apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

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i like this, only because my foodie boyfriend will cease to ask me where the turmeric is and if i have seen the crushed oregano jar. our cupboards are beyond full with spices.

if it can have a "jetson" like feel to it ( if i were to push a button it would disappear into the counter) i would love it!.

wow!
not my style, but what a clever use of space.

What a creative kitchen. I think this is the first time I've seen stainless steel moldings.

The kitchen overall gives me the impression of a 1940s-era luxury cruise ship. Very cool.

i think the designers should've worked around the plumbing in some other way. while it's handy, it's not very attractive. just because it's all prety in steel doesn't mean it should dominate the space at eye-level where i'd much rather see the people in my kitchen, around the island, etc.

i dunno, i think the whole kitchen is gorgeous except for the spice rack!

I think it takes the open shelving idea too far. It looks cluttered. If all of the spices were in uniform jars, I might feel differently about it. I can't maintain that level of organization in my own kitchen.

Off topic: grammatically shouldn't it be "a spice rack like no other"?

I think it's a clever use of space. I'm not sure whether it overwhelms the kitchen though-difficult to tell from the photos.

I like this, but yeah I too would like to see it in the context of the kitchen. Where exactly is it? How big is it really? The photos don't tell the real story so it's hard to have a solid opinion.

I wouldn't want that to be the focal point of my kitchen.

oh this is an amazing kitchen reno. that spice rack rocks. i love my spice rack too which the previous owners created by adding shelves to an old recessed ironing board cabinet in the kitchen!

What would happen if the pipes leaked--or burst!

I like it. That's a very cool kitchen, though I have to ask: why do high end kitchen designs always use giant, professional stoves and commercial refrigerators/freezers? Are they (or their servants, I guess) really in there cooking up a storm everyday? Are they serving hundreds of dishes a week or something? I guess I could understand if it were only the very wealthy who had these things, but even the only "well off" have stuff like this. Does a passion for cooking increase proportionately with income? Or do they just have an $8000 stove because they can?

There's something diner-esque about it that I enjoy. However, I agree that it may be obtrusive in practice.

Another concern would be the heat generated if the pipes carry hot water.

Obviously a cook's kitchen (or the illusion thereof). Clever use of the space, and I definitely applaud finding ways to make lemonade from lemons in the architecture, but if it were my place, I'd want to have the covers be opaque. (My spices, to the extent that I use them, aren't necessarily pretty to look at.)

I wonder if mirroring the pipe stack would have made it less obtrusive? Can you mirror a curved surface?

Yes, the article said they have something like five refrigerators. It seems like a lot, but I imagine they hold very large parties where they or the caterers need to store a lot of food.

Considering the past owners of the apartment, it's probably huge and designed for entertaining on a large scale.

I love the spice rack, and I think the mis-matched spice jars give it a really magical candyshop feel. Although it does really break up the flow of the kitchen, if you're at the counter you couldn't see somebody come in the door.... Still, it's so special it really makes this kitchen one of a kind, it's worth it!

I've never liked modern kitchens- it seems like a place that should reflect spices and food and warmth! The rest of the kitchen looks cozy enough, but that spice rack is just too modern. I also agree about the issue of a leaking pipe. I think painting it or making an architectural column would have been more along my lines. Overall though, props for space saving. I'm building a spice rack on the side of my cupboards.

taritac,

It's because they can. In my experience, the fancier the kitchen the less likely anyone is cooking in it. The people I know who are the best cooks (one's even a caterer) work in tiny, cramped kitchens that would only ever fall into the "before" category on this site.

It doesn't really achieve the goal of "masking" the plumbing stack. To me, it's an eyesore. I like the metal wrapped around it though, or maybe they could have made a square column out of drywall and painted it to match the walls. That's what we did in our condo renovation, but ours had to be much larger.

@heather77: I don't think it's stainless steel moulding on the door. A lot of older apartments have steel doorframes that are painted over to look like wood. I know because if you replace a door, a steel doorframe is much harder to work with than wood. My guess is they just stripped down their doorframe and polished it up. I do like it, and the over-the-door cabinet, a lot more than I like the spice rack.

so jealous of that stainless cubboard spice rack. i love the look of glass doors, on cabinets and refrigerators, but would spend all of my time making my functional stuff look pretty. facing labels out, putting spices in matching containers, organizing by size and color... maybe i'm just too tightly wound.

Absolutely love the shelf over the door. I have such a tiny living space, I have to max out every spot possible. I have open shelves over my doorways, but I really like that closed shelf. I may have to designlift that!

Love it. The photos are by David Allee--I'm sure the OP just forgot.

I love the moldings they really bring some flash to the room. A little Diner pizazz.

I want to live here....now. ^_^ It's such a comfortable and open space, despite being technically cramped. The glass cabinets really help with that. I fully appreciate the house's character.

I like the glass fronted cabinets which show the china a lot, and in general I like the open feel that glass doors can bring. I'm not sure I exactly love the spice rack though - it seems a little too busy or too much for me.

On the practical front, spices really are supposed to be stored away from light so they don't lose their flavor and potency. And, you are supposed to use spices quickly, so unless you are cooking meals for large groups daily or weekly, I can't see how you can justify that much storage space for spices. But maybe I'm just jealous b/c I don't have a nifty spice rack.