House Beautiful 2019 Kitchen(s) of the Year

Grab you favorite beverage and nestle in for the most amazing eye candy. World-renowned Interior Designer Michelle Nussbaumer  of Ceylon et Cie shares her new Dallas warehouse home within the pages of House Beautiful as part of their coveted Kitchen of the Year feature (#koty).

There are those who travel, and those who travel well. Michelle Nussbaumer is most definitely in the latter category, as one can easily observe when looking at the items she  surrounds herself with.

Michelle Nussbaumer House Beautiful 2019 Kitchen(s) of the Year

Nussbaumer stuck to a mantra—“Do things that are not trendy, things you actually respond to”—while outfit­ting the newly converted warehouse home she and her husband, Bernard, own in Dallas. She installed what amounts to four kitchens: The main one (with a walk-in porcelain pantry) and a speakeasy occupy the first floor, while upstairs is a full art kitchen and a cocktail bar for entertaining.

House Beautiful 2019 Kitchen(s) of the Year house floor plan

The theatricality of it all should come as no surprise: Nussbaumer studied set design in college. “For me, it’s fun to have fantasy moments.

The Main Kitchen

“There’s an Art Deco vibe throughout the whole house,” says Nussbaumer, “but I still wanted it to feel like a warehouse.” Unpolished concrete walls and exposed steel beams are juxtaposed with glossy surfaces, bold color, and antiques.

House Beautiful 2019 Kitchen(s) of the Year - Main Kitchen
The François & Co. hood was inspired by a hand-forged version she saw in the British countryside
House Beautiful 2019 Kitchen(s) of the Year - Main Kitchen
Papered walls that mimic an old warehouse are juxtaposed with glossy cabinets
House Beautiful 2019 Kitchen(s) of the Year - Main Kitchen
Glossy slab cabinetry adds a streamline effect and works as a neutral against the tile floor and mural

“I love that you don’t see most of the appliances—they’re all behind lacquered doors. There’s something glam about it.”

House Beautiful 2019 Kitchen(s) of the Year - Main Kitchen
Nussbaumer sources quirky finds for 3-D sculptural upper cabinets inspired by sculptor Louise Nevelson
House Beautiful 2019 Kitchen(s) of the Year - Main Kitchen
Backsplash and countertop by Consentino

The Speakeasy

“The whole room has a sexy, smoky vibe,” says Nussbaumer. Literally: “You can have a cigar here if you like to smoke.”

House Beautiful 2019 Kitchen(s) of the Year - Speakeasy Kitchen
The cabinet hardware, inspired by Kukulkan (a Mayan serpent deity), was designed by Nussbaumer and made by Addison Weeks
House Beautiful 2019 Kitchen(s) of the Year - Speakeasy Kitchen
Nussbaumer combines partial overlay framed cabinets  in Benjamin Moore El Cajon Clay Paint with Thermador wine columns.

The Pantries

The Porcelain pantry was inspired by Denmark’s Rosenborg Castle. “I like to use my grandmother’s dinner plates mixed with salad plates from Target,” Nussbaumer says. “It makes it all feel so new and fun.”

House Beautiful 2019 Kitchen(s) of the Year - Porcelain pantry

“When I was designing this years kitchen of the year for House Beautiful I decided to try to make my dream china room fantasy come to life.”

House Beautiful 2019 Kitchen(s) of the Year - Storage Pantry
Why not consider adding wallpaper to a pantry? Wallpaper: Mitchell Black

The Art Kitchen

In her art studio, Nussbaumer created an ode to the cook spaces of Paris: “It’s this little tiny thing, but everything you need is in it,” she says, pointing to covert fridge drawers. The walls, stock cabinets, and even the range hood are wrapped in a custom vinyl printed with Nussbaumer’s own ikat pattern.

House Beautiful 2019 Kitchen(s) of the Year - Art Kitchen
Ikat covered cabinets and range hood, Moorish tile soapstone backsplash
House Beautiful 2019 Kitchen(s) of the Year - The Art Kitchen
Of the space, Nussbaumer says, it makes her and her husband “feel like we’re young and in a faraway place again.”

House Beautiful 2019 Kitchen(s) of the Year - Art Sitting Area

The Cocktail Bar

Nussbaumer created this Art Deco delight in a room with 18-foot-high ceilings. “Surrounding it with fractured geometric Silestone by Cosentino was so fun,” she says.

House Beautiful 2019 Kitchen(s) of the Year - Cocktail Kitchen
Just as in the Speakeasy, Paul Montgomery worked with Nussbaumer to create this incredible mural which nods to Mowgli from Rudyard Kipling’s 1894 The Jungle Book

Although the porcelain pantry is a heavy contender, the cocktail bar is my favorite space. The Silestone facade draws me in and I could site for hours taking in the grandeur of the space.

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