Stainless style

Pamela Starbird -- Interior Design, 1/1/2003 12:00:00 AM

After years of searching for just the right location, investment banker Claus Møller and his wife, Charlotte Frisch, bought a piece of land on the "gold coast" north of Copenhagen and hired Wernberg & Lambreth to build them a house. Their vision for their new home could be summed up in a single word: openness.

"The kitchen is in fact part of the living room," Frisch says. Architect Henrik Lambreth adds, "Few people would dare to open up so much or commit to living in so uncompromising a style." For a fit-out in keeping with that style, the couple chose CPH Square Kitchen, a family-owned Danish company that produces designs in wood and stainless steel. The owners specified the latter exclusively, but CPH Square Kitchen designer Flemming Madsen could formulate the layout.

"I drew it once, and it was finished," says Madsen, who had to work around the fact that the room's ceiling slants from 10 to 23 feet in height. "That makes production much more difficult but the design process easier." The owners' preference for drawers instead of hung cabinetry also simplified choices. Accordingly, Madsen placed a high stainless-steel cupboard with five storage levels in the kitchen's innermost corner. In another corner is a mini fridge for drinks. The floor is oiled oak. A glass wall faces east, toward the sea that separates Denmark from Sweden. "It's nice to look outside when you're at the sink," the designer says. The back of the integrated stainless-steel unit housing the sink, the dishwasher, and two sets of drawers faces the glass wall as well, but the company's finished-furniture policy spares the garden an unsightly view.

The master bathroom is as spacious and open as the kitchen. Just as the kitchen and living room flow together, the bathroom is continuous with the bedroom. Similarities don't end there. As in the kitchen, Frisch preferred stainless-steel fixtures: sink, toilet, and sunken bathtub. And this space is also illuminated primarily from above, through the opposite end of a skylight shared with the kitchen. A mirrored wall and the washstand's glass shelf magnify and multiply reflections, while the glass bricks that curve around the shower refract and soften the metallic brightness. As for the gray ceramic tiles that cover the floor, Lambreth says he "looked at about 15 samples before selecting these." Though they contribute to the bathroom's cool color palate, warmth is present in the radiant heat below.

CHAIRS (KITCHEN): FASEM INTERNATIONAL. CUSTOM UNITS: CPH SQUARE KITCHEN. REFRIGERATORS, RANGE: SMEG. SINK (KITCHEN), TOILET (BATHROOM): INTRA GROUP. KETTLE: ALESSI. KNIFE RACK: GLOBAL. PENDANT: DELTA LIGHT. FLOOR TILE (BATHROOM): EVERS RICCHETTI GROUP. FAUCET, SHOWER FITTING: AXOR.