This past October, BLANCO ran the #BLANCODreamKitchen contest encouraging designers across the country to submit an original hand or digital drawing depicting their idea of what a dream kitchen would look like featuring either a BLANCO PRECIS™ and the BLANCO CULINA MINI™.
With dozens of entries received, BLANCO asked a panel of design professionals to choose the top three designs. In third place, was Philadelphia based designer, Mick Ricereto and his stunning hand-drawn kitchen design. We interviewed Mick to learn exactly what was the inspiration for this dream kitchen.
What was your inspiration for this design?
I frequently work with European companies and I attended the IMM in Cologne Germany last January (the big design show, including kitchens). I saw a lot of great finishes and interesting layouts for kitchens that we never see here in North America. The overall palette in Germany and Italy right now is very subdued with lots of grey and wonderful combinations of natural and metal finishes. I wanted to bring in some of these clean finishes to a simple modern room, using black oak (tall cabinets), grey lacquer and stainless steel on the cooking side, and a black stone for my custom island in a dramatic angle shape. I was inspired by all the grey wood flooring I saw in Europe, and for an added twist decided to so something a little more “California” by having the inside and outside flooring/deck blend together to make one large room, visually.
What challenges did you face creating this kitchen?
I used the room shape from another project I was involved with, one that didn’t allow me to be as free and creative. I located my lighting and clerestory windows freely, but challenged myself with the design of the island. I had wanted to do a cantilevered island in a monolithic finish for some time; I thought to use black Corian because it could be polished out to appear seamless. I attended a Corian fabrication seminar and that confirmed my ideas. Although not evident with the one image, I studied the size of the BLANCO sink to make sure it would fit in my design, modeling the shape of the island in Sketchup before proceeding with the illustration.
How did BLANCO’s products fit into your vision?
As mentioned above, the PRECIS sink fit well in the design. I love how the faucet hole is off to one side, which works with my angled “cabinet” layout. Because the sink is available in the BLANCO SILGRANIT® color Anthracite, it will blend in well with the black Corian. I have wanted to use the BLANCO MODEX™ sink somewhere too; maybe next time.
What kind of person or home would your design most fit?
Great question, as I think about the individual(s) and their lifestyle all day when working on interiors projects, as this is the reason to hire a designer to help hone one’s domestic lifestyle. In this case, the owner would be me! I do not live in the particular space today but it is a house I admire. I envisioned how I would do the main floor if it was my space: open to the outdoors but not completely open inside; the black oak tall cabinets act as a room divider as I like a little coziness in the adjacent TV/conversation room. Breakfast is my favorite meal, and since I am a bike racer and triathlete, I spend a lot of time in the kitchen making training meals and going over training plans at the kitchen counter. My favorite chair height is “kitchen counter height” (24″ stools) and I envision myself taking my time at the generous kitchen island with my S.O. each morning, easily getting up to pour more juice or fresh coffee.
We loved that you chose to create a hand drawing! What prompted you to do that as opposed to a digital design?
I do hand renderings for most projects, even though all the contract drawings will likely be drawn in AutoCAD or Sketchup. My main design education bridged the end of the manual drawing era and the beginning of the digital revolution, so I honed my craft with hand renderings. I love working on the computer but for an organic touch, everybody tells me nothing beats a hand-made rendering. Drawing by hand continues to set me apart from other designers and my clients get a sense that I really “built” their design, more like a shipwright or playwright as opposed to the more-common click-and-build kitchen design computer program.