Giving kitchens that antique feel

Judy Konnerth hates shiny things. Granite and stainless steel were not on her wish list when she and her husband, Jim, remodeled their kitchen.

Instead it looks like they collected pieces of antique furniture in different styles, colors and woods for their home near Mundelein. A wall cabinet for dishes has wood graining painted in reds, black green and brown over its mustard base. The special effect on another door was actually achieved by smoking the finish with a candle. And the ovens hide behind doors of curly maple.

This is all the work of David T. Smith of Morrow, Ohio, a furniture maker and restorer who has been building antique-inspired kitchens for about 10 years. He will speak on Saturday, Sept. 27 and Sunday, Sept. 28, at the Country Folk Art Festival in St. Charles.

In another example of his artistry, the cabinets with worn-looking mustard paint that Smith's company crafted for Pat and Rich Zalewski of Clarendon Hills fit the decor set by their American country antique furniture.

The Zalewskis decided the kitchen in their 1926 house was too small to carry what Smith calls the collected look like the Konnerths enjoy. But they did spice their sunny mustard kitchen by painting a small center island black over gray and mustard.

Not everyone would like these kitchens.

Pat Zalewski points with pride at the "authentic" wear marks around the handle on the cabinet door that hides her refrigerator. But some homeowners might cringe at the thought of paying extra to make new cabinets look worn.

The Zalewskis paid about $40,000 for their cabinets, and Smith said his custom kitchens cost more than an upscale line like Wood-Mode.

It's people who collect antiques or like old houses who appreciate kitchens like these, said Smith, pointing out it takes a lot of layers and work and glazes to achieve this look. And people who don't get it just don't get it.

Smith has done more than 300 kitchens, with perhaps only six of those in the Chicago area.

And unlike many contractors, Smith says most of his clients really like to cook so they need a functional kitchen.

Smith attributes his success achieving a genuine old look to his experience restoring antiques and the fact that his crew makes cabinets one at a time.

But what is the attraction of beat-up cabinets?

It comes from the same aesthetic that thinks old furniture should not be stripped because that takes the oldness off it, he said.

"Today we like the original surface and paint. We like to see where people's hands were. We call it logical wear, the story of the piece. You see the finishes, the alligatoring and think of it sitting by the window. Fingernail nicks around the knob are like lines on grandfather's face."

A piece of furniture with an old finish might be worth $25,000, while the same piece stripped and refinished might only fetch $2,000, said Smith.

You might visualize the look of the Konnerths' kitchen better if you realize the reproduction pine hutch the couple made themselves fits in perfectly. It's a large copy of an Irish or English antique with cages along the bottom so the original family could keep chickens in their home.

And of course, all the appliances from dishwasher to microwave - and especially the refrigerator, which Judy Konnerth labels the ugliest appliance - are hidden inside these special cabinets.

This you may not believe: Judy Konnerth is thrilled that her cabinets' hinges were treated to rust and creak when she opens and closes the doors.

While she has friends who bemoan any marks on their floors, Judy Konnerth glows over the rings already built into the maple countertops in the colonial-style house she and her husband built in 1983.

The Zalewskis had added onto their house, so now the kitchen is open to other rooms. And its former decor just didn't seem to fit with things like the dining table with original paint and the fireplace with a huge old beam for a mantel and granite pavers a neighbor recovered from the streets of Chicago when Rich was a child.

An example of the custom service is that Smith's staff produced one of the cabinets from Rich Zalewski's own design.

"We haven't seen anybody come any where near this look," said Pat Zalewski. "A lot of companies do fake-looking aging, but David's is authentic. It's the convenience of a modern kitchen with the look of an old kitchen."