beach bamboo
A somewhat dated oceanfront home,
built in 2003, caught the eye of Anne
and Bill Stevens. They hired Surf City
builder Paul Dorazio of Maebilt, who
originally constructed the Topsail Island
home, to gut the interior and begin
anew.
“My husband and I are both engineers,”
says Anne, a materials and mechanical
engineer with — as a female — the
street cred of running typically male-centric
automotive and aeronautical
corporations. The point being, Anne
knows what she wants and how to get it.
“Form, function and materials are very
important to me,” she says.
The look of her new kitchen would
be very contemporary, very industrial,
and very large to support the Stevens’
entertainment style — big parties to
celebrate Boxing Day, the Super Bowl,
the Kentucky Derby; 40 to 50 guests all
in one room. The kitchen frames views
of the Atlantic Ocean and an 88-inch
television screen on the opposite wall.
“I think most kitchens today seem to
be the white Shaker look,” Anne says.
“We chose bamboo. It’s very unusual but
very contemporary.”
With zero wasted space, a bank of
Wood-Mode cabinets lines the interior
wall and surrounds the island front
and back. The Thermador refrigerator
supplied by Atlantic Appliance is actually
two separate, side-by-side units assembled
as one, featuring two freezers and two
icemakers. There are two dishwashers,
double ovens that open left to right, and
an under-the-counter microwave.
Anne became acquainted with the
merits of induction cooking while living
in London, and she imported an AGA
stove for her coastal Carolina home.
Cynde Orr of Kitchen Blueprints and Mike
Dorazio of Maebilt Construction teamed
to renovate this North Topsail Island
kitchen featuring a palette of woods and
metals.
46
WBM april 2020