When Laura Ziffer and her husband bought their 1932 Spanish bungalow in the Rose Garden neighborhood 10 years ago, it had a new kitchen with the expected amenities: terra cotta tile floors, granite counters, cherry cabinets.

But it was dark and “very orange,” Ziffer said. “I just didn’t like any of it.”

As co-owner of lulu Pom interior design in Los Gatos, she wanted something special, something unexpected.

But how could she rip out a new kitchen? So she waited until it wasn’t so new anymore. And earlier this year, with a sharp eye for detail and using some tricks of the trade, the remodel began.

So, did she simply update the Spanish look? No way, she said.

She created a Soho-New Yorker-style kitchen.

“I like mixing modern with vintage,” she said.

Using the era of the house _ the 1930s _ as a reference point, she chose materials of travertine, marble, mirror and wood.

“I wanted the rough touching the shiny and I wanted it to look old but kind of modern,” Ziffer said.

For the floor, she chose 16 x 14 rough travertine tiles. For the counters, she installed honed Calcutta marble with 3-inch mitered edges. For the walls, her tile contractor, Ceramic and Stone Design of Santa Clara, cut glossy square marble tiles into rectangular subway tiles, then ran them up to the ceiling.

She turned a small doorway separating the kitchen from the breakfast nook into a broad open arch, and set modern metal Bertoia chairs from Design Within Reach next to an antique French bistro table. A glamorous La Cornue stove was installed under a stainless Vent-A-Hood _ both from University Electric Appliance in Santa Clara.

She replaced the cabinet doors and had them hand-painted and glazed a dark chocolate, like Ziffer had done when Lulu Pom remodeled the kitchen for the last Silicon Valley Symphony Showcase House in Saratoga.
She considered adding a Spanish element _ and even designed and had fabricated wrought iron shelving on either side of the sink _ “but it looked too Spanish-y, like I was trying too hard,” she said. The brackets are still leaning against her living room wall.

When it came to lighting, she went both modern and vintage _ using fixtures she sells at the lulu Pom shop on Main Street in Los Gatos. But once she let on that she was mixing nickel and brass fixtures, “people were like, “You’re putting that with this?”

The answer? A definitive “yes.”

And the impact? Stunning.

Updated: This post was featured in the San Jose Mercury News Home and Garden section here.

Here’s the complete slideshow:

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 21st, 2008 at 11:30 am and is filed under Architecture, Bungalow, Decorating, Home and Garden, Interior Design, Julia, Kitchen, Peek of the Week, Rose Garden, San Jose. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.