LOOKING UP

A LYNNFIELD HOMEOWNER GETS THE KITCHEN OF HER DREAMS, COMPLETE WITH A SHOW-STOPPING CEILING

- Marni Elyse Katz

IT STARTED WITH THE CEILING. “I’VE ALWAYS BEEN enthralled by the tray and coffered ceilings I saw in magazines, so I wanted the ceiling to be the wow factor,” Dawn Delaney says. The homeowner has been collecting images for her dream kitchen since her family moved into their brick Colonial in Lynnfield 25 years ago.

Delaney hired Carly Blackmore of Habitat Design to bring her vision to life. But not before she called in a demolition crew to take down walls in order to meld three rooms into one big space made for entertaining. “I came into a large, empty shell,” Blackmore says. “Dawn was looking for a totally different approach than she had before, so I didn’t even ask how the previous kitchen was laid out.”

The interior architecture, particularly the curved wall that is the flip side of the home’s sweeping staircase, guided the design. The 1990s throwback was the project’s biggest challenge. After considering hiding it inside a walk-in pantry and flattening it to serve as a wall for the fridge, Blackmore had a Beyoncé moment, turning lemons into lemonade, so to speak. “We paneled the wall to make it an architectural feature that enriches the space,” the designer says. “Something we wanted to hide is now something to show off.”