Photos: Miftakhova Morrell Architects
“This was our first house, and we were excited to make it feel like home,” says Nicholas Wilson. He and his wife Rose had spent five years working abroad, mostly in the Middle East, then they lived in the San Francisco area for a time. When they moved to Central Virginia with their young son in 2022, they rented a house in Fontana while they considered their next move. Their son went to preschool nearby and they loved the neighborhood, so when a house up the hill with a stunning view came on the market, the Wilsons made their transition to homeowners.
The new-to-them 18-year-old developer house worked well in some ways, but in others it didn’t fit how the Wilsons lived. From their time in California, the couple had learned to love space and light—and having a garden where Rose could grow flowers and vegetables. They usually cook together, and view it as a social part of entertaining friends. The couple saw their house’s traditional four-room first floor layout (formal dining room, front parlor, kitchen/dining area separated from the family room by a waist-high shelving unit) as needing to be re-imagined. And the original owners had done nothing to change or upgrade the house.
The Wilsons found Miftakhova Morrell Architects. Andrew Morrell and Lemara Miftakhova Morrell, like the Wilsons, were a young career couple starting a family. “Having started our careers in San Francisco after graduating from UVA’s masters [in architecture] program in 2018, Lemara and I quickly felt a connection to them,” recalls Andrew. The firm’s website describes its approach as “design intensive with a passion for careful detailing,” which is just what the Wilsons envisioned.
Rose described the environment they were seeking as “clean, quiet, and calming.” In Nicholas’ view, their goal was “to adapt the house to our lifestyle, and [Andrew and Lemara] were really collaborative in that effort.”
Working with the clients, the Morrells proposed a relatively limited renovation: Make the back half of the first floor into one open, flowing cooking/dining/living space. This decision freed up the formal dining room to slightly enlarge the foyer, provide a small home office for Nicholas, and add space for a scullery/pantry area off the kitchen. Replacing the L-shaped kitchen counter with a free-standing kitchen island and removing the 8-foot-long shelving unit between the kitchen and family room not only enlarged the usable space, but also allowed direct access from the kitchen to the back deck and the garden where Rose sources many of her fresh ingredients.
Simplifying the space helped create the open, uncluttered feeling the couple was looking for. To lighten the area, the original dark staining on the red-oak flooring was sanded off in three cycles to bring the wood to a lighter shade. The walls throughout are painted a warm neutral (Sherwin-Williams’ Worldly Grey). The kitchen counters are durable and easy-maintenance Cosentino’s Silestone quartz in Linen Cream, unpolished. “We didn’t want polished surfaces or reflections,” says Rose (the kitchen’s only reflective surfaces are the stainless steel of the two Wolf wall ovens and the Sub-Zero refrigerator).
The sense of light and warmth are enhanced by the warm stain (maple wheat) on the maple lower cabinets and the refrigerator/oven wall, and by the upper cabinets in alabaster white. The slightly beige ceramic tiling along the walls and backsplash, with its vertical scalloping and tight seams, provides a subtle texture and creates a sense of continuous surface, enhanced by the under-cabinet lighting and recessed power outlets. And in a master decorator touch, the over-island linear pendant by Delphi reflects the same corrugated pattern, as the eating nook’s Transformer Table dining set (round table, chairs and bench, expandable to seat 10).
All this attention to warm neutral quiet means the kitchen area feels much lighter without the need to replace or enlarge any windows on the exterior wall. This is a hallmark of the Morrells’ approach to the project: using attention to detail to achieve custom quality while respecting budget parameters. The architects investigated a wide range of cabinet suppliers for textures, grains, colors, and installation time; they even tried out samples on site with the Wilsons at different times of day to check on color and compatibility.
“We also designed the kitchen in 3-inch-wide increments, which are standard dimensions for cabinetry, as well as standard heights and depths, to reduce the lead time on cabinet delivery,” Andrew explains. “We ordered cabinetry through Dovetail so we could customize the parts that were critical to the project design.” One example: detailing the upper cabinet doors to be slightly longer, to conceal the lighting and power outlets.
“Our practice is very focused on construction detailing, and we believe that drawing to a high level of detail directly impacts the outcome of the project,” he says. That approach fits very well with the Wilsons, who are attuned to specifics. Having the wall cabinets set high enough off the counter for the two to work, for example, was important—as was having those cabinets extend to the ceiling (“We keep the things we don’t use as often on the upper shelves,” says Nicholas).
As a result, the kitchen is designed around how the Wilsons work, not the other way around. Lemara notes that the old paradigm was the “kitchen triangle” determining where the sink, stove, and refrigerator should be placed for greatest efficiency. “But the choreography is very different now,” she says, with more couples like the Wilsons who want to cook together and who want cooking to be part of their entertaining.
The renovation, which began in late 2024, was finished in October last year. The Wilsons did have to live through its last stages, but the result is just what they asked for: a home that feels it was made for them. Even the family’s two Sphynx cats, Frodo and Sam, basking in front of the updated fireplace, agree.
Collaborators
Bouch Contracting
Dovetail Design & Cabinetry (cabinets from David Bradley; wall tile from Sarisand Tile)
Invictus Lighting (controlled through Google Home app)
