Poway residence’s reworked kitchen is up for nationwide design award

Semi-retirees Steve and Barbara Velazquez mentioned they take pleasure in internet hosting their giant prolonged household of their Poway residence.

However the frequent gathering spot, their comparatively darkish and dated kitchen, was not as hospitable as the remainder of their Previous World-styled residence that has undergone a number of renovations over their 30 years there.

“We’ve got a big household and host a number of household features on the home,” Steve Velazquez mentioned. “The kitchen is the place everyone congregates … so every little thing wanted to be new and made nicer.”

They determined to make a change — one which value $300,000 and took almost a yr.

Steve and Barbara Velazquez’s kitchen earlier than its intensive rework. They described it as darkish and dated.

(Courtesy of Jackson Design and Transforming)

Now their extensively reworked kitchen is up for a nationwide design award after successful the Southwest area honor within the “residential kitchens over $150,000” class.

Jackson Design and Transforming, based mostly in Kearny Mesa, is vying for 2 Contractor of the Yr awards introduced by the Nationwide Affiliation of the Transforming Business. The winners will likely be introduced on March 6. The opposite award is for an entire home rework in La Jolla.

Tatiana Machado-Rosas, the corporate’s design division head and senior inside designer, labored with the couple on the challenge at their Acacia Terrace residence in Poway’s The Palisades neighborhood.

“They’ve a lovely residence that’s actually elegant,” Machado-Rosas mentioned. “The kitchen that they had earlier than was very dated and had no relationship with the remainder of the home. Apart from wanting Eighties, it had a really low 8-foot ceiling that had the sensation of strolling in a little bit cave from the household room that had an enormous ceiling.

“It was a distinction from the already reworked household room … however a foul proportion,” she mentioned. “The 2 areas weren’t connecting.”

She mentioned she reworked the cupboards and spatial by drawing the attention up by elevating the ceiling and increasing the kitchen into the yard.

Planning started in September 2019 and building in January 2020. It was completed in August 2020, about eight months later.

A photograph displaying how the kitchen and household room circulation collectively following the rework of the Velazquez residence in Poway.

(Courtesy of Jackson Design and Transforming)

Barbara Velasquez mentioned Machado-Rosas nudged them out of their consolation zone.

“Tatiana … was in a position to make the most of the area within the kitchen so nicely, in methods we couldn’t think about,” she mentioned. “She was completely proper, she had a imaginative and prescient. … We’re completely thrilled.”

Her husband agreed.

“Tatiana is an unimaginable particular person and designer who is aware of the right way to make the most of area,” Steve Velazquez mentioned. He mentioned the kitchen and different reworking points made their residence “1,000 % extra purposeful and delightful. She had the creativity and imaginative and prescient.”

Whereas the enlargement added 75 sq. toes on one facet of the kitchen, Machado-Rosas mentioned relocating its giant island, altering the room’s circulation and different modifications gave the looks of doubling the kitchen’s dimension despite the fact that in actuality it grew by about 30 %. The island needed to not solely present purposeful work areas, however locations for the couple’s household and associates to collect. A spherical seating space was added to the island.

“The problem was to make it spatially proportional because of the very low ceiling contrasting with the excessive ceiling,” she mentioned.

The answer was having the kitchen’s new barrel ceiling peak at 11 toes. She was in a position to elevate the ceiling as a result of it’s a one-story home.

Steve and Barbara Velazquez’s new kitchen, with the brand new pantry within the distance on the precise.

(Courtesy of Jackson Design and Transforming)

Machado-Rosas additionally integrated different revisions, so the complete rework exceeded $300,000. This work included changing the flooring and repainting the household room. She additionally modified the again doorways that beforehand made the room really feel enclosed and darkish.

“It opens properly to the yard, with pure mild because of an added window,” she mentioned.

Wainscoting from the household room was prolonged into the kitchen so there could be a visible mix between the rooms, and the house’s bar was changed into a walk-in pantry. She mentioned a wine fridge was put in and storage system constructed.

A laundry room was additionally created, with storage and a sink the place the couple can bathe their canine.

The brand new pantry within the residence of Steve and Barbara Velazquez.

(Courtesy of Jackson Design and Transforming)

That is the sixty fifth time the corporate is up for a Contractor of the Yr award in a minimum of the previous 14 years, based on Jackson Design and Transforming spokespersons. For the kitchen class, judges think about elements similar to the ultimate design, aesthetics, web site challenges and options used to beat these challenges. It takes into consideration the challenge as an entire, not simply the kitchen.

Machado-Rosas mentioned this kitchen rework was based mostly on a really basic Tuscan design, with tall cherry cupboards, wrought iron corbels on the cooktop hood and pure stone parts to provide an Previous World elegant really feel.

“They had been pleasant,” she mentioned of working with Steve and Barbara Velazquez. “They’re very nice individuals who had been very concerned in each single element.”

Tatiana Machado-Rosas, senior designer at Jackson Design and Transforming, together with her design assistant Ivan Soto and householders Barbara and Steve Velazquez within the reworked kitchen.

(Courtesy of Jackson Design and Transforming)