Willow Historic Kitchen

Historic Home Challenges

That doesn’t mean that these homes aren’t without serious challenges. The footprint of utility spaces and community areas is often spacially challenged. This home is no exception. The kitchen was a galley style, albeit less narrow than most, and our client not so lovingly referred to it as “the dungeon”. The space had been redone in the 90s, by the look of it, sporting dark tin ceiling tiles, dark cherry cabinets, dark granite countertops, and wooden interior shutters that didn’t let much light in. I think you’re getting the picture: it was – dark.

A Bright New Kitchen

The goal was to lighten everything up, let more light in (bye-bye wooden shutters, hello white, and marble!), and bring some much-needed charm back into the room while injecting French Provincial inspiration. Our client is an avid antique collector, loves traveling abroad, has roots in the Netherlands, and loves cooking with her husband. These details are important when creating a design that would bring the kitchen to life in a way that embodies who the homeowners are.

We worked with the client and the cabinetry fabricator to create semi-custom units that best fit their needs (baking sheet organization, deep drawers for pots and pans, a larger pantry with roll-out shelves, and additional storage built into the new custom banquette), and added custom touches with a hood mantle that felt as unique as the home, curved toe kicks to harken back to the arched doorways that the home showcased originally, and state of the art appliances that felt as interesting and beautiful as the rest of the design. For the hardware or jewelry, as we like to call it, we chose an array of different brushed brass pulls, knobs, latches, and a showstopper pantry hardware track. The client felt passionate about not mixing metals so we kept the beautiful pot filler and faucet all in the same family.

In kitchens, where there are a lot of “hard” design items (think tile, cabinetry, flooring, hardware) it can be a challenge to make it feel cozy. The best way we like to do that is to add any soft goods we can. The way we this was with the addition of the banquette seating in a dead corner of the room with a custom cushion for comfort and custom pillows for added texture and pattern. We also incorporated window treatments back into the space after removing the shunned shutters. We chose semi-custom Roman shades for the two windows where privacy was desired.

Custom Touches

The pièce de résistance of this kitchen redesign is the harlequin marble flooring. The client went through A LOT of marble samples before finding the exact color combination, type of marble, veining, and honed finish that she loved. It turned out exactly as she wanted and is a stunning addition to the space that carries your attention to the back of the room helping it feel larger.

A few personal and sentimental touches helped achieve the curated and custom feel. Above the range is a hand-painted tile mural we shipped from the Netherlands. The scene features wine glass and charcuterie foods that evoke the feeling of the homeowner and her husband spending an evening together at home either hosting or cooking or just enjoying each other’s company. The delicate chandeliers above the banquette corner, which the homeowner lovingly refers to as “Coco’s Corner”, and the sink feature small birds that remind our client of her mom who passed on. Small personal touches are what make a home.

Every design is a collaboration with our clients and we couldn’t be prouder of the finished product in this gorgeous historic home. The kitchen is often described as the heart of the home and this is absolutely true for this homeowner and her husband. The space we created together is a beautiful blend of old and new, with all the charm that the original home held and all the upgrades of a modern home, with touches of French Provincial and a story behind every piece. A home is a sum of its parts and this one is a great representation of the couple that lives there.