Mike and Debi Pyne have between them some 60 years’ experience in home remodeling, design and construction. But akin to the shoe cobbler’s shoeless children, the couple lived in their 1950s Falls Church rambler for more than a decade before finally creating a sleek, modern kitchen with an artisan’s touch.
“It was an older home, it needed a lot of work and we bought it with the expressed intention of fixing it up,” said Debi Pyne. “These things take time, and you tackle the things that you can do the quickest, first.”
First they tried a facelift. They painted the original knotty pine cabinets white, and installed new hardware and laminate countertops. “We lived with that for a few years, but then it just got to a point where cabinets were falling apart,” Pyne said. “We knew we needed to tear it all up and start from scratch.”
Debi Pyne designed the kitchen. “Mike certainly has his opinions, but he generally defers to my decisions on design. Luckily we have similar tastes.”
“Fixing the traffic flow and functionality of the old layout were the most important issues to me as the previous 1950s layout just didn’t work well,” Mike Pyne said. “Nothing was where I needed it and we were always bumping into each other.”
They divided the kitchen into zones: cleaning, cooking and prep. The cooking area includes a dual fuel range with gas burners on top and an electric convection oven. Stainless steel tiles above the range are flanked by Caricoa gold granite that runs from the countertop to the bottom of the cabinets.
A 4-by-4-foot island equipped with a sink and stainless steel countertop serves as a prep and entertainment area. Perched at one end is a boomerang-shaped bar in the same gold granite as the rest of the kitchen.
They removed a wall that separated the kitchen from the living room, opening the space to the living room, which has walls paneled in the original knotty pine used to build the old cabinets.
Debi Pyne wanted the kitchen to blend well with the 1950s-style architecture and furnishings in the house. That’s also the reason she chose the boomerang bar.
“It didn’t have to be an exact match,” she said. “I wasn’t interested in putting in a 1950s kitchen. I could have. They have products out there now. I could have made it look exactly a 1950s kitchen. But that’s not what I wanted.”
Plugmolds under the bottom of the upper cabinets eliminated visible outlets on the walls of granite. “I don’t like clutter, and it drives me nuts to see plugs and outlets all over the walls,” she added.
They replaced a regular double window with a bay window and extended the countertops behind the sink and into the bay, which overlooks the backyard. A long metal light fixture suspended over the kitchen sink repeats the linear design of the cabinet handles.
Debi Pyne, who has a bachelor’s degree in fine art, loves collecting and creating art. She created a custom look by using stock Kraftmaid cabinets in two different tones. “I drew up some illustrations to see what it would look like with or without the checkerboard pattern, she said. “We could have played it safe, but I think it looked kind of boring.”
Mike is left-handed, and the kitchen is designed to accommodate how he works. Debi Pyne said it’s always important to focus on function before style when planning a kitchen remodel. Before she designs for clients, she goes through all the drawers and cabinets to take inventory of what they have.
“You could build a great-looking kitchen and spend a lot of money and then realize you didn’t plan the space for what you have,” she said.
“The new layout and design solved all of those problems and looks great, so it is truly a joy to cook in now,” Mike Pyne said. “I enjoyed cooking before, but this new kitchen has really inspired me to expand my culinary skills as well as allowed us to entertain more comfortably.”
