In our previous blog entry, “David and Tiffany’s Kitchen: Restoring an Original”, we saw an amazing original kitchen. Now, with a preservation sensitive restoration, the kitchen’s beauty is even more apparent. David and Tiffany chose not to destroy their historic kitchen, and instead worked with it. The pictures above show the transformation that took place under their fine stewardship.
In the pictures above we see the kitchen with the new dishwasher. Note the front of the dishwasher is made to look like the original drawers that were there. Mike tucked the drawers in the basement as opposed to disposing of them, so they are still with the house. In the top picture on top we see a view of the kitchen with all of the cupboard doors closed. The seamless introduction of a dishwasher does not distract from the historic integrity or beauty of this 1921 kitchen. In the picture to the lower right we see the dishwasher open. Also, note that the flour and sugar bins were retained and are used to hold things like bags and recycling.
The picture above in the lower left shows more of the built in cabinetry in the pantry just to the lef of the kitchen.
The refrigerator nitch had cabinetry above, that was not quite deep enough to accommodate a modern refrigerator. Mike Edeen enlarged the nitch by shortening the kitchen cupboard above the refrigerator, and he took some space between the back of the nitch and the pantry area. The pantry was not substantially altered and retained its historic presence.
The small pantry is located to the left side of the kitchen. The two top pictures show the pantry’s built in cabinetry. The tall cupboard door nearest to the window shown in the upper left picture opens to the California Cooler, which can also be accessed from the kitchen side. The pantry cabinet with glass doors was also shorted just a bit to accommodate the larger refrigerator that sits on the other side in the nitch in the kitchen.
The picture above in the upper right shows the California Cooler in the open position from the pantry side.
The lower picture shows the “low profile” under counter lighting that was used to illuminate the kitchen counter area as task lighting.
David and Tiffany saved a very important and rare historic kitchen in this 1921 home. They were willing to listen to preservation oriented advice, rather than that of remodelers who only know demolition and cookie cutter prefab cabinetry. And they now have a beautiful, rare, historic kitchen that holds an important chapter in the story of their home, and they saved tens of thousands of dollars by not doing a large kitchen remodel. It is people like David and Tiffany that make a difference in the world of historic preservation!
