{"id":2714,"date":"2024-11-10T08:44:45","date_gmt":"2024-11-10T00:44:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/homeofmaterials.com\/2024\/11\/10\/tiny-kitchen-of-the-week-a-communal-homestead-for-plant-expert-summer-rayne-oakes-and-friends\/"},"modified":"2024-11-10T08:44:45","modified_gmt":"2024-11-10T00:44:45","slug":"tiny-kitchen-of-the-week-a-communal-homestead-for-plant-expert-summer-rayne-oakes-and-friends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/homeofmaterials.com\/de\/tiny-kitchen-of-the-week-a-communal-homestead-for-plant-expert-summer-rayne-oakes-and-friends\/","title":{"rendered":"Winzige K\u00fcche der Woche: Ein gemeinschaftliches Geh\u00f6ft f\u00fcr den Pflanzenexperten Summer Rayne Oakes und seine Freunde"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Chances are good you\u2019ve digitally crossed paths with Summer Rayne Oakes. The author of How to Make a Houseplant Love You<\/em>, she\u2019s the host of the popular Youtube series Plant One on Me and the new podcast Bad Seeds, founder of the urban naturalist hub Homestead Brooklyn, and served as the indoor gardening expert for our latest book Remodelista: Das umweltfreundliche Haus<\/em>, among many other things. She models, too.<\/p>\n

Until recently, Summer was rooted in Brooklyn, where she famously shared her Williamsburg loft with many hundreds of houseplants: see our Gardenista visit from a few years back. Summer still keeps the apartment, but, of late has been living in the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York, where she and two friends teamed up to purchase a former nursery on 90-something acres and realize a communal dream.<\/p>\n

They named their place Flock, and the plan is to turn it into an environmentally conscious creative community and \u201cbotanical oasis\u201d with shared live\/work spaces for themselves and for artists in residence, too.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s still much to do, but a lot has been accomplished in the last year. Today, we\u2019re spotlighting the team\u2019s first big indoor project: the DIY creation of a tiny, thoughtfully designed kitchen in what had been the lackluster nursery office. Working with tight quarters yourself? There are lots of good ideas here.<\/p>\n

Photography courtesy of Flock (@flockfingerlakes).<\/p>\n


Above: The entire kitchen fits neatly into the corner next to the entry. Summer collaborated on the planning with her Flock partner Sander van Dijk, who took on the construction work himself. He and Summer chronicle their many Finger Lakes projects on the Flock Youtube channel, including the transformation of this single-story, 600-square foot, unwinterized office into guest quarters now known as the Meadow House. Scroll to the end to see Before and In Progress shots. <\/p>\n

Sander is a specialist in animation and 2-D motion design, but had studied at a trade school for carpentry and architecture in the Netherlands before moving to New York. This is his first kitchen.<\/p>\n

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Above: Summer arrived in the Finger Lakes with many of her Brooklyn houseplants and plans to build a greenhouse. She has a degree in environmental science and entomology from Cornell and describes all that she does as falling under the banner of \u201cworking on creative solutions to environmental challenges.\u201d
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Above: The placement of the sink was pre-set: there had already been a sink in the spot and they didn\u2019t want to move the plumbing. By relocating a bathroom door, Sander was able to fit in a stove, cooktop, and fridge, all of which had to be compact. <\/p>\n

Sander built the cabinets using a computer program called Fusion 360 to get the sizing right. \u201cThere are so many good cabinet-making tutorials on Youtube\u201d he says, adding that they\u2019re also lucky to have a kitchen fabrication shop around the corner run by guy name Blue\u2014\u201dhe walked Sander through the process and loaned me tools.\u201d<\/p>\n


Above: The built-in 22-inch Blomberg fridge is hidden behind a paneled door: \u201cI learned that I had to leave space for the door panel, so it doesn\u2019t hit the door frame when the fridge is open,\u201d says Sander in the Flock Youtube episode on the kitchen renovation. They painted all the paneling in Sherwin Williams\u2019s Oakmoss and matched it with Zia Tile satin-finished subway tiles in Sequoia for the backsplash. The counter is butcher block from Diaz Manufacturing, which Sander shaped, sanded, stained a custom cherry, and finished with Odie\u2019s Oil.,<\/p>\n

