Cinderella Ellsley: Romancing the Range

By Karin Edwards

.A Connecticut kitchen by Ellsley uses French flourish to soften the all-American dream of one roomy space that transitions easily from cooking to relaxing hangout, or formal entertaining.

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Cinderella has nothing on Beverly Ellsley. Take one look at the centuries-old French parquet flooring that tops a kitchen island of her making and it’s obvious that this designer has found her own way to the ball. “If you could dance on it for another two hundred years, of course it’s strong enough for a countertop,” she says.

And why not use a salon’s flooring for a kitchen’s hardest working surface? Leave it to others to reconstruct history as it’s already occurred. When Ellsley designs a kitchen, authentic European elements are rethought and repurposed as life could be. Yes, her rooms ring with character and lasting appeal. But like Vivian in Pretty Woman, what Ellsley truly desires-and consistently delivers-is the fairy tale.

.A Provençal inspired kitchen includes a floor-to-ceiling French carved limestone at its center to ease the transition between cooking and dining spaces.

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“My clients may say they’re thinking of a French kitchen,” she says, “But what they want is the fantasy.” Apart from soaring arches, intricately carved moldings, and hand-rubbed finishes, Ellsley’s greatest slight of fancy is to treat the kitchen as just another in a series of beautifully decorated rooms.

“Function is always first and foremost but I’ll never let it look that way.”

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A refrigerator and freezer are sited right next to the dining table-but you’d never know it. Separate units hide behind solid pantry doors while appliances that require venting, such as the microwave, are enclosed with milled latticework panels.

Hiding appliances is a start. “Not just because they say kitchen, but because they date one. Stainless steel may be the harvest gold of tomorrow, but the right cabinets for a home’s architecture are always right.” (Ellsley designed her own Connecticut kitchen 30 years ago and has no plans to remodel).

In the business for decades, Ellsley still doesn’t think of herself as a kitchen designer. An interior designer turned architectural designer, turned contractor, builder, and cabinet maker, her greatest joy comes from building houses from the ground up and furnishing everything between their walls. Producing her own millwork and cabinetry, in her own workshop, arose as a means to that end. “I couldn’t implement my designs any other way,” she says.

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Dressy corner pilasters with shell carvings and furniture-style ring pulls bring an oversize island the feeling of antique furniture. Its top is made from salvaged French parquet flooring, a clever solution since a wooden countertop this large would have to have had seams. Protecting the countertop’s edge is a pewter finish solid-surface trim with ribbon-and-reed design.

The larger depth of a farmhouse sink is supported by graceful cabriole legs from Ellsley’s Villa Collection for Enkeboll (right).

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Yet, her approach to each room-and especially the kitchen- remains holistic, focused on creating a distinct ambience versus stocking cabinets into every available square foot. Ironically, that restraint-and the exuberant style it leaves room for- has proved the root of her success.

“I’m known for unusual kitchens,” she says. “I have my own designs and I’ll repeat elements of them by request. But don’t expect something out of a catalog. If you come to me you want something more interesting, more playful.”

Currently commuting between her shop in Westport, Connecticut and Southern France (where she enjoys a second home and is opening a new showroom in September), Ellsley is more than a little familiar with true European traditions. “A freezer that doesn’t self-defrost and a stove that lights with a match is pretty common,” she says. “Who wants that?”

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Ellsley’s kitchen in France is a dressier, more pulled-together version of typical unfitted country kitchens in the region, where the range stands in a stone-clad niche that looks like a former hearth.

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Her own kitchen in France is a hybrid of continents. Modest in size with a freestanding LaCanche range, its wide range of door and drawer styles aim for the feel of a European country kitchen where cabinets are often unfitted, and collected over generations. Her chandelier-topped island with countertop seating, however, is all American. And that salvaged stone pedestal sink and Louis XV curvature on cabinet crowns? “Pure Francophile,” she says. “This is my getaway place, my fantasy.”

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Dish racks are often sited over sinks where they can drain, whereas Ellsley uses hers to set off pretty china and the unusual find of a deep stone pedestal sink below.

