TOO MANY COOKS?

A West Milford family’s overpopulated kitchen threatened culinary chaos— till a redesign made the room more efficient and capacious.

TEXTbyMARISA SANDORA CARR DESIGNbySHARON SHERMAN PHOTOGRAPHYbyMIKE VAN TASSELL

ADAM AND MEREDITH APPS LOVE TO COOK, AS DOES THEIR

15-year-old son. So when it came time to update their ’90s-era kitchen, making it functional for multiple cooks was the priority. “Being home during COVID, we were tripping over each other,” remembers Adam. “We wanted lots of space to cook, and we wanted everything to have a place, so that all the small appliances could be tucked away and it would look clean and modern.” The West Milford couple searched for “the best kitchen designer in northern New Jersey” and found Sharon Sherman of Thyme & Place Design in Wyckoff to make their dream kitchen a reality.

“The client trusted me completely, even though Adam told me how difficult he was going to be, as he was looking for perfection,” says Sherman.

The footprint of the kitchen remained largely unchanged, but Sherman suggested relocating the kitchen doorway closer to the living room to achieve two goals: easier access from the living area, and a tall wall to accommodate the refrigerator, pantry storage and a wine bar. The designer visually connected the adjacent living room with the kitchen by creating a passthrough above the bar. The Apps had requested some rustic touches, and Sherman found reclaimed barnwood to cover the drop ceiling and support the brackets for the suspended

Homeowner Adam’s favorite part of his new kitchen in West Milford is the Miele built-in coffee maker “because we use it every day,” he says. “It’s nice to wake up knowing there’s freshly ground coffee.” Designer Sharon Sherman worked with Randy Veenstra from Veenstra & Sons in North Haledon to make the Apps’ kitchen exactly what they hoped for. “Randy was amazing, and Sharon was so patient with me,” says Adam. “She knew I was meticulous and a little bit annoying, but we just wanted it perfect.”

shelves. “This created a statement for the bar area, adding interest so as not to feel too ‘kitchen-esque’ from the living-room side,” says Sherman.

The Apps originally desired an all-white kitchen with a subway-tile backsplash but, thanks to Sherman, they agreed to paint the island and walls a grayish-blue color (Temptation by Benjamin Moore), and go with variegated gray-and-white subway tile with a little shimmer to add drama to the space. In addition to the reclaimed wood above the bar, a WoodForm concrete bar top that mimics walnut and wide-plank porcelain tile on the floors adds warmth so that the white kitchen doesn’t feel stark.

As big cooks, the Apps knew they wanted a Wolf stove and a 48-inch Sub-Zero refrigerator, plus an appliance garage with outlets and lighting to house smaller appliances. Sherman took it one step further and proposed a pot-filler faucet above the range, a culinary sink outfitted with accessories including a colander, knife storage and cutting boards and a steam/convection oven and second prep sink in the island. “Before, it was hard to cook for a lot of people, but now we can do it,” says Meredith. “Now we have multiple ovens and can have multiple cutting boards going and all of us cooking at the same time, which is great.”

The family enjoys entertaining, especially during the holidays, so they appreciate being able to feed a crowd. But at the end of the day, “really, it’s more about us,” says Adam. “We spend a lot of time as a family in the kitchen, congregating, catching up on the day, and the old kitchen wasn’t very inviting. We’re thrilled with the way this turned out.”

This page: “The Wolf oven has a pizza stone, and as a family we do pizza-making parties, which are really fun,” says Meredith. Tile in a classic mini herringbone pattern highlights the range. Opposite: Retractable doors on one pantry cabinet allow easy access to small appliances, which are usually stored neatly out of sight. Hand-blown pendants from CP Lighting hang over the island, which was made bigger to accommodate more cooks. The countertops are quartzite, a natural stone from Stone Surfaces in East Rutherford.