Last modified: Saturday, October 14, 2006 12:58 AM EDT The living room of Joe and Diane Landry on Sutherland Road in North Attleboro. (Staff photo by Mike George) Couple taps custom potential of ranch BY JANETTE SEARS SUN CHRONICLE STAFF NORTH ATTLEBORO Stylish and functional is how Joe and Dianne Landry describe the ranch-style home at 72 Sutherland Road, which they customized during the 20 years they have owned it. The stylish features are found throughout the home in a decor of warm colors, in painted walls with complementary window treatments, furnishings and accessories. They are also found in custom woodwork and cabinetry, both original to the 1953 home and added through renovations done by the Landrys. The front hall and adjacent living room offer a good example of the original features of the home, which include oak floors in both areas and two arched openings in between. The double archway offers a full view of the 16- by 22-foot sunken living room, where a brick fireplace, encased in a white crown molding mantel, is the focal point. Original features in the living room also include an oversized bay window and an oversized arched opening into the dining room. The decor includes lavender walls and white woodwork, complemented by lavender and dark purple sheers on the bay window, an Oriental rug and Queen Anne style furniture. The dining room, which is nicely viewed from the living room, offers another piece of original cabinetry - a white corner hutch, complete with arched display area, as well as its original oak floor. The room features gold-toned walls and white woodwork, complemented by a brass chandelier, cherry furniture and white sheers on a double casement window. The double casement window offers a nice view of the back yard landscaping done by Joe, a mechanical designer, who has created and maintains all of the gardens and landscaped areas about the property. Such layout and custom detail as found in these rooms were among the features that attracted the Landrys to the home and inspired Dianne to enhance it with a few custom details of her own. As a certified kitchen designer, who has won many regional and national awards for her work, Dianne, the director of design at Wood Palace Kitchens in Middleboro, said the home lent itself well to the customized detail she could envision. "I could see the potential," Dianne said of the home. "It has a grace to it." "One of the things I really loved about this house was the sunken living room. And, it fit us as a family. We were three at the time with our son, Matthew, who recently moved out on his own." Shortly after settling into the home, the first area Dianne tackled with her design skills was the 12- by 13-foot three-season porch, which she transformed into her home office. This is also where the functional aspect of the home begins, as in here, as well as in the kitchen and the home's two full baths, Dianne has designed cabinetry that not only adds to the beauty of the home, but maximizes space and allows for the utmost in organized storage. "I like beautiful things, but they have to work," Dianne says of the cabinetry she has designed. In her office, Dianne chose a stylish raised panel cherry cabinetry, which she had built around a decorative set of double hung windows, complete with white gridwork. The cabinetry extends from floor-to-ceiling, with deeper than average desk and drawers, which she says allow for computer wires to be recessed and out of sight. In addition, all of the drawers come with file storage, the base cabinets come with roll-out trays for easy access to stored items, and the book shelves come with glass doors to minimize dusting. The office also makes for a nice retreat, according to Dianne, who says this is her second favorite room in the house. When in here for a retreat, she relaxes in a corner sitting area, next to another set of the double hung windows, which overlook the back yard. It is the second design project that Dianne tackled in the home, however, that was the most important to her, as it was the kitchen - her favorite room. "I adore cooking,'' Dianne said. "Not only is designing cabinetry my passion, but so is cooking." Needless to say, when Dianne designed the kitchen, she did so with the desire of someone who would use every bit of it - and often. The kitchen project was a complete renovation, which included adding a bumpout section at the back of the house of about 6 feet deep and 22 feet across. This section not only allowed for larger kitchen, but also a hall and full bath to its right. The renovated kitchen now measures 12 by 18 feet and features Scandia cherry cabinetry, a cherry floor and cherry ceiling beams. The decor of the kitchen offers an elegant flare, with features, such as a cabinetry-faced sub-zero refrigerator and dishwasher, white Corian countertops, a white ceramic tile backsplash, with a decorative cobalt blue design pattern, and a complementary wallpaper border above the cabinets. The elegance continues with recessed lighting, an oversized breakfront China cabinet and curved cabinetry edges in countertops and doors, such as that of the pantry cabinet that begins the run of cabinetry, with its tall, rounded door. "It was designed this way because I wanted a gracious way to enter the kitchen from the dining room," Dianne said. But, for avid cooks, such as Dianne, the storage features inside the cabinetry are just as important as its stylish appearance - and, there are plenty of storage features. The pantry, for example, offers 12-inch deep floor-to-ceiling shelves, the microwave has its own utensil drawer, and adjacent drawers offer a pull-out cutting board, a pull-out breadbox and a deep lid storage area. There are many more cabinet storage features in the kitchen as well, and Dianne has also included several in both the new bathroom and the existing bathroom that she completely redecorated. The property is listed for $429,900 with Barbara Stanford of Century 21 O'Neil & Associates at 508-878-5667, and can be viewed during an open house from 1-3 p.m. Sunday.