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Others have different dreams and Ellsley is quick to listen, always minding the house as well as the heart. English cottages, Georgian manors, or Adirondack cabins, her out-of-the-ordinary kitchens always look to a home’s architecture as their point of departure. Masking an entire kitchen in faux bamboo turnings built on the pattern details of a stately, two-story Georgian Colonial in Connecticut, for instance, while also answering the client’s needs for a kitchen better integrated with living spaces.

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Kitchen functions are masked with faux-bamboo millwork, including a refrigerator encased as a floor-to-ceiling, mirrored armoire. Two exceptions are the sink and cooktop, both sited opposite each other at the far end of the island.

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The sink counter, the refrigerator, a breakfast banquette-all receive variations on the same faux-bamboo turnings that don the living area’s walls and fireplace surround. Even the island’s expanse of countertop is absorbed into the room’s honey-hued millwork.

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Two sink stations line up along the window, where base cabinets sport Asian-style bracket feet. Ellsley added the run of soffit cabinets to match the look of floor-to-ceiling paneling on the living area’s wall.

The connection forged between spaces is so strong, the identity of the kitchen almost disappears. Blue on the island, on the backs of glass-front cabinets and in upholstery offers cool counterpoint. “You couldn’t do this kind of thing in a less formal house,” she says. “It has to be done carefully, and it has to be balanced.”

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A breakfast banquette with adjacent bookcase and a fireplace surround, all trimmed in chinoiserie, completes the room’s well-furnished feel. Cooking shows can play on the television behind the mantel’s two-way mirror.

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For a Vermont ski retreat, Ellsley gathered twigs from her own apple trees to create the lodge-style trimwork that ties cabinets in with rustic furnishings. This is no typical cabin scheme, however. The palette of red, teal and cream is a boldly saturated play on earthtones. And those are hand-painted murals dressing the refrigerator armoire and backsplashes.

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Large-scale furniture pieces and handpainted murals add bold strokes of elegance to a seemingly rustic cabin kitchen.

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“I don’t believe in the usual tiled backsplash running between upper and lower cabinets,” she says. “It’s a bit like putting a wide belt on a fat lady-you know, not flattering.” She prefers seeing a gentle scallop of countertop material or painted wood paneling in the style of cabinet fronts continued onto the wall instead.

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Blue-and-white tile on an island’s top picks up on the homeowners china displayed in a cabinet behind.

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Decorative tile on an island countertop is more her style. “It’s such a big surface nowadays, it could use more interest.” Plus it offers another unifying element, helping to connect cabinetry to the colors of accessories or upholstery in a room.

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Ellsley keeps a massive island’s cabinetry hue as light and neutral as possible and repeats the color of its tiled top on upholstery..

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Border tile inside a doorway jamb helps unite the kitchen with an adjacent pantry, while bridging the distance between a green painted refrigerator armoire and a whitewashed lattice-door pantry.

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Granite is not her favorite. “Just not imaginative. And it gives such a cold impression.” She prefers wood counters for their warmth, traditional look, and “fixability.” She’s refinished the curly maple countertops in her Connecticut home once in 33 years. In France, she’s does little more than rub a bit of olive oil in to seal their finish.

As for hardware, her suitcase is often filled with it on flights back from France. You’ll see bedroom-bureau-style ring pulls in mellow brass or weathered iron adding an element of history to cabinet drawers. On the appliances she goes to great lengths to camouflage, however, she favors carved wood handles and pulls.

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In a recent showhouse, Ellsley romanced the kitchen with a wealth of carved ornament from her collection for Enkeboll.

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Anything else would distract from the beautiful moldings, aprons, and onlays of her design. Not to mention capitals, corbels, crowns, and cabinet legs. All are included in the best-selling collection of woodcarvings she designed for Enkeboll Designs. Named Villa, her line ranges from bounteous scrolls and shell motifs to kitchen motifs such as spoons, herbs, and harvest friezes.

Exuberant in detail, yet with a soft effect-her woodcarvings are part and parcel of a total design concept aimed at sweeping you off your feet. Forget the storybook ending. Her kitchens are new beginnings: always classic, and always new for generations to come.

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