Laminated walls - in kitchen and dining room remodel

Sunset, Feb, 2004 by Jil Peters

The graphic cabinetry pattern in Frank Clementi and wife Julie Smith's remodeled kitchen and dining room isn't just a pretty facade. It plays an important role in updating the space and making it comfortable. The challenge was to design a floor-to-ceiling wall of cabinets that didn't make the kitchen feel cramped and claustrophobic.

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After careful research, including looking at studies of mathematically derived visual patterns, Clementi and Smith created an arrangement with rectangular, solid-color plastic laminates. The pattern seems to reduce the scale of the long wall by breaking it into sections. The cabinets incorporate panels of glow-in-the-dark laminates, which have led to hours of enjoyment for the couple's children--they play shadow games by pressing their hands against the glow-in-the-dark sections and turning off the lights to view the results.

In the dining area, multipurpose consoles incorporate a pattern similar to the one in the kitchen, but "in materials that are appropriate for a dining space," Clementi says. Panels of plastic laminate are paired with wood-veneer laminates. The rectangular row of durable plastic laminates is positioned at chair-rail height to protect the consoles from inevitable bumps.

DESIGN: Frank Clementi, Julie Smith, architects, Los Angeles (323/634-9220)

SOURCES: Solid-color laminate from Abet Laminati ($59 per 51- by 120-in. sheet; www.abetlaminati.com or 800/228-2238); glow-in-the-dark laminate from Abet Laminati's Lumiphos line ($5.75 per square ft.); wood veneer from Formica Ligna Wood Surfacing (price varies; www.formica.com or 800/367-6422 for distributors).

RELATED ARTICLE: DESIGN TIPS

* Temper personal preferences. Just because you like a particular green, blue, and yellow doesn't mean that those are the right colors to use. In their kitchen pattern, Frank Clementi and Julie Smith used a teal color "I swore I'd never use," Clementi says. However, it was the ideal color to tie together the pale yellow-green, the avocado, and the marine blue. "It's like the freakish friend that you don't want to have come to the party, but then saves the party."

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* To break up the surface of an object, use a pattern large enough to have an impact from the distance it will be viewed. Clementi uses the example of a black- and white-checked suit. Even though that pattern works up close, from a distance it looks like a solid field of gray.

* Play with scale if you want to create a sense of discovery. For example, a pillow design Clementi recently worked on has a huge apple on it. The scale is so large that, up close, it looks like an abstract pattern. It's only from across the room that you see the apple.