Before & After

From Fire Hazard to Serene and Smoke-Free

Interior & Kitchen Designer: Centerline Design & Build

General Contractor: Maine Properties Remodel Division

Countertop Contractor: Morningstar Stone & Tile

Tile Contractor: Distinctive Tile & Design

Square Feet: 300

Project Time: 8 months

TEXT BY JEN DEROSE
PHOTOGRAPHED BY MYRIAM BABIN

A family’s smoky, cramped kitchen becomes a welcoming spot to prep and perch.

For nearly 20 years, cooking in this Freeport kitchen frequently resulted in a shrill rebuke from the smoke detector. Occasionally, the security system would also intervene, broadcasting a booming false alarm: “Fire, fire! Get out, get out!” “It wasn’t just my bad cooking” that caused the room to fill with smoke, says the wife/owner, who shares her 1984 Saltbox with her husband and two teenagers. “It was that we had no ventilation!”

Their electric stove, centered beneath a bay window, had lovely Harraseeket River views, but no hood or obvious place to install one. So when the appliance quit last year, the couple called in principal designer Jeanne Rapone and interior designer Lisa Morris, of Yarmouth’s Centerline Design & Build. Beyond solving the stove problem, the team sought to create a more functional, streamlined layout. Removing a wall between the kitchen and a former office allowed them to carve out a casual dining area and extend the new Shaker cabinetry on the stove wall. The previous glass-front cupboards “made everything look busy,” Rapone says. “And this family’s life is busy enough.” An underutilized closet became a coffee station loaded with drawers and a 7-foot-square, granite-topped island with wraparound seating — the family calls it a “continent” — stands in for the former bar-style island.

But everyone’s favorite feature is the new Wolf six-burner gas stove, matched with a floral-tile backsplash where a window used to be. Its crowning glory? A powerful, wood-paneled hood as elegant as a piece of furniture.

before kitchen remodel
Before
after kitchen remodel
After
TEXT BY JEN DEROSE
PHOTOGRAPHED BY MYRIAM BABIN

A family’s smoky, cramped kitchen becomes a welcoming spot to prep and perch.

For nearly 20 years, cooking in this Freeport kitchen frequently resulted in a shrill rebuke from the smoke detector. Occasionally, the security system would also intervene, broadcasting a booming false alarm: “Fire, fire! Get out, get out!” “It wasn’t just my bad cooking” that caused the room to fill with smoke, says the wife/owner, who shares her 1984 Saltbox with her husband and two teenagers. “It was that we had no ventilation!”

before kitchen remodel
Before

Their electric stove, centered beneath a bay window, had lovely Harraseeket River views, but no hood or obvious place to install one. So when the appliance quit last year, the couple called in principal designer Jeanne Rapone and interior designer Lisa Morris, of Yarmouth’s Centerline Design & Build. Beyond solving the stove problem, the team sought to create a more functional, streamlined layout. Removing a wall between the kitchen and a former office allowed them to carve out a casual dining area and extend the new Shaker cabinetry on the stove wall. The previous glass-front cupboards “made everything look busy,” Rapone says. “And this family’s life is busy enough.” An underutilized closet became a coffee station loaded with drawers and a 7-foot-square, granite-topped island with wraparound seating — the family calls it a “continent” — stands in for the former bar-style island.

But everyone’s favorite feature is the new Wolf six-burner gas stove, matched with a floral-tile backsplash where a window used to be. Its crowning glory? A powerful, wood-paneled hood as elegant as a piece of furniture.

after kitchen remodel
After

Interior & Kitchen Designer: Centerline Design & Build

General Contractor: Maine Properties Remodel Division

Countertop Contractor: Morningstar Stone & Tile

Tile Contractor: Distinctive Tile & Design

Square Feet: 300

Project Time: 8 months