Sheila: Hi I’m Sheila Bridges. I’m no Julia Childs in the kitchen, I do know a thing or
two about how to make a kitchen a more functional and beautiful space. The
kind of space that you’d like to hang out in and that’s what fashion and home
furnishings designer Alexander Julian has created in his Connecticut kitchen.
Alex and his wife Megan designed their kitchen to suit her love of cooking and
their thrill of entertaining.

Alex: The feeling of warmth of the welcoming so to speak that you get when you walk
into this kitchen is just really because of her color choice that it’s sunny, it’s up, it
makes you feel good. You can't be sad in this kitchen.

Megan: I love the color of saffron as you put it in a little bit of stock and you’re making a
risotto and you start to stir it in, it’s bright orange and it diffuses into this color
before it becomes paler.

Alex: Plus you’ve got the smells that she’s generating out of those dual carburetor
ovens there.

Sheila: You’ve got two sinks and two stoves and two dishwashers. Why two of
everything?

Megan: Two because I have a huge family, because we entertain a lot. There will be 20
sometimes 30 people standing around in this kitchen. When you’re designing
your kitchen-

Alex: You think about the way you live, you think about what you are.

Megan: What you are going to use.

Alex: She’s tall and so the counter height is done so that it’s a comfortable work height.

Megan: 39 inches which is three inches taller than what counters are.

Sheila: What advice would you give to someone who has a small kitchen but still wants
to display things and have their kitchen work functionally but also in a beautiful
way as well?

Megan: You can get rid of overhead cabinets which is a great way to start and put
shelving on the wall which is not that difficult or expensive. I just think that the
more space you can give a kitchen in terms of airiness and lightness and let light
into it, the bigger it’s going to feel. But I think the other thing that makes a
kitchen incredibly interesting for people is that there are so many things to look
at and I think that that’s a point of interest that the idea you express yourself
though the things that you enjoy and love.

Alex: And the things that we all collect, that we have around us are what help define
us as individuals. Those are what communicate visually to the outside world
where it’s locked up in that cranium of yours that helps to define your
personality so don’t hide it, show it guys.

Sheila: So Megan this is the one place in your kitchen that I’ve noticed, you do have
overhead cabinets.

Megan: The overhead cabinets here are a storage place with glass so that you can see into
them. There is a mirror behind it to reflect light. Everyday glassware is all out
here. The plate rack is incredibly practical because the dishes come of the dish
washer, they go into the plate rack.

Sheila: And for the things that you don’t want to see, where do you keep those things?

Megan: I keep those in my pantry where nobody can see them. This is what I call my I
love Lucy room. You know the scenes in the old I love Lucys when she’s madly
trying to clean up the house and she picks everything up and throws it in the
closet and Ricky opens the door and everything falls out, this is what that room
is. I designed this to have very shallow shelves and it’s that way you don’t lose
too many things in the back. When I designed this pantry I wanted big wide not
shallow but very deep drawers.

Sheila: So Alex out of everything you have in this wonderful kitchen space, what’s the
one thing that you absolutely can't live without?

Alex: Meg’s cooking. It’s friends and having the kids and having the warmth of
camaraderie and share the experience that a good kitchen can give you.