indoors

RENOVATION

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s an average home cook, Sandra Johnson

might have struggled with her dysfunctional

kitchen a year or two more. But as a profes-

sional photographer, she could no longer take

the riotous checkerboard-tile-covered walls,

counters, and floor that greeted her every

morning. “Way too much pattern,” she says.

Los Angeles architect Julie Hart solved most of Sandra’s storage

and layout woes in one swoop by replacing the middle of three

glass doors to the patio with an island and a pass-through window.

Simply styled white cabinets occupy any wall space not taken up

by a scaled-down appliance. New wood flooring and luminous

green-glass tiles set in a brick pattern give Sandra the simplified

background she craved. “I love to work in the kitchen now,” she

says. “It feels like I’m outside.”

GARD EN PARTY

Sandra spruced up the terrace,

right,

with new outdoor furniture and often

entertains her apartment-dwelling friends.

5 2 AUGUST 2008 BETTER HOMES AND GARDENS