Artistic homeowner brings a love of color to the kitchen
Photo by Aaron Fine Architectural Photography
Mixed-media painter Julie Wilmot and her husband Phil, a semi-retired general contractor, visited no less than five dozen properties in their search for the perfect home. The Texas transplants long dreamed of retiring to Western North Carolina — Julie had fond memories of working at a Weaverville summer camp as a young adult, while Phil was sold when he experienced the region’s abundant natural beauty and the plethora of funky breweries that rivaled those in Austin.
They bought their home in Horseshoe, in Henderson County, because of its “just right” size, striking lot, and swimming pool ideal for hosting friends and family. “It offered everything we wanted,” says Phil, “but what surprised us was how underwhelming and inefficiently designed the kitchen was.”
The more they used it, the more glaring its dysfunctional qualities became. “I’m grateful that Phil knows what he’s doing, and he redesigned the kitchen to operate smoothly and efficiently,” Julie says. As Phil reconfigured the space, he made subtle changes with high impact, relocating a powder room and adding 45 square feet to create a pantry. “Then we installed an arched entrance into the corner notch [that] we bumped out to facilitate flow,” says Phil. This also allowed them to enlarge the picture window and situate a breakfast nook in front of it, with a custom redwood table from a venue in Waynesville.
But her first specification was a cork floor, as they’d had in their home in Dallas. “Kitchen floors need some ‘give’ since you’re standing for so long on them, and [cork] camouflages spills well,” notes Julie. Then came the fun decisions about finishes, colors, appliances, and more.
Photo by Aaron Fine Architectural Photography
The room’s palette — blue, green, gold, and cream — originated with a fabric swatch from an upholstered chair in the couple’s living room. Combined with light cabinetry, rubbed bronze and copper, and warm wood, it makes for a kitchen that’s loaded with warmth and texture. The tones also echo the greens in the yard and blues of the pool, as well as Julie’s collection of Blue Danube china, from a lake house her family had when she was growing up.
Julie selected a sophisticated celadon for the Spanish-tile backsplash and a harmonious, custom-blended, ocean-toned paint that envelops a marble-y granite-topped island. Three wow-factor elements are the custom-made copper oven hood, a coordinating large-scale copper farm sink, and a dramatic petrified-wood bar sink that grabbed Julie from the moment she saw it in downtown Hendersonville’s Vessel boutique.
Then Julie spied a wallpapered kitchen on a catalog cover. “I cringed at the wallpaper idea initially,” admits Phil, “but Julie selected a graphic pattern that wasn’t too busy.”
“The mixing and matching just works,” Julie says. “Another example is that the island top and countertops are the same granite, but the bar top and the pantry countertop are pale green and complement the subway tile and island color.”
The couple chose ivory-painted maple Bremtown cabinetry from Kitchens of the South in Hendersonville, guided by in-house designer Brodie Smith. He notes that the perimeter and pantry have a “Demotte II” door, a flat-panel style with ogee style interior bead, and that the paint shade here is a custom color. “Julie, being an artist, had a definite vision of the final look,” says Smith.
“I had a picture in my mind,” confirms Julie.
“Designing the space became a combination of fulfilling that vision,” says Smith, “and also providing the special features that they wanted inside the cabinetry.”
A trio of rubbed-bronze pendants with arched tops soften drawer angles and complement the cabinet hard
ware. The gooseneck faucet and stone knobs for the bar cabinetry, similar to the bar sink, were unexpected finds, this time from Woodlands, another downtown Hendersonville boutique.
All the artisanal touches have proved irresistible. Phil sums things up: “Julie didn’t enjoy cooking in the old kitchen at all, but now? You can’t keep her out of it.”
Resources
Kitchen Design Consultation: Brodie Smith, Kitchens of the South (Hendersonville)
Cabinets: Bremtown Cabinetry (Kitchens of the South)
Countertops: Nature of Stone (Fletcher), installed by Stone Gallery of WNC (Mills River)
Bar sink: Vessel Unique Gifts of Nature (Hendersonville)