In this year-round vacation residence on Martha's Vineyard, Mass., architect Stephen Blatt devised a plan that puts the kitchen at the geographical, as well as the spiritual, center of the home. “When you come into this house, you come into the kitchen,” he says. It's not that there is no living room, but rather,“you are in it when you're in the kitchen.”
That arrangement reflects the style of the owner, a gregarious amateur chef. “He wants to be in the middle of all his friends when he is cooking,” says Blatt, who obliged with a kitchen configuration he describes in culinary terms: “You work in the doughnut hole.” A U-shaped counter brings friends close to the action without putting them underfoot. An adjacent seated dining area shares the same open, truss-roofed volume and its fine saltwater view.
Opposite the chef's station at the range lies an even more inviting spot, accessed through a distinctive doorway in a fir-paneled wall. “Through that ‘keyhole' is a little cave,” Blatt says, “where one can go with a cup of tea and talk with the cook, or hold the baby.” It all fits within the circle of the kitchen. “That's the theme of this house: that the kitchen is the heart of the house.”
Project Credits: Contractor: John G. Early Contractor and Builder, West Tisbury, Mass.; Architect: Stephen Blatt Architects, Portland, Maine; Project size: 420 square feet; Construction cost: Withheld; Photographer: Brian Vanden Brink.
Resources: Cabinets: custom; Dishwasher: ASKO, Circle 411; Fittings: Dornbracht, Circle 412; Lighting: Ardee, Circle 413, Lightolier, Circle 414, and Visa, Circle 415; Oven: Dynasty Range, Circle 416; Paints/stains: Benjamin Moore, Circle 417; Range hood: Abbaka, Circle 418; Refrigerator: Sub-Zero, Circle 419; Windows: Marvin, Circle 420.
