Fresh new cabinets that are sleek and chic and also offer improved storage. Miles of countertops for prepping, serving, or just enjoying. Professional appliances to replace those that have been faithful, but lack in the function area. Perhaps even a new layout that better reflects a modern lifestyle.
They are some of the most coveted kitchen features today, the popularity of which reaches its peak in October during National Kitchen & Bath Month. October is the most popular time of the year for homeowners to remodel their kitchen, thanks to being sandwiched between kids returning to school and “families not yet overwhelmed by the flurry of activity around the holidays,” according to the National Kitchen+Bath Association.
If you’re in a renovation head space, that likely means you have been poring over design magazines and websites, visiting kitchen showrooms and touring model homes, and tagging, clipping, pinning, and snapping pictures of all the appliances, fixtures, and finishes in your kitchen redo fantasy.
It also may mean you’re more conflicted than ever about how to create the perfect space that offers all the function you insist on with the feel you crave. And, how to make sure your kitchen is on trend without being trendy. And, beyond all the features and fixtures and finishes, how to still allow your individuality to shine through. Thankfully, what can sound like an overwhelming mix of must-haves can yield an amazing kitchen that balances all your needs, and your wants. Fashion mogul Tommy Hilfiger shows us how.
Hilfiger’s Miami mansion in the exclusive Golden Beach enclave, listed for for $27.5 million with Jill Eber and Jill Hertzberg of The Jills®, leading real estate agents in South Florida and Miami Beach, is a pop art and post-pop art confection that Hilfiger has described as “part gallery, part beach house, part disco.” Featured on the cover of Architectural Digest in 2014, the 14,075-square-foot oceanfront home with interiors by renowned interior designer Martyn Lawerence Bullard is a head-to-toe, floor-to-ceiling example of how to imbue luxurious personal style into your abode.
When you’re Tommy Hilfiger, that means bold bursts of color and great graphic prints throughout, like the red, purple, black, and white swirled hair-on-hide carpet in the show-stopping living room. The faux suede fabrics by Robert Allen and Kravet in Hilfiger brand colors covering the walls of the icon’s home office. Diagonally-striped fire engine red-and-white walls in one of the kid’s bedrooms and yellow and white polka dots from ceiling to walls to floor in another. And, don’t forget about the banana-motif scratch-and-sniff wallpaper in one of the home’s eight bathrooms.
By contrast, the exquisite gourmet kitchen in Hilfiger’s home is stark and subdued, but no less spectacular. Black-and-white, diagonally-striped tile floors set the dramatic tone, with an expanse of stainless Miele appliances including double ovens and a built-in coffeemaker the only interruption among walls of floor-to-ceiling, custom, white Aran Cucine cabinetry. The Gaggenau cooktop and Aran Cucine hood are integrated into the back wall of the kitchen, with a mirrored backsplash that adds another reflective surface to the lustrous, luscious space. Gaze up toward the ceiling, where the contemporary Robert Sonneman chandelier brings some ‘70s-era swag.
The massive island features a waterfall edge and a black stripe that bisects the white Caeserstone countertops. Pull up a stool, or in Hilfiger’s case, four amazing Willy Rizzo–inspired acrylic stools dressed in Mongolian lamb’s wool cushions, and convene at the eating bar; it affords a stellar view of the entire space, as well as the adjacent breakfast nook and the lush, tropical grounds.
The nook is flooded with light through tall windows on two sides; on one, Elizabeth Taylor (from Pictures of Diamonds) from Vik Muniz, one of Hilfiger’s noted artworks (also featured throughout the home are works by Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Keith Haring). On another, palm trees and ocean blue hold court. A side door also offers access to the property’s expansive oceanfront patios, infinity pool, ample lounge areas, and the beach beyond, with 100 feet of water frontage.
In all, it creates a one-of-a-kind space that is at once personal, professional, and pristine, just as the perfect kitchen should be.
