TAKE THE PLUNGE

ERICA PALM OF LEE KIMBALL TURNS A DRAB, DYSFUNCTIONAL KITCHEN INTO A BRIGHT, STORAGE-FILLED GATHERING PLACE FOR A MEDFORD FAMILY OF EIGHT

- Marni Elyse Katz

HEIDI AND MIKE KRUCKENBERG LIVE IN A BEAUTIFUL Victorian in Malden’s West End. However, with history comes a fair bit of dysfunction, particularly in the kitchen. For example, the range sat in front of a boxed-in chimney that protruded deep into the space and lacked a counter on one side. The refrigerator was located in the mudroom, which was so cold in wintertime that you needed a coat just to grab the milk. Although there was a separate pantry, there was no center island, and every counter faced a wall.

It was hardly a kitchen where a family of eight could gather to make meals and happy memories. “I make most of our food, including baking the bread and cookies for their school lunches, and the kids learned to cook during the pandemic, so one might be assembling nachos while another stirs a ramen,” Heidi says. “A lot happens in here at once.”