Modern luxury polishes loft's gritty charm

Sue Jean and Dave are hip, young urbanites who work long hours in IT and banking. At the end of the day, they escape to their own private retreat: a swank factory-turned-loft in the city's trendiest neighborhood. In their down time, they love to entertain, but their open-concept kitchen/family room was definitely more factory than functional.

The ingredients in this space created a recipe for disaster. Dated condo-size appliances, a mishmash of student-type furniture and accessories, and a lack of storage space all combined to make this kitchen distinctly unappetizing. The lofty kitchen/family room combo had excellent bones — the exposed brick, original wood ceiling and patio doors leading out to the garden were attractive features. But clutter was taking center stage. Perhaps worst of all, the exposed plumbing pipes in the ceiling were happy to announce — quite loudly, in fact — that someone was upstairs using the (ahem) facilities.

Sue Jean and Dave wanted to retain the lofty feel of the kitchen while introducing modern, yet functional, luxury. Renovations started from the ground up, with the manufacture and installation of a custom hardwood floor crafted from hand-scraped hickory planks. The scraping gives the boards a textured, weathered look that melds with the loft's historical aspects. This floor has loads of rustic charm and looks as if it was installed just before the factory doors opened.

Next, I changed the kitchen's configuration to make it more functional and efficient. The dated appliances were banished and electrical lines were relocated across the room to allow for installation of a sleek built-in cook top. I added floor-to-ceiling espresso-hued cabinetry to solve the couple's storage dilemmas, and extended the cabinetry down the wall and into the family room, where it seamlessly blends into a custom electronics console.

Continuing the cabinetry from kitchen to family room harmonizes this double-duty space, transforming it into entertainment central.

Sue Jean and Dave fell in love with their loft because of its many original characteristics, but the gurgling water rushing through the plumbing stack in the kitchen ceiling took away their appetite. To solve this problem, we dropped a soundproofed bulkhead from the ceiling and concealed the plumbing in the wall.

The globe-shaped lights are among the coolest features in this stunning new kitchen. They illuminate a natural quartz countertop in blizzard white, which is both stylish and durable. A back-painted glass backsplash, also white, provides the perfect contrast to the dark cabinets.

Finally, a new dishwasher and fridge (both cleverly concealed behind cabinet doors) and a combination oven/convection microwave completed our appliance checklist. The kitchen area came together with a trio of counter stools, stainless-steel accessories and decorative pieces.

Sue Jean and Dave couldn't believe their eyes when they walked into their brand new kitchen/family room. In the end, the recipe for this space called for a smidge of uptown urban, a dash of rustic retro and a pinch of factory functional.

Interior decorator Candice Olson is host of HGTV’s “Candice Tells All.”