See how this community kitchen in Newton got a ‘global chic’ style

For her kitchen in the Nathaniel Allen House in Newton, Massachusetts, site of the Junior League of Boston’s 2016 Decorators’ Show House, Vani Sayeed looked overseas for design inspiration.

The punchy red wallcovering looks like tooled leather or animal hide but is composed of 9-by-9-inch squares of vinyl. Jared Kuzia

By Regina Cole

January 30, 2017

4 minutes to read

For her kitchen in the Nathaniel Allen House in Newton, Massachusetts, site of the Junior League of Boston’s 2016 Decorators’ Show House, Vani Sayeed looked overseas for design inspiration. “We don’t live in an isolated culture anymore,” says the interior designer and artist whose firm, Vani Sayeed Studios, is based in Newton. Born in India, she describes her style sensibility as “global chic.” “I am unique to myself, a citizen of the world,” she says.

But Sayeed was also inspired by the project’s local impact. “I live in Newton; my daughters attend Newton Public Schools,” she says. “This house belongs to the Newton Cultural Alliance, who will continue to use it for a variety of functions. They needed a kitchen, so, for me, this was an opportunity to do something with a bigger impact than just a pretty room. It was going to see ongoing use, and it had to be very functional.”

The red-and-gray color scheme anchors the kitchen that, thanks to the removal of a ceiling, is dramatically tall. The X base of the small central table echoes patterns in the floor tile and backsplash behind the stove. – Jared Kuzia

The space originally occupied two stories at the back of the mid-19th-century Greek Revival building. Under the supervision of project manager Peter Griffin of FBN Construction in Boston, the floor between the two levels was removed, resulting in a room with 18-foot ceilings and windows on two levels.

“My idea was to create a French bistro feel, driven by a red-and-gray color scheme,” says Sayeed. “I thought it would be so pretty, and I believed that red was the key to capturing the whole thing. I did not do black and white, because I felt that would be too stark.”

She established the red background with 9-by-9-inch squares of vinyl wallcovering. “It’s very tactile, not flat,” Sayeed says. “It looks like animal hide, a luxurious product, but it passes all commercial requirements.”

Interior designer Vani Sayeed likes to keep doors off the corner units of wall cabinets, utilizing this difficult-to-access space as open shelving. Electrical outlets were installed on the underside of the upper cabinets for a clean, streamlined look. – Jared Kuzia

She chose gray-painted cabinets, light- and dark-gray floor tiles, a white tile backsplash, gray-and-white marble counters, and stainless steel appliances. In one corner, she created a bar with mahogany cabinets, a round metal sink and a dark-gray marble counter. Herringbone-patterned white marble tile grouted in gray graces the backsplash behind the 30-inch induction cooktop.

“The diagonal design of the marble talks to the floor without competing with it,” Sayeed says. “It was a remnant piece at Cumar, who supplied and installed all the countertop stone, and a happy find: It adds a very pretty element. I like to mix materials and textures. The bar cabinetry could have been the same gray as that of the kitchen’s working end, but this is more interesting.”

She utilized a favorite trick when she put no doors on the corner units of the upper cabinets. “Those are hard-to-access dead spaces when behind doors,” she says. “Leaving them as open shelves turns them into display areas.”

Interior designer Vani Sayeed. – Jared Kuzia

A hefty chandelier and matching wall sconce she found at Designer Bath and Salem Plumbing Supply in Beverly, Massachusetts, the company that also donated the plumbing fixtures, suit the scale of the room. A small table with a metal X base and a fumed oak top stands in the middle.

“Every kitchen needs some kind of island,” the designer says. “But the footprint is too small for an island, so I opted for a decorative table. It is very easy to work around it, and the X base relates to the other diagonals in the space.”

The soaring height of the kitchen is one of the elements she likes best. “The beautiful windows on the upper level bring in light and provide views of the sky. I thought it was best to show them off with white paint against the red wallcovering. Cabinets up there would have required a ladder,” Sayeed says. “The room is not big enough for that.”

A bar fills one corner of the kitchen with a mahogany cabinet, gray marble countertop, and white tile backsplash. Surrounding the mirror on the wall is a collection of paintings and intaglio prints by Sayeed, which, she says, represents her personal side. – Jared Kuzia

Beyond giving it a good cleaning, she opted to leave the exposed wood ceiling alone. “I could have put sheetrock up there,” she says, “or painted the beams and joists. But they are original to the house — such a nice piece of history.”

While acknowledging that the pristine marble counters will stain and etch with time, she says, “That is patina.”

The layout is not organized in a traditional working triangle: While the Sub-Zero refrigerator and Wolf induction cooktop and wall oven are near each other, the sink is under a window at the other end of the room. “One of the requirements of the Newton Cultural Alliance was that the wet and dry areas of the kitchen be kept separate. It won’t be used like a traditional home kitchen; mostly, it will be caterers working there. There also are safety concerns when it’s accessed by groups of people here for events,” she says, “including children,” a fact that drove her choice of an induction cooktop, which won’t burn small hands that might accidentally land on it.

Sayeed finished the kitchen’s decor with an assortment of her own mixed-media paintings and intaglio prints. “My painting helps me in a profound way as a designer,” she says. “This is a personal side of me. Some people write diaries; I create art.”