Kurt Sauser has caused a lot of distress in his designing career, but all for a good cause. Sauser works for Designer Kitchens & Baths, Inc. in Deerfield, Ill., and says prudent distressing is the key to pulling together a design that includes modern materials and authentic aged pieces, such as the 160-year-old hutch he worked with in a country kitchen design.
The hutch and an oversized farm table came from Ireland, just like his recently relocated clients, who wanted to use the pieces to create an Old World Irish kitchen. Sauser gave the rest of the room the same centuries-old European manor feel with distressed limestone tile floors and cabinets, but still managed to include modern amenities like Sub-Zero all-fridge and all-freezer units faced with distressed pine doors.
Sauser says he's partial to old pieces and architectural salvage in kitchen design, even in his own home. He offers these tips for people who want a traditional country design that will still let you cook like a modern master:
Limestone tiles lend the right look: "This distressed limestone tile is a modified version of a pattern you might have found in a European manor 120-130 years ago; it's not precisely the same, but it's in the general spirit of that time frame," says Sauser. "Tumbled limestone tile has a lot of natural variation and when it's distressed it's more forgiving than clean-honed tile. Limestone is more porous than a lot of stone tiles and as the sealer wears off the spots and cracks will look much like the crevices that are already there."
Choose reputable reproductions: "The hutch and the table in this design are authentic period pieces, but the rest of the pine in the kitchen only looks Old World — it was all made to order. Lots of manufacturers will do distressed looks for you, but you want to closely evaluate the techniques they use to create the reproduction. Every door should not look the same or have the same distress marks in the same places. If you're using a vintage piece from a specific period in the same design, look carefully to see how beat up it is and in what way. You'll want the new pieces to have distress details that would be appropriate to that same era."
Try this at home: "When they look for vintage furniture to place in the kitchen, a lot of people only consider pieces that are already in the finish or style that they like," says Sauser, "But keep in mind that you can find other old pieces that maybe have an added hinge or a broken corner or have been improperly restored, and you can change the details and the finish and do some simple restoration to make the piece work. They won't be fine antiques, but they'll still have great value as pieces that have been used and owned by many generations."
When you want big antiques in the kitchen, always remember this: "You can really only work one really large piece, or maybe two, into a kitchen design," says Sauser. "If you have, say, a big breakfast room off to one side of the kitchen and you want to put a hutch in there, that's relatively easy — you just have to push it against the wall and coordinate the rest of the kitchen around it. Or if you're starting out with a new kitchen, you can design around a piece easily.
"But it becomes much more difficult if you're trying to place a large piece in the center of an existing kitchen. The kitchen is a room you use a lot and everything in it has to work — it can't just look beautiful. I would never recommend buying something big that catches your eye and then bringing it home to see how it works out. Instead, start the design process first and then go look for pieces that make sense with the design."
No matter what kind of kitchen you're designing, always remember this, too: "Choose a design professional who can help you achieve the look you like within a budget you can comfortably afford, not someone who will dictate to you," says Sauser. "The kitchen must have great visual appeal but still function in a way that will work for your family — it's the nerve center of the house."
Meet the designer: One of Kurt Sauser's favorite hunting grounds is France, from which he often brings back "brocantes" — old pieces that are not fine antiques but still have potential — to use in designs for Designer Kitchens & Baths, Inc. "I've worked old armoire doors into pantries and old pediments into the structure after bringing them back to the original luster," he says.
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Kurt Sauser
Designer Kitchens & Baths, Inc.
Deerfield, Ill.
847-562-1100
