Cooking in the Clouds
By Cathy HortonPhotographs by David Dietrich
When 11-year-old Kendal Kulp asked his father for a dream home a few years ago, he wasn’t talking about a tree house or some other childhood project. He was talking about the real thing.
Happily, his father honored his request.
The boy’s idea, in fact, began a partnership between Kajur Kulp and his sons — Kendal, Keenan and Carson — that produced “The View House,” as the family calls its home in Weaverville’s Foxfire Mountain community.
The kitchen would, of course, be the heart of any such family-oriented home.
“I enjoy cooking a lot,” says Kajur. “I wanted to have a real functional workspace. And I wanted to have an area where we could enjoy cooking with the views.”
Kajur designed the kitchen but looked to Jennifer Barker of Benbow & Associates to facilitate and refine the family’s vision of form, function and spectacular vistas.
Professional assistance notwithstanding, Kajur knew what he wanted and insisted on a design that was a mix of beauty and budgeting. For example, he ordered black lacquered maple cabinets without door panels. “I could not find a manufactured kitchen that had the look that I wanted,” he explains. “Then, having the resources to implement my wood and furniture design from my past business, I was able to come up with the veneers and press the panels.”
“It was also a matter of economics,” he continues, “because I could order the kitchen just ‘barebones’ without panels and toekicks and that sort of thing. Putting together the pieces myself turned out to be not only cost effective, but gave me a look that was just unavailable in the market.”
For the lower cabinetry, he installed Brazilian rosewood panels that were custom-made by his life-long friend, O’Neal Jones, a craftsman from Graham, North Carolina.
He had the upper cabinets fitted with perforated aluminum panels cut to size by B&H Sheetmetal. The tiny pinholes, he says, not only provide ventilation, but also are an interesting visual element that act as a design tie-in with the perforated chrome pendant lighting hanging above the breakfast bar.
The ceiling slopes downward from a top height of 14 feet from the front to the back of the kitchen, which lends a more intimate feel to the work area. On the walls and ceilings, Kajur used knock-down stucco construction, comprised of spray-on stucco and a troweled finish. He painted the walls a warm neutral green to soften the straight architectural lines.
Kajur’s background as a custom furniture designer and craftsman inspired this uniquely personalized kitchen, while his current position as project manager for Mountain Marble and Granite led to his use of several stone surfaces throughout the house.
Verde Marinache granite provides a visual “wow” on the kitchen’s countertops. Quarried from a Brazilian riverbed, this granite shows a large pattern of varying shades of green, black and pink. “It so humbles me that this is a riverbed that began forming 50 million years ago.” Kajur says. The Brazilian stone is juxtaposed with a curved inlay of black granite from Zimbabwe on the back countertop. The black granite continues as a high backsplash and emphasizes the curve with a deep groove on an eye-pleasing vertical line.
The intricate cutting was done at Mountain Marble and Granite. “I was privileged to work with such highly skilled craftsmen,” Kajur says.
The Kulp family made sure they chose appliances and fixtures that would complement the kitchen’s modern style while maintaining the functionality they value so much.
Kajur chose a DeLonghi gas range with double ovens, and a Kitchen Aid Architectural Series side-by-side refrigerator/freezer and trash compactor, as well as a Franke under-mount stainless sink with Hans Grohe faucets. A curved glass hood houses the three-speed Euro Kitchen fan and continues the contemporary feel.
The kitchen’s open sight line reveals a beautiful still-life painting on the dining room wall. The painting is the work of Terry Reitzel, a respected trompe l’oeil and landscape artist in Charlotte. “I talked to him about how I could possibly own one of his paintings,” Kajur says. “Terry offered a trade for a piece of furniture that I designed and built.”
Storage is, of course, a huge part of any kitchen’s functionality. The Kulps rely on a large walk-in, floor-to-ceiling pantry tucked off the back of the kitchen. Additional storage is provided by cabinets cased in a Wenge wood veneer just outside of the open kitchen footprint.
The Kulp family chose bamboo floors for equally utilitarian purposes. “I have always loved bamboo for how it grows,” Kajur says, “and then I realized there was bamboo flooring made from bamboo trees that completely mature in 16 years or less. It’s such a renewable resource…you see very clearly that it is bamboo and I like the pre-finished qualities of the flooring as well. It is very durable and easy to maintain.”
More than a mere exercise in durability or beauty, the kitchen provides the Kulp family with a relaxed venue for dining, cooking and simply being together. Even the act of building the house has provided some interesting family time. The family hosted a small Fourth of July celebration picnic on the deck and when the house was far enough along the boys brought sleeping bags and camped out to enjoy the night view.
His favorite time of day, Kajur says, is “when the sun is going down and lights come up over Weaverville.” The view from the kitchen looking out over the lights is spectacular, and it’s during those moments that he and his boys truly have their dream home.
© 2007 Planet Zeus Media, LLC
