Making Space for What Matters
Custom cabinetry makes a house a home
by Megan Hollyoake and Leigh Patterson
For Tammy Mayer and her husband Colin, home truly is where the heart is: at their lakeside retreat on Hecla Island.
When the couple first walked into the house 10 years ago, “we knew this place was going to be ours,” says Tammy. Colin had grown up in Hecla, where his father was a golf pro for 25 years. Years later, Colin introduced Tammy and their two kids to the joys of camping at Hecla. “I always said that if we bought a cottage, it had to be here,” says Tammy. “We’ve travelled everywhere and we just love Hecla so much.”
But the house they purchased wasn’t a home…yet. After a decade of using it as a weekend getaway spot, the couple – now retired empty nesters – decided to make a permanent move to their favourite place in the world.
Their essential question was how to turn a beach-themed lake house into a home?
“We both didn’t like the kitchen. It had black countertops and light, woody, ‘cottagey’ looking cabinets that were cheaply made,” Tammy notes.
Over and above the aesthetic concerns, there was no place for people to sit and gather in the kitchen. “We have a lot of family and friends that come here and stay, so our goal was to gain seating.”
Armed with a design courtesy of their close friends Jim and Leslie Johnston, the couple’s next step was to find the right company and the right person to bring their vision for functional, beautiful spaces to life. Enter designer Anesa L’Abbee-Lehmann from Kitchen Craft.
“Anesa is brilliant. We had specific requests and she gave us lots of
interesting ideas, and together, the space came together perfectly,”
says Tammy. “We, along with everyone we know, are impressed by the
fact that Kitchen Craft came up here. Throughout the process, from
when we gutted the space, we looked to Kitchen Craft for advice.
Anesa helped us with all of it, even the little parts.”
“Anesa came out, we had an idea, and then we started working together on it; we weren’t working from scratch,” says Tammy, who appreciated Anesa’s ability to be creative with design decisions. “I knew in my mind what I wanted, and Anesa really helped me bring it out.”
Anesa helped Tammy choose the slim shaker-style cabinet doors in black and white for a modern farmhouse look. Black and white can be perceived as very modern or sterile, but Kitchen Craft helped achieve a warm balance by incorporating brass hardware and making open shelving stained to match to the hardwood flooring of the main living space.
Keystone Granite supplied and installed the new countertops, which flow upward on the wall to the ceiling for a seamless, clean look.
Anesa also helped extend the space in the mudroom area with proper cupboards and storage.
The proof of this successful collaboration is in the much-improved storage, function and flow that Tammy and Colin love, and so do their guests. “We gained so much space back, including in the dining room. It’s been a great journey and we’ve had a lot of fun… we love seeing people’s reactions when they come here.”
