold cave of a place - inhospitable and worn out," recalls Graham, the family cook.
Their architect, David Coleman, removed visual barriers to the adjacent dining room and backyard deck by replacing interior and exterior kitchen walls with bold, elegant steel doors containing large glass panes. Within this transparent boxlike container, a center island accommodates a stainless steel cooktop and oven, and a work surface of fossilized limestone.
In the evening, small, low-voltage track lights illuminate the room with a rich caramel glow. Now Chin and Graham can socialize without interrupting food preparation, and entertain the way they like to - surrounded by their guests with everyone in conversation. "You can open the doors and use the whole space when people visit," Chin says. "It's so generous."
DESIGN:David Coleman/Architecture, Seattle (206/443-5626)
