Worry-free renovations and the best guarantee in town
BRIAN MCCULLOUGH
Postmedia Content Works
Like most couples, Stittsville homeowners Marilyn and Tom have their own preferences when it comes to music — she’s been a Tragically Hip fan forever, while he’s more into U2 — but they were in perfect harmony when it came time to renovate their kitchen and dining room areas with the professional team from Westend Bath and Kitchen.
The couple’s Cypress Gardens community has been on the map for about 20 years, so the homes there are definitely entering that “sweet spot” where many owners consider making renovations to improve the quality of their lives and to maintain the best potential resale value for their homes. Marilyn and Tom had a pretty good general idea of what they wanted — a sensible open-concept plan for their kitchen and dining room — and thanks to a neighbour’s recommendation they knew exactly where to go to for a completely worry-free renovation.
“Our neighbour loved what Westend did for her and how everything was guaranteed,” Marilyn said. “That peace of mind meant a lot to us. We normally like to get at least two or three quotes, but we felt confident going straight to Westend.”
What designer Sarah Stott was able to achieve for them went well beyond simple peace of mind. By removing the barrier wall with the attached kitchen sink peninsula that made access to the dining room inconvenient, and by incorporating several chic design elements, Stott produced a classy modern home environment with better sight lines and more natural flow.
The centrepiece element is an attractive, functional island for the dishwasher, sink and hidden recycling centre, but Stott also added a stand-alone pantry cupboard and a lovely bench seat with storage space for the bay window area. She introduced a touch of real elegance by specifying a custom slab of walnut from KJP Select Hardwoods for the new dining room tabletop, and even replaced the fireplace mantle in the living room with a companion section of walnut that still has the “live edge” intact. Stott set the overall design off with a light and dark colour scheme for the new cabinetry and quartz countertops to create a stunning result.
“Sarah was lovely to deal with, and we went with her first choice on pretty much everything,” Marilyn said.
The couple said they love the rich texture of having two different styles of quartz for the countertops. Stott brought in a light, fine-grained pattern to go with the white cabinetry along the kitchen walls and a coarser-grained pattern to complement the dark cabinetry of the island, pantry and dining room china cabinet. In the evening, with just the under-cabinet LEDs left on for mood lighting, Marilyn and Tom said the entire kitchen and dining space takes on a wonderfully calming quality.
“Westend really helped open our minds to what we could do,” Tom said. “Sarah’s 3D views let us see the layout of the new kitchen from all different angles, which was ideal, but it is still hard to imagine that it could be this nice.”
“I can still hardly believe it,” Marilyn added. “I love the modern feel of everything.”
The Westend Bath & Kitchen showroom, located at 1660 Woodward Dr., is open Monday to Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. To schedule a free home renovation estimate, call 613- 226-7701, or visit the company’s new website at www.westendbk.ca. The website also features a virtual tour of Westend’s amazing 8,000-sqft showroom, where many of the quality product lines are on display in realistic home settings.
