DRAMA IN THE KITCHEN

Taken down to the studs, a kitchen is reinterpreted from dysfunction to splendor by MHM Living.

BY PEGGY LEVINSON

The only word for this kitchen is stunning. Four quad-matched, book-matched Explosion black quartzite slabs clad the 14foot island fronting the living room. The effect is more akin to a work of art than a functional kitchen. But functional it must be, as the homeowners have a growing family, with a toddler who is into everything.

When MHM Living was contacted about a new design, the kitchen was anything but functional: a slab leak had forced the then contractor to completely tear up the kitchen. The countertop was held up by wooden blocks, the dishwasher was held up by duct tape, and the floor was covered with cardboard.

Botond Laszlo, the principal of MHM Living, has an architectural background and was previously a building engineer. He applies all this knowledge to his projects. In this case, structural walls were moved to create a kitchen that was open to the living area. The clients wanted a usable kitchen that was dramatic and organic to the space, so existing architectural details, like colonial-style moldings and fluted columns, were removed in order to update the home and make it contemporary.

Along with the highly figured marble, other elements come together to create the wow factor in this kitchen. The cabinets are covered in a German veneer that is veined like marble but has a natural, textural feel to it. All the major kitchen appliances are integrated into the adjacent wall in the same German veneer. The cooktop has a special slate-gray finish, and a dining area in Negresso marble is cantilevered on to the side of the island. Above it is another dramatic feature: a light pendant made of flat pieces of slate that create a filtered light just over the dining area. There are no jarring notes in this expertly planned and executed space.

MHM Living is a design/build organization that generally takes a home down to the studs to reconfigure the space. There are two major factors in any project that MHM builds: communication and transparency. The budget and time to completion are known from the very beginning. In the initial meetings the client describes in words and pictures the outcome they anticipate, and then MHM translates this into the design process. Constant communication through an online private client portal allows the homeowner total access to the progress of the job. The client can be across the world and still know how things look in real time. A team member takes photos each day of exactly what steps have been taken and reports delivery and plumbing updates and decisions on any other recent developments.

“I tell my clients if I can get into your head then the project will be successful,” Laszlo emphasizes. P