Kitchen with a View

The story of a historic Walloon Lake home with a cloistered kitchen, and the homeowners and their renovation dream team who rescued it.

Text by Elizabeth Edwards

vintage gem, the house designed around a series of octagonals (think Monticello) had nestled onto a hill overlooking aquamarine-colored Walloon Lake since 1941. Bedecked in red striped awnings, the home had been a landmark on the lake for decades when a 16-year-old girl boating by with a friend pointed it out and told her friend, “I’m going to live there someday.”

Flash-forward some years later, and the girl, now married, was boating with her husband, and he pointed to the house and said: “That’s always been my favorite house. And it was once owned by one of my dad's good friends who passed away years ago."

No doubt, the young couple shared a sophisticated eye for architecture. As they were to learn, the home had been designed by Charles Noble, who had made a prestigious name for himself designing Art Deco buildings in Detroit, among them the once grand Lee Plaza Hotel and the still hopping Elwood Grill.

By then, the home had been vacant for a number of years, so the young couple decided to look into purchasing it. It turns out the family members who had inherited it were hoping to find a buyer who would treasure it the way their family had. Done deal.

That was 22 years ago. “Everyone thought that we would tear it down,” the homeowner says. But, of course, that was out of the question. “It is a love-affair house,” she adds. But the kitchen was small and outdated. Worst of all, it had no lake view as a load-bearing wall cloistered it from the inspirational Walloon Lake view found through the family room windows and screened-in porch just on the other side. Previous contractors had told the couple the wall could never be removed because of the complicated ceiling system based around those octagonal shapes.

Enter the Renovation Dream Team: Gary Nance Design, Birchwood Construction and Jill Brecheisen of Kitchens by Design. The couple had grown comfortable working with Birchwood’s talented crew on a number of renovations throughout the home. “They are fantastic to work with,” says the homeowner, noting their skill and professionalism.

Nance came up with a plan for glassing in the screened-in porch, and completely removing that load-bearing wall to open up the kitchen to that expansive Walloon Lake view. The plan, of course, would need to be executed by Birchwood Construction. But no problem there, says co-owner Ken Provost. “It took some head scratching, but it really wasn’t anything we haven’t faced before. We do a lot of remodels that involve transferring weights and loads.”

But by far the most dramatic moment of the complicated reno was when the wall came down to reveal a view of Walloon Lake. With its new, wide-open space, the kitchen was an open book, waiting for great design. The homeowners, avid skiers, spend time each year in the French Alps. Those experiences have given them a passion for the French lifestyle. “Everything is thought about. There is always something beautiful to look at, to touch and to taste. A kitchen is not just about, now we are going to feed you.”

Keeping those sentiments, the homeowner also wanted the room grounded in the airy, cottagey style that Walloon Lake homes are known for. Kitchen designer Jill Brecheisen helped translate the homeowner’s vision into the elements of this showpiece (though not showy) kitchen.

A stained oak floor with 7.5-inch planks and custom milled triple-bead wall paneling painted in Benjamin Moore’s Simply White set the stage for the kitchen’s embracing efficiency. The Birchwood team’s careful craftsmanship, which includes built-in shelves and a coffered ceiling, shines throughout.

Brecheisen designed all of the cabinetry as well as the furniturequality island base made from knotty alder with an Heirloom Finish. With its 2.5-inch deep marble-like quartz countertop and Euro-inspired bar stools backed with a Nordic fabric, the island is a fresh take on Old World style.

“We are all in the kitchen, all the time,” says the homeowner, marveling at the fact that the family had lived for 20 years in the home with the cramped, viewless kitchen. “Now there’s this expanse of Walloon Lake all around you … the light and the views; that’s why we live up here.”