A Cook’s Kitchen

Written by Terri Glazer | Photography by Darren Lykes Photography

At Home’s culinary guru shares the making of his dream workspace

To say that Jim Norton’s kitchen has come a long way would be a massive understatement. The original portion of the historic Oakmont estate in Jackson, TN, was built in 1860 as a log cabin. Even 15 years ago, when Norton and his partner Robert Walden purchased the much-expanded home, it didn’t have a fully functioning kitchen.

He recalls, “The lady who lived in the home previously didn’t cook. She really didn’t have a kitchen. It was like a caterer’s kitchen; there was no stove. The only stove was in the master bedroom behind two folding doors. There was a 1950s-era unit with a tiny cooktop, a very small oven and a sink.”

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Out of necessity, the homeowners created a galley-style kitchen with an adjacent eat-in area. It served its purpose, but they soon realized it could be better. Norton and Walden love to entertain and have parties often, from intimate get-togethers for close friends to the annual Patrons Party for the West Tennessee Healthcare Foundation, a soiree for 250 they’ve hosted for the last decade. Norton realized that large gatherings always seem to produce a bottleneck around the kitchen, so when they were having some other home-improvement projects done, it seemed the perfect time to reimagine the kitchen and remedy the situation.

“To expand the kitchen we knocked out a couple of walls from an adjacent bedroom. We got rid of the bedroom and made it part of the kitchen. Now there are four ways in and out of the kitchen,” says Norton. “This year was the first Patrons Party we’ve had with the new kitchen, and it made all the difference.”

Norton masterminded the extensive kitchen redo, using his combined talents for a stunning finished product. In addition to being a renowned master of entertaining who has hosted celebrities and appeared on national TV cooking programs, Norton is an interior decorator by trade. Three major elements drove his design process. The new kitchen had to be large enough to accommodate crowds and the layout had to facilitate conversations. “When we have dinner parties everyone always wants to come in the kitchen and talk to me and watch while I’m cooking. The old kitchen wasn’t conducive to that at all. So I wanted a nice large island where people could sit on the other side. My cooktop is in the island so I can cook and have people sitting at the barstools and we can look eye to eye.”

The overall aesthetic was also important. Norton explains, “I wanted something that was fresh, that was current, but it also had to match and flow with the rest of the house, which is very traditional. We tried to bring in elements like the cabinet color, which is very current, but the actual cabinets are traditional with raised panels. The countertops are carrara marble, which is timeless to me. But to make it a little more edgy, we did the backsplash in a herringbone pattern with gold accent bars running through it. That gave it more of a contemporary vibe. That kind of goes with our house. We’ll have a piece of 18th-century furniture with a very contemporary abstract painting hanging above it. So I wanted the kitchen to reflect that, as well—the new blending well with the old.” 

One of the room’s most notable features is the large built-in refrigerator. It’s the product of one of Norton’s favorite tricks of the kitchen design trade, a gem he graciously shares with At Home readers. “You can get a large refrigerator without spending $12,000 or more. We purchased two single-door refrigerators; one is a right open and one a left open. We put them together and built the cabinets around it. It ends up looking like a massive commercial refrigerator at a fraction of the cost. The trick is the trim kit that you put around the two refrigerators. You can purchase the Subzero trim kit for around $300. It adds six to seven inches in height so it gives not only the large appearance, but also the tall appearance that Subzeros have.” 

From marginally functional to a cook’s dream, Oakmont’s new kitchen is a masterpiece only a true expert could envision.