Cook's choice
A turquoise kitchen might not fit your home or taste, but Mel Van Liedekerke's courage should inspire anyone planning to remodel this most important room.
Her Spanish-inspired house is one of 10 with new kitchens on tour Saturday in Oak Park and River Forest.
The projects in the 23rd Annual Parenthesis Kitchen Walk are pricey, and many involve additions. They start at $70,000 and escalate into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
But no matter the size or budget for your plans, we gleaned important tips from four of them.
Lesson No. 1: "I want somebody to fall in love with it rather than have lots of people like it." -- Mel Van Liedekerke, talking about her new turquoise kitchen.
Van Liedekerke is a Realtor who is not concerned about selling her home with the vibrant kitchen some day. She realizes it's the dramatic type of room that inspires passion.
The countertop granite with light turquoise and brown swirls was the greatest find for Van Liedekerke and her designer, Jean Stoffer, also of River Forest.
Van Liedekerke not only planned but also installed the turquoise ceramic tile pattern above the range.
Cabinets under the 10-foot-long black walnut slab on the island are the most vibrant version of this color.
It all fits with the Spanish style of her 1927 home and her love of Mexican culture.
A nearby atrium that had been outdoors before she extended the kitchen with an addition brings in so much light Van Liedekerke can pretend to be south of the border year-round.
Lesson No. 2: Wait until you have everything installed before selecting the all-important backsplash above the range.
That's how Julie and Tom Keegan ended up with a diamond or harlequin pattern that includes limestone, granite, pewter and crushed glass.
"You want something more dynamic in that space -- it's such a focal point," said Julie Keegan.
After you see how all the other materials come together, it's relatively easy to figure out what would be best here, said her designer, Mark Menna of River Forest.
The kitchen features tough materials like rosy Juparana Bordeaux granite to withstand the daily assaults of a young family.
But the classic cherry cabinets reflect the formal style of the 1920s Mediterranean colonial home.
And despite the skepticism of her husband and Menna, Julie Keegan got two full-size dishwashers -- and she uses both of them every day.
Lesson No. 3: A little step stool is handy if it folds up and wheels under the kickplate beneath the bottom cabinets.
Sue Abbate still has a small kitchen, but now she can use every inch of it.
The ceiling in the 1920s house is very tall, and Abbate isn't, so she needs the extra lift to take advantage of the wall cabinets.
Even the single window in the kitchen was covered to provide more cabinet space, so a light and bright color scheme was chosen.
The custom cabinets are white, the appliances stainless steel. The gray and white granite resembles the marble that Abbate had coveted, but is less porous.
Anastasia Sowinski of Pamela Polvere Designs of Elmwood Park planned the kitchen.
Lesson No. 4: If you're going to spend a lot of time in your new kitchen, display the things you love and make them easy to use.
Linda Hillman is a potter, and she knows many other ceramic artists.
Open shelves where some kitchens would have wall cabinets let her enjoy and serve on handmade dishes every day.
She also had two special tall shelf units embedded into the walls. They are dark-stained oak to match her lower cabinets.
One holds at least 30 cups that she and her husband, John, drink from every day. And Linda Hillman can tell you who made each one. The other is decorated with a few handmade pitchers, but was made mostly for cookbooks and books about pottery.
The kitchen designer is Christine Julian of Chicago.
If you go
What: Ten new kitchens in older homes in Oak Park and River Forest
When: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. April 26
Tickets: $40 in advance and $45 the day of the event.
Where: Parenthesis, 405 S. Euclid Ave., Oak Park
Benefits: Parenthesis Parent Child Center, which offers parenting education and support programs
Information: (708) 848-2227 or www.parenthesis-info.org