Six years ago, when Lisa Gilbert and her husband began building their shingle-style home on the Falmouth Foreside, she knew exactly how her kitchen needed to look and function.
“I wanted it to be warm with a kind of country feel,” said Gilbert. “And we have four kids, so it had to be durable.”
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With a generous green-gray granite island, abundant mahogany counter space and a six-burner, two-oven Thermador range, the kitchen also had to serve the needs of an avid cook.
“It had to really work, because I cook a lot,” said Gilbert, whose husband, Brad, is a home builder who owns Tall Trees Construction. The couple’s experience building and renovating homes helped guide many of their choices in the kitchen and throughout the comfortable house.
Members of the public can view their kitchen Friday and Saturday during the Falmouth Kitchen Tour.
Organized by Marcy Boyton of A Divine Time and Lana Wescott of Lana Wescott Events, the kitchen tour enters its second year this weekend after raising $5,000 last year for hunger relief.
This year’s tour will benefit Preble Street Resource Center in Portland. Those who purchase tickets are also encouraged to bring non-perishable food to donate to the Maine Hunger Initiative.
The tour will feature nine kitchens in Falmouth and neighboring Cumberland Foreside. Stationed in each kitchen will be a local chef or cookbook author offering tasty samples and cooking tips. The Gilbert kitchen will feature Jane St. Pierre of Kitchen & Cork.
“It’s a fun way to show real, working kitchens,” Boyton said.
The kitchens were selected for the tour because of their pedigrees of being created by the state’s top designers and cabinetmakers and featuring the latest appliances, lighting fixtures and materials.
The Gilbert kitchen was designed by Deb Kingry of Simply Home. Kingry said she used touches such as antique white cabinetry from New World Kitchens with blue buffalo plaid curtains behind the glass fronts and a brick backsplash surrounding the range to give the kitchen an inviting, homey feel.
But she wouldn’t call it a country kitchen.
“It feels really contemporary and fresh and sophisticated,” Kingry said. “This house feels very cozy. I think it’s going to be a fan favorite. This is how everyone wants to live.”
Gilbert said the kitchen’s real charm is its functionality. The sun-drenched breakfast room, enclosed by huge windows overlooking the pool and topped by a coffered ceiling, is an integral and well-used part of the kitchen space.
“The kitchen originated with that nook,” Gilbert said.
She’s surprised by how well the mahogany countertops have held up, and continues to appreciate the cook-friendly features of the range.
“Especially during the holidays, you can have a roasting pan on the burners to make gravy and other things going at the same time,” Gilbert said. “It comes in handy to have the six burners.”
The two ovens means she can roast a turkey — 26 pounds is the largest she’s cooked in the bigger of the two ovens — while casseroles and pies cook in the other oven.
In addition to the homes on the tour, well-known Maine food historian and author Sandy Oliver will deliver a talk at 9 a.m. Saturday titled “17 Things You Need to Know About Maine Food.” This talk takes place at the Falmouth Country Club, and tickets can be purchased separately for $10.
Boyton said it takes about three hours to visit all the homes on the tour. Ticket-holders can opt to do it all in one day or split their visits over the two days.
Last year, 800 people toured the homes. Many of those who attend are remodeling their own kitchens or building new homes, Boyton said.
“They’re looking for inspiration,” Boyton said. “There are others that are looking for a day out, and then others know it’s going toward a worthy cause. You get a little bit of everything.”
Staff Writer Avery Yale Kamila can be contacted at 791-6297 or at:
akamila@pressherald.com
Twitter: AveryYaleKamila
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