It may come as a surprise to most of us, but a grand curvilinear kitchen, that many of us would covet, was not what sold a New Albany homebuyer on this 7,000+ Georgian style home. It was the basement—with bells and whistles that, for now, we’ll just have to imagine.
Indeed, the kitchen had a lot going for it, an abundance of windows, granite countertops and white cabinets which hugged the curves of the walls with results that were far from ordinary. But looking beyond the curve, this potential buyer, Dan Wong, saw elements that dated the space along with an appliance configuration that wouldn’t work the way he needed.
“Dark wood and countertops on the two-tiered island made the space feel dark and dingy. Plus, I hated the tiled floor,” Dan says. “And because of its location in the island, the cooktop did not have adequate ventilation.”
After touring about 20 other homes in New Albany, and despite knowing he would need to undertake an extensive kitchen remodel, Dan purchased the home in the summer of 2018.
Ready to go
Knowing the curve element would be a challenge, the homeowner began interviewing remodeling companies in 2019. After interviewing six contractors, he selected the team at Dave Fox Design-Build Remodelers.
“A neighbor at my previous home went through a remodel and they raved about Dave Fox,” Dan says. “Plus, I went on the NARI Tour of Homes a couple years in a row and saw the quality of their work there.”
Toward the tail end of 2019, Dan was ready to sign a contract and then, he says, “Covid hit. This put the project at a stand-still until the end of 2021 when I revisited the idea.”
Rethinking the plan
As we all know, the construction/remodeling industry was hit hard by increased lumber and supply costs post Covid, which caused this project to undergo a dramatic price increase. At that point, Dan says, “We started shaving money.”
Designers Tom Eastwood and Faith Herring worked together with Dan to cut costs. One significant solution was to repurpose several existing cabinets in a desk/butler’s pantry/bar area in the galley-style space between the kitchen and family room. Also, the lower cabinetry on the outside wall, which was in excellent condition, was salvaged. This eliminated the need for additional cabinetry and saved time on the geometry required for that curved wall.
Fortunately, after adjustments were made and the project was back on track, most of the items on the homeowner’s wish list remained. Dan had been very involved in the design process and had researched the look and function he was after.
“Dan wanted an updated and highly functional space that provoked a “wow” when people walked in, yet still be timeless,” Herring says. “Ten years from now, people will step into this kitchen and not associate it with any particular era.”
Counter point
Knowing the challenges they would face with the curviness of the room, Eastwood says they asked the countertop fabricator to laser measure and diagram the existing countertops. “That way,” he says, “we would have a template to use as a starting point for the cabinetry layout.”
Now, that the dark granite is gone, the new perimeter cabinets are covered in quartz that’s just over an inch thick. Dan wanted a more “robust” look for the island, so that center surface sports a quartz top that is double that thickness. “That was my caveat,” he says.
By removing the range and changing from two-tiered to a flat surface, the island now serves as a wonderful gathering space for five or six people to sit when Dan entertains. Often that involves a much larger crowd—his college age daughter and several of her friends. Dan is more than happy to cook for them.
Epicurean experience
“I’ve been cooking since I was seven or eight years old,” he says. “My parents owned a restaurant in downtown Columbus from 1964 until 1994. Everybody in my family had to work. I would cook breakfast on the weekends.”
When Dan was 15, due to his father’s health issues, he took over as head cook when his school schedule permitted. He recalls, “some of my teachers would come in and I would cook for them.”
These days, his cooking takes place at home, but he says he cooks every day, “anything and everything, Asian, standard American fare, you name it.”
Super fan
With all this passion and experience behind him, Dan knew he needed a far more powerful ventilation system than the current configuration would provide. He wanted to place the oven on the kitchen’s only flat wall, so that the exhaust could be vented out through the roof.
While the kitchen was out of commission, much of Dan and his daughter’s activities moved to the lower-level kitchen. The construction process took six months start to finish. Dan has high praise for the Dave Fox Design-Build Remodelers team. “Faith and Tom were very easy to work with. If I didn’t like something they were very agreeable. They listened to my input and came back with ideas.”
For example, Dan wanted a backsplash with minimal grout lines. The solution was full-height quartz which was cut into strips to accommodate the curvature of the walls. To avoid cutouts in the backsplash, the design team specified undercabinet and task lighting along with angled power strips.
Another solution to the curve was separate refrigerator and freezer columns which were placed beside each other but at an angle where they could slide out easily. Here, as in the rest of the kitchen, careful calculations needed to be made to build each “box” individually, using extended stiles to conceal the spacing on the front side of the cabinets due to their angled placement.
It was a challenging project for sure, and Dan has nothing but praise for the men who took the lead on the installation of his new kitchen—project manager Joseph Lyons and lead carpenter Alden Robinson.
“They made this a very easy project,” he says.
Moving on up
Now the kitchen is far more functional than before along with it being a much brighter space—helped by the abundance of light coming in from both the front and back banks of windows. Replacing the dark granite with white quartz made a huge difference as well.
Today, Dan’s choice for the favorite room in his house may have just moved from the basement to upstairs to his bright and shiny new kitchen. He’s happiest here when he is cooking for a crowd. “I love having a house full of people, whether it be large family gatherings or hosting friends,” he says, “and I love this space.”
RESOURCES
Contractor Dave Fox Design-Build Remodelers Kitchen and interior design Faith Herring, senior interior designer, CMKBD, CLIPP; Tom Eastwood, design consultant; and Joseph Lyons, project manager; all from Dave Fox Design-Build Remodelers Cabinetry and hood surround Omega Cabinetry, Masterbrand Countertops and backsplash Cambria quartz, Midwest Quartz Sinks Ruvati, Ferguson Faucets Delta, Ferguson Cove dishwasher, Wolf range, Sub-Zero refrigerator and freezer columns Custom Distributors, Inc., Tisdale Faber hood insert and blower, and Elica Refrigeration under counter beverage refrigerator Custom Distributors, Inc. Disposal InSinkErator, Ferguson Lutron receptacles and switches and Kichler pendants and chandelier Northern Lighting Under cabinet lighting and power strips Task Lighting, Hardware Resources Cabinet and appliance hardware Top Knobs Paint Sherwin-Williams
Article by Karen Bradner | Photos by Prestige Pro Photo
Article originally appeared in February 2025