Cheryl Smith’s Kitchen

Cheryl Smith Associates Interior Design, Hendersonville

When Cheryl Smith remarks that “everything flows” off the simple kitchen in her Hendersonville home, she’s talking about her favorite space’s easy proximity to the adjacent dining and sitting rooms. But the water metaphor also acknowledges the feel she was after when she chose the sleek cherry cabinetry that edges the walls and granite prep island.

“I wanted it to look like the wood you see in yachts,” she says. “Those beautiful, simple slabs with the gentle rounded edges.”

Appliances and even counter tops are stainless steel. Smith enjoys the contemporary feel — and also, she admits, “it’s easy to clean.” She created the cozy room’s window valance by sewing intersecting strips of red, blue and yellow ribbon into a rectangular piece of cloth. The effect recalls a Mondrian painting: geometric with lots of white space.

In her design business, Smith is always poring over various fabrics, patterns and textures. Maybe that’s why she shies away from busy color schemes on her own walls: “At home, I tend to go for solids.”

One inescapable piece of whimsy, though, is a vivid replica of the map Walter Cronkite used as a backdrop during his anchoring heyday. “That’s all you see in the breakfast area,” says Smith. The piece lends depth to the routine of watching the day’s news with her husband Bryant. “It’s fun for us to see the news on TV and then turn to the map to study the related locales.”