The induction cooktop is from Zline. Sander designed and built the hood cover out of plywood and Drywall finished with SureCrete microcement to work with the clay plaster that they used on the sink wall and elsewhere in the house (\u201cit\u2019s just clay, wheat paste, sand, and water, hand mixed and troweled on,\u201d says Summer.) They learned the process from their friends at Cob Therapy; there are how-to videos on the Flock Youtube Channel here and here.\u201d<\/p>\n


Above: \u201cIt was impossible to find a good-looking electric oven in the US that was small enough for the space,\u201d reports Summer. She tracked down their 23.5-by-23.5 inch, 22-inch-deep Smeg Coloniale online from a seller in Italy: \u201cIt was around $1,100 plus shipping\u2014under $2,000 total\u2014and was the most expensive appliance we got for the house.\u201d <\/p>\n

Summer wanted to use brass element throughout; she found the copper and brass utensils as well as most of the ceramics at group vintage shops and auctions houses in the area.<\/p>\n


Above: The 24-by-18 inch farmhouse sink is the Delice from Swiss Madison, and the bridge faucet is the Duchess from Kingston Brass.,

Above: At Summer\u2019s request, Sander built a veggie prep station topped with a cutting board of leftover butcher block that slides forward to reveal bins holes in the back for compost. At the end of the counter, a hidden drawer with a knob for oven mitts keeps the compost bins within easy reach for emptying. Sander also used leftover wood to build the spice rack.
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Above: A banquette fills the corner opposite the kitchen. Summer recently appeared in our new Quick Takes column to answer 18 pressing gardening questions. <\/p>\n

Vor<\/h3>\n


Above: The structure previously served as the unheated seasonal office for a plant nursery and had a dinky sink. In order to install a full kitchen in the corner, Sander took out the bathroom door shown here. <\/p>\n

In Progress<\/h3>\n

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Above: The back wall awaits tiling and a butcher block counter. Sander designed the beaadboard-backed open shelves to fit the space and carefully aligned them with the tray and corner cabinets below. The new flooring is engineered, wide-plank, click-and-lock French oak\u2014says Summer, \u201cwe spent hours at a Floor & Decor; we wanted hardwood, but most was too thick to fit over the floor we had.\u201d <\/p>\n

The step stool is an auction purchase that Sander took apart and customized.<\/p>\n


Above: One of the most challenging details for Sander to build was the corner cabinet between the sink the and stove. It\u2019s fitted with two kidney-shaped maple lazy susans by Rev-A-Shelf.
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Above: \u201cBuilt-in seating was the best way to use the small space,\u201d says Summer. Sander used leftover maple plywood from the cabinets and included under-the-bench storage. Go to Flock Finger Lakes Ep. 210 for a full before-and-after tour of the Meadow House. <\/p>\n

More small kitchen inspiration:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • Steal This Look: A One-Room Cabin in the Catskills<\/li>\n
  • 10 Petite Paris Kitchens by Marianne Evennou, Master of the Bite-Size Design<\/li>\n
  • Ehemals eine Garage: Ein 400-Quadratmeter-Ein-Zimmer-Haus in LA<\/li>\n<\/ul>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Chances are good you\u2019ve digitally crossed paths with Summer Rayne Oakes. The author of How to Make a Houseplant Love You, she\u2019s the host of the popular Youtube series Plant One on Me and the new podcast Bad Seeds, founder of the urban naturalist hub Homestead Brooklyn, and served as the indoor gardening expert for […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2719,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-diy-projects"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/homeofmaterials.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/homeofmaterials.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/homeofmaterials.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/homeofmaterials.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/homeofmaterials.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2714"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/homeofmaterials.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2714\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/homeofmaterials.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/homeofmaterials.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/homeofmaterials.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/homeofmaterials.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}