It’s in their nature for interior designers to stay current on the latest product trends and stash ideas for their own homes along the way. So Nicole Lanteri was ready when she and her husband, Aaron Trent, bought a 1938 Colonial in Ashton Heights in 2018—tiny kitchen and all.
Some might go in with visions of demolition dancing in their heads, but Lanteri saw in the 9-by-12-foot kitchen an opportunity to create a culinary cocoon. Small spaces allow for splurges on expensive materials in small doses (something she often urges clients to do in powder rooms), which in this case meant Ann Sacks terrazzo floor tiles, retro-modern pendant lights from Roll & Hill, and custom Carrara marble countertops from Modern Marble & Granite in Alexandria.
The space being her own, Lanteri also indulged her love of color. She saved money on those wild, acid-green cabinets by purchasing an off-the-shelf product and having her cabinetmaker, Hector Garcia (G&G Construction, based in Annandale), make flat-panel replacement doors, painting them in Benjamin Moore’s semigloss New Lime. “I love a bright, happy space,” she says.
The cabinet bases feature stainless steel toe kicks, but when it came to appliances, Lanteri opted for white (in lieu of stainless steel) to visually enlarge the small space.
And the rose-colored Louis Poulsen pendant lamp from Design Within Reach? “At first, I thought it might be too much, but I just love the flow of it,” says the designer, noting how the light fixture echoes pops of pink found elsewhere throughout the house.
Because the kitchen’s diminutive footprint leaves no room for bar seating or an eat-in table, Lanteri and Trent use their dining room for every meal, and that’s just fine— particularly after 10 years in a loft-style condo.
“We had an open kitchen for so long that I was really excited about having a closed kitchen,” Lanteri says. “I wanted to leave the mess behind.”
Project Credit:
Nicole Lanteri Design