Jennifer Krasinski's Kitchen Table

Our friend Jennifer Krasinski lives in a beautiful 1930s era apartment on the top floor of a building in Koreatown. About a year ago, Jennifer began writing her essays and stories at home full time. She is also an accomplished cook who entertains frequently. Jennifer wanted to figure out how to make her living space and working space come together in a more fluid way, so we started talking with her to devise some solutions. You'll see more from us on Jennifer's apartment, but for now, let's begin at the beginning.

 
The first thing that Jennifer wanted was a kitchen table. Though the one-bedroom apartment is large, the kitchen is tiny, and she needed more counter space for cooking. Jennifer is also tall, and she wanted a table that was more appropriate for her height so that she would no longer have to stoop over to work on her recipes. Adjacent to the kitchen is a small breakfast area with a large window. We envisioned a table to fit in this room that would act as extra counter space as well as a casual dining table with high stools.

The overall color palette for the apartment was shaping up to include a number of black accents, including black paint for the casement window frames. We decided to use a medium grey for the kitchen walls to work with the grey, green, and purple tiles that are original to the apartment's kitchen. We chose a light chopping block for the tabletop. It is oiled so that it is very smooth and liquids bead up when they spill onto it. This finish will become darker and smoother with use. Stains and cuts will add character to its surface. The legs alternate with two carved patterns: diamonds and scallops. We painted the legs with twelve coats of paint, two coats each of six colors. The colors we chose match the kitchen tiles as well as other items in the apartment. The last layer coat of paint was black. We sanded the legs so that the natural color of the wood and the final layer of black of the paint are the prominent colors, but small moments of yellow, green, and pink are visible as well.