Country Kitchen

Photo: J. Savage Gibson

It was a chance encounter--but not a brief one. New Englanders Jan and Roger Treese had rented a vacation house on Lady's Island, just across the Intracoastal Waterway from Beaufort, South Carolina. The house, which they loved, was designed and built by Charles Ferguson, of the Meridian Company in Beaufort, who happened to be a neighbor. Soon the Fergusons and the Treeses were fast friends. When Jan and Roger decided to settle in the Carolina Low Country, they bought land along the waterway and naturally turned to Ferguson and his design/build firm for guidance.

Jan and Roger were clear on what, in general, they wanted: a traditional house with some period details that reflected its Southern location. Their way of doing research was a far cry from spending long hours in the public library. "They were moving their boat south from Connecticut," Ferguson recalls. "So my wife and I flew up to join them. From Norfolk, Virginia, southward along the waterway, we noted every house on the shore for ideas. By the time we reached Beaufort, we essentially had the house designed." Because Jan was a trained chef who would conduct French cooking classes, much thought was given to the kitchen.

In the plan, the kitchen and adjoining pantry occupy one end of the waterside house. Wide doorways open the kitchen to the dining and living rooms.

Floor Plan: Steven Stankiewicz

For protection from fire, the traditional Southern kitchen with its wood-burning stove was always kept separate from the main house," Ferguson explains. In a nod to that tradition, he and the Treeses placed their twostory, 300-square-foot kitchen at one end of the structure, with the rest of the house attached to it. Once they had the design ideas roughed out, their sketches were turned over to Christian Trask, of Distant Island Company in Beaufort, who added a few creative touches before producing the working plans.

An antique Parisian butcher-block that Jan treasured became the inspiration for at least one of the details that ultimately appeared in her kitchen. Its tapered legs and ball feet were repeated on the 558-foot work island where Jan would prepare meals and also preside over her cooking classes. Cabinets were custom made by the Meridian Company in a simple Shaker style. "The carcasses are poplar, and the doors are mahogany," says the designer. "Glass-fronted wall cabinets were included so that all of their contents would be visually accessible."

The flooring in the room is unique. It's structural flooring salvaged from an old Massachusetts mill that was being torn down. As Ferguson points out, "Each fir plank is four inches thick. That's why there are no floor joists in this house. It's built over steel I-beams. And the ceiling joists you see in the kitchen are lengths of fir flooring as well. The finish is natural, the wood just coated with polyurethane."

Photo: J. Savage Gibson

Because of the professional as well as familial demands on her cooking skills, Jan wanted her kitchen to accommodate commercial appliances. This presented a challenge, for, as Ferguson points out, "True commercial appliances don't have adequate insulation to meet the noncombustible requirements of residences." To accommodate her and also comply with local codes, Ferguson placed stainless steel cabinets alongside the appliances and installed an exhaust hood with tremendous pulling power.

With a 47-cubic-foot refrigerator, an eight-burner commercial range with 35,000-Btu capacity, plus wide counters, a work island with its own sink and, of course, the antique butcher-block she brought from Connecticut, the kitchen fulfilled Jan's own heart's desire. But what about Roger? The siting of the house was what captivated him. "From the street," says Ferguson, "you can see through the glass front door all the way to the center line of the boat dock." That was Roger's dream.

Made for a pro: Jan Treese's flexibly designed kitchen is as useful when she's preparing a family meal as when she's teaching a class. Storage capacity is key, as is having what she needs as close to her fingertips as possible. Shown here, clockwise from right, cooking utensils and cutlery stand upright in a deep divided drawer custom made to her specifications; a pasta press mounted at one corner of the granitetopped island is perfectly placed so that Jan and her students can crank out fresh pasta; the stainless steel sink undermounted at one end of the work island is big enough for Jan to spray-wash fresh vegetables and fruit and also hand-wash cookware for her classes; pullout racks in the wine cooler keep bottles organized and handy.

Read the original article
View aditional photos in our gallery