Katy family gets their dream kitchen – Houston Chronicle

Katy family gets their dream kitchen Update turns dark, dated space into a family oasis

By Diane Cowen

The kitchen remodel at the Katy home of Candie and Steven Tramonte.

The kitchen remodel at the Katy home of Candie and Steven Tramonte.

AFTER: Candie and Steven Tramonte created an open kitchen concept when they remodel their Katy home.

AFTER: Candie and Steven Tramonte created an open kitchen concept when they remodel their Katy home.

The kitchen remodel at the Katy home of Candie and Steven Tramonte.

The kitchen remodel at the Katy home of Candie and Steven Tramonte.

A Thermador gas range is at the heart of the kitchen remodel at the Katy home of Candie and Steven Tramonte.

A Thermador gas range is at the heart of the kitchen remodel at the Katy home of Candie and Steven Tramonte.

The kitchen remodel at the Katy home of Candie and Steven Tramonte.

The kitchen remodel at the Katy home of Candie and Steven Tramonte.

The kitchen remodel at the Katy home of Candie and Steven Tramonte.

The kitchen remodel at the Katy home of Candie and Steven Tramonte.

The kitchen remodel at the Katy home of Candie and Steven Tramonte.

The kitchen remodel at the Katy home of Candie and Steven Tramonte.

BEFORE: Columns and a wall separated the living room from the kitchen of the Tramonte home.

BEFORE: Columns and a wall separated the living room from the kitchen of the Tramonte home.

"Before" photos of the home of Candie and Steven Tramonte, who remodeled the kitchen in their Katy home.

"Before" photos of the home of Candie and Steven Tramonte, who remodeled the kitchen in their Katy home.

Katy family gets their dream kitchen

Steven Tramonte stands at his Thermador range and grins like a kid in a candy store.

This is where he makes heavy pans of lasagna, nurtures tender meatballs and occasionally fries up a batch of doughnuts, just like his mother did when he was young.

It's right here - at the island in the middle of his kitchen- where the husband and father of two holds court. The Thermador's six burners and long griddle are filled with pots and pans when Tramonte is in full-chef mode.

"Spending a whole day cooking, as long as I've got wine or beer and some music going, I'm perfectly fine. I would be on my feet all day doing that," he said.

Tramonte and his wife, Candie, built their home in Katy's Cinco Ranch in 2008 thinking that the floor plan they chose was just what they wanted.

After a decade of living in it, they knew exactly what they needed to change.

Powder bathrooms: This tiny room is getting more attention in home remodeling projects.

The kitchen was separated from their living room by a wall with arched openings and columns, which made it a little difficult to move between the two spaces. The small in-kitchen pantry didn't quite serve their needs, and the breakfast nook in the back was so isolated that it felt like meals were being eaten in a place you'd be sent for a time-out.

Dining room and living room decorating projects and a backyard upgrade that added a summer kitchen and pool were already behind them.

They were saving this project because they knew it would be bigger, more costly and more disruptive.

Candie Tramonte spent hours on Houzz.com searching for designers and homes, looking at kitchen after kitchen. She found Cindy Aplanalp-Yates of Chairma Design Group, who ultimately had them renovate their kitchen and breakfast nook and use more than 100 square feet of garage space for a jaw-dropping pantry big enough to also provide office space for Candie.

Before, slate flooring, black granite counters and dark-stained cabinets combined for a heavy look. It's not that their kitchen wasn't nice - it was just dated and dark.

Cindy Aplanalp-Yates of Chairman Design Group offers this advice for people considering a home remodeling project.

* Get comfortable with your investment. The home upgrade and its cost need to fit your neighborhood.

* Consider your lifestyle.

* Do it now. Don't delay a remodeling job just to sell your home. Do it now and enjoy it yourself.

* Move vs. remodel: If you're considering buying a new house instead of remodeling, make sure the space fits your family. Bigger isn't necessarily better.

* Look at your lighting: If you home is filled with simple builder-grade fixtures take them down right now and replace them with something fabulous.

* Don't ignore window treatments. Whether you use draperies, shades or anything else, nice window treatments will elevate any room.

* Color choices. Not only is gray still popular, but also there are so many shades that it can be hard to choose the right ones. If you like the look in the Tramontes' home, the cabinets are Sherwin Williams Dorian Gray and their walls are Repose Gray.

Getting to their now-gleaming bright and light new space began with a complete gut job to their kitchen, breakfast nook and a 9-foot-by-12-foot portion of the three-car garage.

"I love working in kitchens. So many great things happen in the kitchen - everyone congregates there," Aplanalp-Yates said of the project.

For the three months of renovation, a big tarp hung where their kitchen once began. Candie Tramonte set up an ingenious temporary kitchen in the laundry room, creating a makeshift pantry using hanging closet shelving to store food and learning to cook exclusively using a slow cooker and a microwave.

They moved their kitchen table and refrigerator to the foyer and washed dishes in the outdoor kitchen.

"It would probably be a problem for other people, but we did it. I don't think the kids even remember that we didn't have a kitchen for three months," the laid-back mom said of 10-year-old daughter, Mia, and 7-year-old son, Tanner.

Part of the construction required adding an 18-foot support beam to handle the load previously held up by the columns. Three small vertical windows over the kitchen sink turned into one much larger window that looks into the backyard and the neighborhood green space beyond.

Creamy white porcelain tile replaced the dark slate on the floor, and in place of the black granite counters is now a durable gray-white quartz. Cantilevered light fixtures and beautiful window treatments polish it all off.

"Marble is beautiful, but I knew it would not work for them," Alplanalp-Yates said. "It needed to support their lifestyle instead of getting in their way. I didn't want them to worry about red wine spills."

When the pantry became a whole room of its own, the Tramontes found themselves with space for so much more than food and shelving. That's where they moved their original appliances to make room for the high-end appliance package - the range with a Thermador dishwasher, vent hood and refrigerator - to be installed in the new kitchen.

Shifting things around was part of Aplanalp-Yates' strategy to get the most out of every inch in the house.

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"I'm always looking for space that can be better utilized. What's in your garage? Bikes you don't use, camping equipment you don't use," she said.

Candie Tramonte chimed in: "It made us smarter about how we store our junk."

That out-of-the-way breakfast nook now is a hot spot for gathering. Instead of an ordinary round table and chairs, a smart banquette wraps around three sides of a table, finished with two upholstered chairs. All of it is covered in family-friendly, stain-proof Sunbrella fabric.

Drawers at each end of its base hold the kids' things; Mia has a drawer full of slime jars.

"Everything we did was keeping in mind we have elementary-school-aged kids," she said. "We just don't have time to baby countertops or to make sure that your kid's not spilling juice or making their slime over there. I've got tons of slime. My daughter is obsessed with it."

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Katy family gets their dream kitchen - Houston Chronicle