The fifth stop on the 2014 Ultimate Up North Kitchen Tour is located in Harbor Springs at 4720 Deer Park Circle. Inspired by Ree Drummond and Julia Child, this kitchen is cozy, spacious and functional.

Visit other kitchens on the Ultimate Up North Kitchen Tour:

  1. Elegance, Torch Lake Style
  2. Simple Pleasures
  3. Period Piece
  4. Walls Came Down

The 2014 Ultimate Up North Kitchen Tour takes place on October 18 from 9 am to 5 pm. This year there are 11 kitchens ranging from north of Harbor Springs down to Glen Arbor. Proceeds raised during the home tour will benefit Northern Michigan non-profit, Child and Family Services of Northwestern Michigan. Save by purchasing tickets to the 2014 Northern Home & Cottage Home Tour at MyNorthTickets.com:


For Lynn Ledwidge, semi-retirement meant the opportunity to spend more time at the vacation home she shares with her husband, Terry. The couple has owned the beautiful log home located in Harbor Springs’ Chestnut Valley Golf Club for years—and for years the weekend kitchen, as Lynn refers to it, functioned just fine. But now the woman who likes to cook à la the Food Network’s The Pioneer Woman, needed something more substantial.

Lynn had in mind the big soup pot-, stone hearth-, colorfully patterned- earthy elegance of French Country. Just the kind of style kitchen designer Dawn Whyte likes to roll up her sleeves and dig into. And that she did, beginning with the magnificent fieldstone façade that arches over the ranch hood—marrying French Country style to Up North-cabin with the abiding wisdom that in a great kitchen, it’s all about the hearth. A tumbled Turkish travertine tile backsplash, with arched niches for cooking oils and spices, takes the fieldstone in a sophisticated direction.

Up North French

Playing off the naturally variegated tones in the knotty pine ceiling and hand-scraped hickory floor, Dawn combined two shades of distressed cabinetry, cappuccino and honey. New Venetian Gold granite on the perimeter counters and a massive, two-tiered work/snack island in the middle of the room harmonizes it all.

Across the room a bright-red bar hutch nearly steals the stone facade’s limelight, and definitely sets the stage for the colorful window dressings and furniture coverings that are used throughout the home (courtesy of Dawn’s colleague, interior designer Renee Guthrie).

The Ledwidges’ kitchen is homey, sophisticated, dramatic and fun—and with its high-end appliances would cook as well for Julia Child as it would for The Pioneer Woman, Ree Drummond. Just perfect for Lynn Ledwidge.

2014 Ultimate Up North Kitchen Tour

Volunteer for the Ultimate Up North Kitchen Tour!

Check out other kitchens on the 2014 Ultimate Up North Kitchen Tour produced by Northern Home & Cottage magazine and the National Kitchen and Bath Association and sponsored by Virginia Tile and Honor Onekama Building Supply:

2014 Ultimate Up North Kitchen Tour #1: Elegance, Torch Lake Style

2014 Ultimate Up North Kitchen Tour #2: Simple Pleasures

2014 Ultimate Up North Kitchen Tour #3: Period Piece

2014 Ultimate Up North Kitchen Tour #4: Walls Came Down

2014 Ultimate Up North Kitchen Tour #6: Vintage Cottage Style

2014 Ultimate Up North Kitchen Tour #7: About the Stove

2014 Ultimate Up North Kitchen Tour #8: Life as Style

2014 Ultimate Up North Kitchen Tour #9: Coastal Living

2014 Ultimate Up North Kitchen Tour #10: Pretty Painted Lady

2014 Ultimate Up North Kitchen Tour #11: Built on Granite

Photo(s) by Phoenix Photographic