This is a serious kitchen. It may look like a showcase, but Kathy Macke insisted that the kitchen in her new Napa Valley home had to be more than a pretty space. So she gave designer Thomas Bartlett a list of requirements that was based on years of personal experience at Kathy and her husband Ken’s previous home in Minneapolis. That Bartlett was able to turn all of that into such a handsome room is a credit to his design skills.

High on Kathy’s list was the desire to break up the standard kitchen arrangement. “Kathy is a serious cook and spends quite a lot of time in the kitchen,” says Bartlett. “She had definite ideas about where things should be. For example, the refrigerators are totally out of the work area. I wondered about that arrangement, but she explained that family members were always in and out of the refrigerators and consequently in the way. (Their three children are now grown and living on their own.) She is an organized cook and usually gets all her ingredients out at one time so she didn’t need the proximity.” Adds Kathy, “It’s not your typical triangle, but it works.”

Experience also taught her about where to place her cooktop. “I was very specific about not wanting my cooktop in the island,” she explains. “I had that in my other house, and it didn’t work for me. When you’re cooking there, it messes up your whole island. And, if there are things cooking, you just can’t get away from it.” Bartlett worked a little design judo and turned that into an asset, creating a focal point in the kitchen: a beautifully detailed and tiled arched niche with the range, pot-filler faucet, and built-in shelving for spices and oils.