The kitchen, once hidden behind closed doors, has become the centerpiece of a home. It is not only where people gather to eat, but more times than not has multipurpose use. In this episode, Sarah and Bruce welcome Alisha Serras, owner of Scavolini Showroom to talk about contemporary kitchens. From design aesthetics, to how to properly hide appliances, Alisha, who devotes her entire career to kitchen design, shares with Sarah and Bruce her expertise on the most important space in your home.
You devote your entire career to kitchen design.
I do, yes, 100%
And I think that would surprise people from the past because although they have always been important they haven had so much attention paid to them and now, would you call them the most important room in the house?
Oh for sure, I mean it’s where everyone lives.
Always lived, works, eats parties, argues.
Avoids when it’s full of dishes. But yeah, you can pry people out of a kitchen with a crowbar. Its absolutely the place.
You know, there’s a house that we did not too long ago, where it had a formal kitchen in the back or like almost a servant kitchen in the back and just they sort of got rid of everything else. Literally the grand foyer they took it and they stuck the kitchen in the middle of it. They just, why do we need any other rooms. And it’s actually a real opportunity on that floor because you sort of dont need a lot of the other rooms in terms of the dining room, the living room.
Absolutely. The kitchen is you know engulfing all spaces. Massive kitchens, double islands, sculleries.
What is a scullery?
So basically, the chef’s kitchen, or catering kitchen. So we see a big change a big addition of scullery kitchens now…
I wanted to ask the question when I think of a giant kitchen where there’s everything in it, I think how do you hide that mess again? So what kinds of things, tricks, do you use, so you’re not always living in a place that has leftover cereal bowls in it all the time.
So a lot of my clients don’t cook. Probably 50%. So their kitchen is a real showpiece. It’s for entertaining during the entertainment those secondary kitchens are extremely helpful because people are clearing and putting them in the dirt area and you close the door. In terms of the everyday mess we do, you know, hide appliances behind tambour doors or pocket doors but really gone are the days of the double islands that have the two steps so that you have the 42 inch height bar and then the 36 inch. So you have some area to hide a little bit of the mess. We in contemporary modern design, which is what our forte is, the islands are generally one level straight across.