Homeowners order new kitchens prepared just the way they like it

Kids grab a quick snack after school. Teenagers have friends over for pizza. Mom pays bills online. Parents have neighbors over for coffee. Where are all these people? They're in the kitchen, of course. Everyone loves to hang out in the kitchen these days.

The kitchen is no longer a place to just prepare and cook food. It's a space that combines cooking with living and entertaining. It's the gathering hub of the home where owners interact with family and friends. It's a well-designed space that fits the lifestyle of its homeowners.

When two Long Grove couples wanted to transform their stock kitchens into new custom gathering spaces, they engaged Morton Grove-based Leader Builders Corp. for the projects. Headed by Pete Antonow, the company put on additions and redesigned their kitchens into bigger, brighter and more beautiful spaces.

The original kitchen in the home of Phil and Damaris Boutros was large, but devoid of character and built with stock cabinetry and counter tops with bland finishes. It lacked the open, airy feeling of the rest of the home, Antonow said. But Phil Boutros puts it this way: "It was atrocious."

Leader Builders added eight feet to the original kitchen's floor plan, a new 15-by-15-foot mud/laundry room and more basement space.

Today the kitchen sparkles with granite countertops, stainless steel appliances and beautiful custom cabinetry.

The star of the show is the massive multilevel island topped with an exotic piece of granite surrounded by Brazilian tiger wood. A visually exciting element with a mosaic tile centerpiece, the island provides plenty of space for more than one cook, a necessary feature for the Boutros, who both like to cook.

"We often cook together, and do all the prep work here," Phil Boutros said. "This is the focal point of our home; we're here all day long."

Lots of island space is also a good thing when one or all three kids dive into cooking or baking. "The kids like to bake chocolate chip cookies with friends, and their mess doesn't get in the way of my mess," Damaris Boutros said. The island seats four or five people, which is just what the couple ordered.

A vaulted ceiling, Palladian window and skylights flood the space with natural light and enhance the room's open feeling. The sink overlooks the patio and pretty back yard that's filled with trees and plantings.

High-end appliances are from Epicure, Dacor and Sub-Zero, and the couple chose a stunning stone backsplash with tile and metal and mosaic inserts.

A good portion of the budget went toward custom wood cabinetry with a variety of finishes and lots of detail created and installed on site by Leader's finish carpenters, while tile setters did the custom tile work. A handsome glass-fronted china cabinet houses everyday dishes.

The kitchen flows beautifully to the outdoors and into the dining room and family room, which is a must for entertaining with ease. "I hosted an annual wine tasting for 70 to 80 women, and everyone died for it (the kitchen)," Damaris Boutros said. "They loved it.

"Over time, we love it even more. We don't say we wish we would have done this or that."

Phil and Damaris Boutros are almost as excited about their new mud/laundry room as they are about their spectacular new kitchen.

With locker space, laundry area, computer station, storage zone, bed for the family dog Beau, and its own entrance, the room functions more as a multipurpose room.

"If I could replicate one thing and take it with me in the afterlife, it would be this room," Damaris Boutros said. "It keeps us organized. The three kids and Phil and I have lockers. There's so much room to fold clothes; I don't have to fold clothes on the dining room table anymore. It impacts more than getting the kids someplace on time."

Scott and Tiffany Simanek's original kitchen was small and basic, a place to cook and then bring the food into the dining room. It was chopped up with areas not connected and had a limited view of the outdoors, Antonow said.

Again, Leader Builders transformed a builder's-grade kitchen into a functional and beautiful center of the home. They completely gutted the original kitchen and created a new concept from scratch.

The new addition doubled the size of the original kitchen to 800 square feet, and all of the structural elements were hidden, making it impossible to see where the addition begins.

The wow feature of this home is the deep tray ceiling with faux finish, stenciling and dramatic lighting above the breakfast table.

A two-layer granite island that holds a double travertine sink provides plenty of seating and accommodates more than one cook. "We use it for everything - eating, socializing," Tiffany Simanek said.

The couple likes the banks of storage pantries and glass cabinets that don't look like storage areas. "The storage in here is phenomenal," Scott Simanek said. A built-in planning desk with computer and bulletin board makes it convenient to run the household.

The room features multicolor high-end kitchen cabinetry and gourmet appliances from Wolf for Tiffany, who loves to cook, and her husband, who loves to watch her cook. "He's the grill guy," she said.

The couple chose a stone backsplash with ceramic tile inserts and a custom piece of art from Great Lakes Art Studio to fit in the space above the backsplash, a good way to add a personal touch to the room.

With the goal to make the new kitchen the central focus of the home where everyone congregates, the kitchen now sits between the family room and game room, which has a pool table and bar.

"The space flows nicely," Tiffany Simanek said. "We can entertain a lot of people without being on top of each other now."

The addition allows for a full view of the beautiful back yard with trees, gardens, swimming pool and gazebo with TV. "It's a little haven back here," she said.

In the summertime, the family spends most of the time in the kitchen and outdoors while the kitchen, game room and family room take over during the winter months.

The new addition's exterior features a brick and cedar roof that blends perfectly with the original roof and trim. And it brings visual interest to the otherwise flat facade.