Double Eagle

Photo by Inspiro 8 Studios

During the studs-up renovation of their Cliffs Valley home in Upstate South Carolina, owners Julie and Kris Atwood lived for five months in a second-floor bedroom that Julie laughingly declares was “smaller than our daughter’s dorm room.” Happily, the Atwoods run a multi-dimensional architectural-interiors business, so they knew intimately how to transform the dated kitchen.

The space once had zero views and now it soars, looking upon the panoramic, foothills-fringed golf course. Though the house hasn’t reached vintage status yet, the kitchen’s former superfluity of entrances and cramped butler’s pantry proves how vastly the trend has swung toward open floor plans in the last decade-plus.

Just so, the ceiling was vaulted and clad in wide-planked beadboard, entire walls and even staircases were pushed back or eliminated, and the butler’s pantry was dismissed with the wrecking ball. K.A. Atwood, Inc. (the design/build division of Atwood: Fine Architectural Cabinetry) went all-in designing the space, choosing Wood-Mode cabinets: Nordic White for the perimeter, with a showy clerestory, and a recessed library-style walnut tower elevation that shelters the steam oven. The island, also made of walnut, is embellished with decorative Raymond Enkeboll corbels, and the leathered Taj Mahal granite countertops pick up the silvery-neutral Walter Zanger backsplash tile.

All is breezy, open, and sparkling with new life. No more hunkering down over takeout rotisserie chicken for the Atwoods while they engineer the overhaul. They’re free to cook, roam, and watch four-season action on the 14th green.

Resources
Kitchen Design and Cabinets Kris A. Atwood of Atwood: Fine Architectural Cabinetry (Asheville and Greenville),
Builder K.A. Atwood, Inc.
Countertops Viktor’s Granite & Marble (Arden)
Tile Crossville Studios (Fletcher)

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