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Open. Closed. Open. Closed. It seems like no one can ever agree on which one is best for a kitchen layout. Some homeowners prefer a setup that allows them to watch the game on the living room TV while they’re standing at the island; others want to do all their cooking (and mess making) behind the scenes in a cozy galley. But by the looks of Drew Barrymore’s Hamptons home, which the actor and talk-show host recently listed with Kathy Konzet at Sotheby’s for a cool $8.45 million, you don’t have to choose between the two.
Barrymore’s farmhouse-style kitchen, featuring butcher block countertops, milky white cabinetry, and industrial black track sconces, is only partly open to the adjacent living space. Two glass doors flank the island and offer the opportunity to divide—or open up—the two areas.
For added flexibility, there are small accordion doors running along the island topped by a half-wall of windows. It’s basically a traditional kitchen pass-through window—a feature that renovation platform Sweeten saw spike during the pandemic as homeowners started to crave the best of both worlds—with a twist. You can push the doors fully open when dinner is served or crack them just a bit when you simply want to hear what everyone’s chatting about in the other room.
Perhaps the most genius part of Barrymore’s arrangement is that even with the accordion and two side doors closed, the space is still flooded with natural light, addressing the common worry that a closed-off kitchen will feel cavelike. As someone who is slowly reimagining every small countertop appliance in our kitchens, we should have known Barrymore would have the answer to this debate, too.