“ The exotic woods have such great color and character ... I ’ m showing more of them to my customers , and many are deciding these are the looks they really want .”
KEVIN LAMERS
“ The sapele is bookmatched throughout a good deal of the kitchen . The straight lines tie it together pretty handily ; the nature of the wood did a lot of the work for me . It ’ s a nice ‘ ribbony ’ figure , and has that beautiful 3-D luminescence as you walk by it ; it really seems to move with you .”
Kevin says some of the wood had minor imperfections in it , but that didn ’ t bother Ken .
“ Pop is a big advocate for the ‘ wabi sabi ’ of it all – that ’ s a Japanese term for finding beauty in the imperfections and natural flaws . I ’ d come across something in the wood as I was working and I ’ d say , ‘ I can ’ t use this here ,’ and he ’ d say ‘ Oh , that ’ s beautiful !’
“ We used a copper laminate from Formica as a backsplash in the kitchen , which really does a great job of tying all the colors together .”
The kitchen opens up into the great room , separated by a display cabinet made from the same materials , with two spindle supports lathed from Brazilian walnut .
“ You can only do so much with the American wood species ,” says Kevin . “ The exotic woods have such great color and character ... I ’ m showing more of them to my customers , and many are deciding these are the looks they really want .”
“ Early on , we thought we might be using oak as a border for the doors and drawers , but African mahogany was competitive or even a little lower priced ,” says Ken . “ We ended up using it on our stairway and on the light valances in the great room as well , tying the whole house together . The builtin entertainment center at the far end of the great room will be the same combination as the kitchen .
“ So in the end , we have beautiful , furniture-grade cabinets throughout our house . It ’ s absolutely marvelous .”
IW
18 I M P O R T E D W O O D