Sarah Blank Design Studio chose Farrow & Ball’s Stone Blue for the island in this Irvington, New York, kitchen by Taconic Builders. A BlueStar range, Miele oven and custom hood complete the scheme.
Kitchen designer Sarah Blank weighs in on the heart of the home.
This kitchen is in an older home, right? It’s an absolutely stunning Spanish Renaissance residence that was built in the early 1900s along the Hudson River. Unfortunately, the kitchen was in bad shape after a recent update, but I was lucky that the client wanted to go back to its historic character. I am a big believer in taking from the past to create the future and spent a lot of time understanding the original aesthetic of this property.
Where did you start? Before I did anything, there were several architectural changes that needed to be made, including taking down a wall, reworking a window and altering the ceiling. Then, I began the mission of taking a very narrow kitchen and making it functional. A lot of the elements, such as the metalwork and wood detailing, are inspired by 19th-century European kitchens.
How does your background inform your designs? I love classical architecture and historic structures—I’ve been a part of the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art for a long time. Everything I do now, even after all this time, goes back to the aesthetic of old homes and what they teach us.
Images Publishing, March 2022
