She loved the heart pine floors and the original banister of the living room stairway, and she wanted the new kitchen to work with these and other elements of the historic interior. As we talked in detail, I learned of some other requirements. Besides feeling lighter and more modern, the new kitchen needed to provide space for laptops, cell phone chargers, and the mail. It should also be a friendly space, with room for the couple to enjoy breakfast or morning coffee.
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Existing Conditions After our conversation, we walked through the dining room and kitchen for a closer look. The layout of the house, as I expected, was what’s called a dogleg, in which the L-shaped rear of the house is narrowed and extends farther back on the kitchen side. (Although the dogleg design gives up some interior space, it was a great idea before the advent of air conditioning, admitting fresh air into the house’s middle rooms while isolating the heat and smells of the kitchen.) The state of the kitchen, a tired remodel from the late 1960s, was fairly typical, too. Back then, remodeling in any neighborhood rarely included professional design. Add to that the fact that property on Capitol Hill was not yet a good investment, and low-budget choices made sense. Renovations in the neighborhood often emphasized then-popular materials like vinyl tile and plastic laminate. Usually the work of homeowners or builders, these older remodels tended to preserve a kitchen’s old layout, even as they added appliances and other elements. The result was often an inefficient use of space and a cramped, uncomfortable kitchen. In this kitchen, I found that a bulky refrigerator and a stove occupied inconvenient corners within the tight 11’ 4” by 14-foot space. The awkwardly located back door was almost in the corner, and the dining room door was even farther to one side; as a result, it was nearly impossible to place anything against the outer wall of the kitchen. The 9’ 6” ceiling had been ornamented with false beams in a dark color. The floor was covered with layers of worn linoleum. Later measurements showed that the walls and floor were neither square nor plumb, requiring us to gut the space and reframe them from scratch.
left: Relocated and enlarged, the wide back door joins kitchen and garden on a fine day. Turned table legs at the end of the island provide comfortable seating space for a shared breakfast.
From House to Home
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