Designing this kitchen was particularly challenging because the homeowners are both passionate cooks and often find themselves working in the kitchen at the same time. We agreed that a two-cook kitchen calls for two work areas. The idea of dedicating one of the workstations as a baking center was a hit with the homeowners even before I knew how it would fit into the kitchen and what I could do to make it look good.

During the first day on the job, a lucky thing happened. When we opened the 7-ft. kitchen ceilings, we found that the attic space above the kitchen was empty. Along with the surprise came inspiration, and it wasn’t long before I conceived the idea for an overhead door to hide the baking center. The door works much like a garage door and even uses some of the same hardware, including a torsion bar that acts as the lift mechanism and metal stabilizers that are hidden on the back of the door.

The door is designed to look like a shoji screen, which traditionally has rice-paper panels. In this case, for durability and easy cleaning, I used a piece of fogged fiberglass instead of rice paper. A ranma borders the bottom of the screen. Ranmas are carvings commonly used in Japan to decorate transom windows. On the baking-center door, the ranma is decorative but also functions as a handle.

Garage-door technology

Randy Northern is a general contractor in Visalia, Calif.

Photos: Randy Northern; Drawing: Chuck Lockhart