catherine - nick balding F R O M T H E K I T C H E N O F Just paces from their boat dock on Bradley Creek, Nick and Catherine Balding’s 1950s house became a labor of love. The young couple bought the dated ranch-style home two years ago and worked to renovate it every weekend — plus some nights — for eight months leading up to the week before their late-summer wedding. “Yes, we planned a wedding and rebuilt a house all at the same time,” says Catherine, laughing. “But it was fun. And a good time in our lives to do it. No kids, no pets. Why not?” Eyeing the house off Greenville Loop Road for more than six months, Nick had the initial vision for the couple’s first home. “It is interesting to see what you can do in a brick ranch. Most of the time, ranches are not very inviting to live in. But changes can make such a big difference in how you live,” Nick says. One change high on the redesign list was an open and more contemporary kitchen. Hidden behind a load-bearing wall and isolated from the living area, the original knotty-pine-paneled kitchen was small and dark and offered minimal floor space. “As soon as we walked in, we looked at each other and said, ‘Those walls are going,’” Catherine says, pointing to the central area of the home, the prep/eating island. What survived the cut were original cabinets, newly resurfaced and repainted. Additional cabinets were made to look old in keeping with the ranch’s mid-century style. The couple also chose new butcher-block countertops, complementing the farmhouse sink that Catherine explains, “We held onto for a while,” and which was the impetus for the overall style. Now two years after their whirlwind romance, the couple couldn’t be more pleased with the outcome of their vision. A mix of mod-ern eclecticism, with a nod to the cottage-like style of country farm homes, the kitchen is now the hub for cooking and entertaining. Both gardeners — he, vegetables; and she, flowers — the couple finds that home cooking and entertaining are more easily enjoyed by a greater number of friends and family. “We love to have friends over — and the kitchen has definitely made me a better cook,” Catherine says. “We now are able to have a lot of people in the same area and the conversation stays fun and inclusive. Except you are in trouble if you don’t like the conversation!” Open and glazed shelves and cabinets, and streamlined white subway tile backsplash are juxtaposed with butcher block surfaces inspired the home’s country cottage/farmhouse style. 62 WBM april 2014
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