What kind of kitchens do buyers look for when shopping for a new home?
Realtors report that the heart of the home has to function as just that: a space to gather for family meals (sorry, dining room), entertain, do homework, watch movies, hang out and, oh yes, prepare food. The most common complaint about the kitchens in older homes is that they were designed as remote rooms for cooks and servants—a la Downton Abbey—with no connection to where family life is lived. So topping the “ideal kitchen” list is an easy flow into a family or great room, a formal dining room, preferably with a butler’s pantry, and doors that open onto a terrace for al fresco dining. Inside the kitchen, buyers look for an island long enough to use as a buffet table for parties and seat the entire family for meals. Top quality appliances are also key, as are sinks in several spots—a double sink positioned next to the dishwasher, a pot filler nearer to the stove, and a sink in the butler’s pantry.
Then there’s the question of the style, from sleek and modern to farmhouse cozy—and one of our favorite listings this month manages to embrace both aesthetics. Harkening back to its heritage, the kitchen in the circa-1840 Greenwich estate on page 38 has extra-wide floorboards, exposed brick and rustic ceiling beams. There’s also a pair of new—but traditional looking—murals on a set of cabinet doors. But the space is modernized by its pristine beadboard island, white marble countertops and top-of-the-line appliances. It has the right flow going too, with easy passages to the double-height breakfast room and the family room. The 11,000-square-foot, stone-and-shingle home also offers a cool “Adirondack” room with a massive hearth, elk-horn chandeliers and a Netflix-worthy movie screen. On the nearly five-acre grounds: There’s a lake, a pool and a handsome barn with a home gym. BK Bates of Houlihan Lawrence in Greenwich has the $9,950,000 listing.
Coastal Cachet
A lovely antique in Westport comes with a connection to one of the town’s most famous foodies: Paul Newman. The Hartford Courant reports that Joanne Woodward once purchased it for her mother, so she would be close to the Woodward/Newman Coleytown compound where the Newman’s Own company was born. Story goes that the famously blue-eyed actor used to bottle up his secret-recipe salad dressing in his Coleytown kitchen to give as gifts. To date, the company’s line of food and pet products has donated more than $400 million to charity. The for-sale property has a storied history even apart from the Newman connection. The main Colonial Saltbox, built in 1763, would be called the Kerr Eby House after its anti-war owner; unsubstantiated reports cite it as a stop along the Underground Railroad. Over the years, pieces of the property have been owned by sculptor James Earle Fraser and his wife, Laura Gardin Fraser, both of whom helped establish Westport as an artist’s colony. Today, the listing is offered in several ways, with the entire 10.46-acre riverfront property priced at $9,898,000, which includes the much-expanded main house, two additional homes, two barns and a pretty footbridge that crosses the river. Mary Palmieri Gai of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices in Westport has the listing (203-984-2169).
The next stop on our kitchen tour takes us to Compo Beach in Westport, where a brand-new, 9,100-square-foot home has one of the most welcoming kitchens we’ve seen. The open-plan space offers restaurant-quality amenities, including a six-burner stove, a marble-topped island with a pot-filler sink, and stone backsplashes. It’s flanked by a breakfast room for casual meals and a more formal dining room with coffered ceilings and a butler’s pantry. The kitchen also opens onto a spacious family room with a chic stone hearth and two walls of French doors accessing handsome terraces. Come spring, the outdoor spaces make for fabulous entertaining with fireplace, stone loggia and pool. Sue Lieberman of the Riverside Realty Group in Westport has the $5,295,000 listing.
It’s worth the trip up the Connecticut coast to check out this circa-1920s Madison home with a new—and extremely elegant—kitchen. Luxe details start with the counters and island, topped with two-inch-thick statuary marble (translation: good enough to carve a replica of Michelangelo’s David, if you have a hankering for one of those). The all-white space, from the beamed ceilings to the gleaming cabinetry, is offset by glossy ebony floors and window frames. The kitchen flows into an open-plan dining area and living room with a pretty, paneled hearth. And if we had you at “statuary marble,” you’ll want to check out the walk-in marble shower off the master suite, which also offers a pretty slipper tub. The 8,000-square-foot home has four additional bedrooms, a billiard room and a home theater room with a stone fireplace. Lorey and Meig Walz with the Coldwell Banker office in Madison share the $4,999,000 listing
Country Charmers
Barn homes almost always have lofty, open-plan kitchen spaces, often with rough-hewn beams and other rustic elements. Among the best barn builders around is the father-son team of Ed Cady, Senior and Junior—as evidenced by this ruggedly handsome home they constructed using two antique barns moved from upstate New York to a bucolic, nearly eight-acre Roxbury spread. The kitchen space, which features antique-slate counters, a beehive oven, a farmhouse sink and a restaurant-quality stove, opens onto the great room, with soaring ceilings and a massive hearth. The 3,304-square-foot home is clad in antique barn siding and has a hand-split, cedar-shingle roof; inside there are two additional fireplaces, two bedrooms and three bathrooms. John Sniffen of William Pitt Sotheby’s International Realty in Washington Depot has the $1,795,000 listing.
Finally, in Sharon, the classic Connecticut farmhouse has been re-imagined to offer larger and more elegant living spaces than the properties of yore. There’s a traditional look to the kitchen in this 3,000-square-foot home, with its wide-width floorboards and high ceilings. But the top-quality appliances, farmhouse sink and antique marble-topped island are modern, as is the feel of the open passage to the living, sitting and dining rooms. The property’s best feature might be the screened-in porch—suitable for dining—that runs the length of the house, inspired by Charleston’s verandahs, but with beautiful Western views over protected land and the Litchfield Hills. On the 7.5-acre grounds: a barn, an apple orchard and extensive open meadows. It’s listed for $1,295,000 with Ira Goldspiel of William Pitt Sotheby’s International Realty in Kent.
