By Adrian Dueñas, Co-Founder, BeDESIGN
I should say this at the start. I do not cook.
There is a Molteni kitchen on the third floor of our showroom that a chef would recognize as serious. It is not there for me to cook in. I also do not open the wine or arrange anything on a tray, which Marcelo will confirm.
What I do is bring people together. I decide who is coming, and who should meet whom, and where the light falls, and which chair the quietest guest should be steered toward. Then I stand in the kitchen and make the introductions.
The cooking I leave to people who have earned it. Twice now we have handed that kitchen to one of them for an evening: first to Luis Roger of BCN, the Spanish restaurant on Roseland that holds a Michelin star, and this past December to Felipe Botero of Le Jardinier. Cocktails on the ground floor, dinner around the kitchen two flights up. The chef cooks. I host. These are different jobs, and I have made my peace with which one is mine.
What I have learned from standing on the wrong side of that counter is that the kitchen decides the evening. Not the menu. Not the wine, though the wine matters. The room where everyone ends up standing, glass in hand, because nobody has ever once stayed in the dining room when the kitchen was better. If my job is bringing people together, the kitchen is where it actually happens.
A Molteni&C kitchen is built for that room. This is what it is, what it is not, and why the Molteni kitchen in our showroom in Houston is the one I would tell a friend to see before deciding anything.
Molteni&C Kitchens Are Furniture First
Most kitchens are installed. A Molteni&C kitchen is furnished.
That is not a slogan. Molteni&C has made furniture in Italy since 1934, and its kitchens come out of the same design culture as its sofas, wardrobes, and dining tables. The current collections are shaped by Vincent Van Duysen, the Belgian architect who directs the house, and the kitchens carry his signature: quiet proportions, materials chosen to be touched, and details you notice the third time you look.
The practical result is that the kitchen and the living room stop arguing. The same walnut, the same stone, the same restraint runs from the island to the sofa. In most Houston houses built in the last fifteen years the wall between those two rooms is already gone, and that is the whole point.
Why We Represent Molteni&C in Houston
We carry 47 European brands at 2016 W Alabama, and kitchens are the category where we are most selective, because a kitchen is the one purchase you cannot move to another room if you get it wrong.
We are Houston’s exclusive Molteni&C dealer, and we also carry Henge, including the Opera Wall system. What that means in practice is that the kitchen you see in our showroom is specified, ordered, and installed through the official channel, with Molteni&C’s own planning support and warranty behind it. It also means the people helping you plan it have planned one before, and were trained to do it in Italy.
Marcelo and I did not choose Molteni&C because it photographs well. We chose it because it holds up to the way people actually use a kitchen at eleven at night with twelve guests and no intention of sitting down.
What Actually Happens When You Host
Here is the sequence, and you know it already.
Guests arrive in the living room because that is where you put the drinks. Within twenty minutes, half of them are in the kitchen. Within forty, all of them are. The dining table gets used for the meal and abandoned for dessert. The last two hours of the night happen leaning against an island.
A kitchen designed for cooking optimizes for one person’s reach. A kitchen designed for hosting optimizes for eight people’s comfort. Those are different rooms.
The Molteni&C kitchens we specify are built for the second one. Islands deep enough to lean on from both sides. Storage that closes completely, so the working mess disappears behind a flush door and the room becomes a room again. Lighting planned into the cabinetry, not bolted on afterward. Surfaces that take a wine glass set down carelessly by someone mid-sentence.
None of this shows up in a photograph. All of it shows up at ten forty-five on a Saturday, or on a Chef Series night when a Michelin chef is running the third-floor kitchen and forty people are pretending not to crowd it.
The Part About Waiting
A Molteni&C kitchen is made to order in Italy. Production runs about ten to twelve weeks once the order is placed, and we tell clients to plan on sixteen weeks from consultation to the last adjustment on site. It is not the kind of purchase you rush, and the measuring alone deserves a site visit, which we do.
It is also not the kind of purchase you should decide from a rendering. Cabinet doors have a weight and a sound. Stone has a temperature. The distance between an island and a wall is either right or it is a decade of sidestepping. These are things you learn with your hands, in front of the actual kitchen, with someone who can tell you honestly what your room can and cannot carry.
That is why the kitchen lives in our showroom and not only in a catalog. Come stand in it. Open a drawer. Lean on the island.
Who a Molteni&C Kitchen Is For
I would send three kinds of people to see it.
- The person building or renovating who has already decided the living room and kitchen are one space, and wants them to look like one decision.
- The person who has owned a fitted kitchen from a good cabinetmaker and is tired of the seams showing, literally and otherwise.
- The person who, like me, is better at the guest list than the stove, and has understood that the room does half of that work.
If you are the person who wants the least expensive way to put cabinets on a wall, this is not that, and I would rather say so here than in the showroom.
Come See the Molteni Kitchen in Houston
The Molteni&C kitchen is on the third floor at BeDESIGN in Upper Kirby, in the 22,000 square feet we walk clients through every day. Design consultations are complimentary and include space planning, so you leave with a sense of what your room can hold whether or not you buy that day.
Bring a floor plan. Bring your architect. Everything will be just so before you arrive.
Do not ask me to cook. You know the answer. I may, however, invite you to dinner.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where can I see a Molteni&C kitchen in Houston?
BeDESIGN is Houston’s exclusive Molteni&C dealer, with a dedicated Molteni display in our showroom at 2016 W Alabama St, Houston, TX 77098. Kitchens are specified, ordered, and installed through us.
How long does a Molteni&C kitchen take?
Kitchens are made to order in Italy. Production typically takes ten to twelve weeks after the order is placed, and we recommend planning about sixteen weeks in total from consultation through installation. We set the timeline with you and your builder at the first consultation.
Can I see a Molteni&C kitchen before I order?
Yes. A full Molteni&C kitchen is installed in the BeDESIGN showroom, and we do site visits and measurements before anything goes into production. You can open, close, lean, and measure before deciding anything.
Does a Molteni&C kitchen work with the rest of the house?
That is its strongest argument. The kitchens share materials and proportions with Molteni&C furniture and wardrobe systems, so an open-plan living room and kitchen read as one design.
What does a design consultation include?
Space planning and layout for the kitchen and the rooms it opens onto, at no charge. Bring a floor plan or photos, and any pieces you already own that the kitchen has to live with.
Do you work with architects and builders?
Yes, and for a kitchen we prefer it. Molteni&C kitchens are planned to the millimeter, and the earlier we are in the conversation the fewer surprises there are at installation.
Adrian Dueñas is the Co-Founder and CEO of BeDESIGN, Houston’s luxury European furniture atelier. BeDESIGN represents leading Italian and European manufacturers and offers made-to-order furnishings, Quick Ship inventory, and design guidance for residential and commercial projects.
