Michael Merrill

So the owners challenged designer Michael Merrill to make their kitchen more streamlined, improve the lighting and give them more room - without moving any walls.

"Their kitchen did not look too bad to begin with," Merrill says."But its stubby L-shaped layout wasted so much space that we decided to stretch it out into a galley layout instead."Since privacy was not an issue, Merrill eliminated the kitchen door and moved the doorway 5 feet from the middle of the wall to the corner.That allowed him to extend the kitchen counter by as many feet, providing valuable work spaces.

With more floor space to play with, Merrill was also able to move the fridge closer to the new counter, an essential improvement that makes access to cooking ingredients easy.

The new kitchen design is also a better fit for the building's historic features.Although Merrill's modern interpretation of an Edwardian kitchen is all stainless steel and white, its use of elegant 3-centimeter-thick marble counters and high backsplashes composed of subtly veined Carrara marble tiles evokes classic European kitchens where white Carrara or dark green (the hardest) marbles were ubiquitous.Without a high polish, built-up or bull-nosed edges, Merrill's kitchen style is modern, in keeping with the times.

"We were not trying to make it look like an original Edwardian room as such," Merrill says.However, by removing cheap standard-height laminated cabinets, black and white vinyl tiles and repainting the shiny enamel walls "that were almost like a yellow Yield sign," Merrill thinks his new design trumpets old-world values.

Natural stone counters, plaster walls, high baseboards and fancy door trim, well made composite wood cabinets and appliances that will last, all reinforce that notion.

Merrill discovered enough room above the dropped ceiling to install recessed lighting.

"We then designed custom cabinets that go up all the way to the new ceiling, and that gave us 10 inches of storage space we did not have," Merrill says."The old cabinets were a shorter stock size and the space above them was wasted."

By also reducing the gap between the new above-counter cabinets and the countertop from 18 inches to 15 inches, Merrill managed to make the cabinets even taller and roomier.

It's a trick he uses often because "it makes it much easier to reach for things inside," Merrill says."And the upper and lower cabinets are better connected visually."

Instead of upper cabinets, some designers opt for open shelving, but not Merrill."It is harder to make things look neat," he says.

Inexpensive GE appliances and semi-custom cabinets from Canada helped to keep costs low, but, for the kind of Edwardian flair his clients wanted, "we did add expensive crown molding," Merrill says.

Simplicity also is the goal for San Francisco designer Michael Merrill, who is putting an exercise space in a small bedroom in Kathy Fardy's remodeled San Mateo Eichler house.
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"The room has no other purpose or function, so you go in there and have no distractions," said Merrill, who described a marble floor, white color scheme and track lighting.
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Michael Merrill can be reached at (415) 440-2111.

Michael Merrill

Wheeler Design Group

From the fantasy love nest to the cozy cocoon , Merrill has created bedrooms with practical as well as emotional purpose.Like other Bay Area interior designers , he reports that some clients specifically request a knock-'em-out boudoir , while most just want a place that's restful and warm , almost reclusive.Either goal is achievable.

The most extravagantly romantic bedroom Merrill ever designed was for a high-flying single woman living in Dallas in the 1980s.She wanted an art deco house , and I think the creme de la creme for a woman is a bedroom , so I said , `we're going to create the ultra-.

fantasy.'

Money was no object.The large bedroom boasted white marble floors with touches of jade , 1 , 500 yards of optically brightened silk batting around the walls , which were then finished in soft velvet the color of her skin , Merrill recalls.
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She wanted theatrics , nothing to do with reality , remembers Merrill , a certified interior designer.It was wild..

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The fabric , says Merrill , really is a picture frame.It is framing the views , and it's important that it doesn't distract from the views..

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For Merrill , One of the things I always really work on is beautiful bedding , and sheets that are always ironed and starched ; it's a totally different feeling.It's a crisp , cool , dry feeling ; versus cotton , which is silky , soft and warm..He advocates using natural fabric blankets ; maybe wool or cashmere/angora in the winter and cotton in the summer , and prefers bedcovers rather than bedspreads.

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Merrill , for one , sings the praises of a stereo with remote control.I can listen to high-quality music , it has a timer that turns it off , and the equipment is non-apparent in the room..But until he had the top-of-the-line system in his bedroom , he says , I'd never realized how it completely sets your body rhythm and mood..

Now , I can set it to wake up to Chet Baker singing `Funny Valentine.'.

Romance Needn't Be Costly

Decorators suggest some of the following inexpensive romantic touches :.

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that's what life is , says interior designer Michael Merrill.